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Scheme. They serve to liberalize the administrative measures of the Ministers and infuse into them the colouring and the weight of popular opinion. The Standing Committee discussed the scheme that I had drawn up—and for which the responsibility was entirely mine—and they accepted it. The scheme was from the Indian point of view a cautious but definite advance; and the Secretary of State sanctioned it with a small reservation.

The sanction came nearly a couple of years after I had submitted my note, but it would be scarcely fair to raise a complaint on this score, in view of the important and complicated interests concerned, and the various departments through which it had to pass, not to speak of the objections raised. The gist of my recommendations was the reduction of appointments reserved for the Indian Medical Service from forty to twenty-four, including the withdrawal of certain appointments in the Medical College from the reserved list. The proposals elicited a strong protest from the head of the Medical Department, and a rejoinder from me, in the course of which I still further elaborated my policy. I said:

'I am quite as anxious as the Surgeon-General to make the Calcutta Medical College a model institution; but I venture to think that it can only retain its high position by making a departure in conformity with the spirit of the times, and the demands of public opinion, which require that its professoriat should be partially thrown open to the independent medical profession, whose influence and position in the Indian community are daily growing, and who are rapidly monopolizing medical practice in Calcutta. Thus officials and non-officials, the representatives of the Government and of the people, will combine to maintain the ancient reputation of the Medical College and make it the greatest medical institution in India.'

While admitting the great debt that the Government and the public owe to the Indian Medical Service for their splendid work, I disputed the position taken up that 'Service conditions are the best guarantee of administrative success'. I observed:

'They are on the contrary, apt—if I may say so without offence—to engender a spirit of narrowness and even cliquism, fatal to a broad out- look and a generous sympathy, which are the cardinal factors in successful administration.'

As a part of this policy I appointed Sir Koylas Chunder Bose as Honorary Physician, and Major Hussain Surahwardy as Hono- rary Surgeon, of the Medical College Hospital. Another departure