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My work as Minister

European colleagues—the Medical Department—atmosphere of the Secretariat—hostility of the Non Co-operators—Local Self-government.

We were installed in office on January 4, 1921, amid some show of pomp and circumstance. The Executive Councillors and the Ministers, headed by His Excellency, went in procession to the throne room, where we took the oath of office. This being over, we sat as a Cabinet, round a table, at the head of which was the Governor. We signed a book and left the throne room again in procession. We then dispersed to our offices, and our work began in right earnest; and it was work of no small difficulty and, for us, of no little anxiety. We were new to the work, to the office and its surroundings. The atmosphere was one we had never breathed before. It was strange and novel, though we found in it much to encourage us.

My Secretary was an Irishman with all the warm susceptibilities of his Celtic race. He showed every disposition to help, and sometimes to guide me, in the slippery, and to me, the untrodden, paths of official procedure. He tried, if I may so express myself, to get into my skin. He had known me by repute, as most Englishmen in India know me, but his official training and familiarity with detail had warned him that superficial knowledge did not always mean a real grasp of the inwardness of men or things. The flaming revolutionary would often, on closer inspection, turn out to be a good-natured gentleman, quite open to the influences of reason and common sense. So Mr. O'Malley, as he once told me, and as I often saw him in the act, took to reading my published speeches amid the dreary debates which sent so many of us to sleep in the Council Chamber. Thus he came to know me more closely than I was aware of, and I came to know him through the loyal help I received from him, and we got on wonderfully well. It was therefore with real regret that I parted from him in October, 1921, when he went away on long leave.

But the whole department was inspired by the same spirit. Dr. Bentley was the head of the Sanitary Department, my right-hand man in matters of public health. He saw me immediately after my

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