PRACTICAL PLANTER AND THE FLOOD DISTRESS

To The Editor Of The Statesman SIR, – Practical Planter’s solution to the distress problem in North Bengal has received careful consideration by us, and has been rejected only because it is unsound. Were the flood a permanent condition, some scheme for transplanting the population would have to be evolved, but the flood is already subsiding. Were the people of the affected area deprived of all chance of earning their livelihood for a long time to come, we would be compelled to find a new market for their labour, but on the contrary, when the floods subside a little further and the work of reconstruction begins, there will be ample employment. It comes then to this, that a passing calamity has visited these people and we must help them until it passes. Much distress has been relieved, but the distress will not pass away as quickly as the flood and we shall have to find some seven thousand rupees more, at the very least. I write as the Joint Secretary of the North Bengal Flood Relief Committee, and the Bengal Social Service League.

JOHN H. SAMMON. Calcutta.

ANGLO-INDIAN SCHOOLS

To The Editor Of The Statesman SIR, – The attempted closing of Bishop Cotton School to Anglo-Indians, or at least the proposed adoption of measures that would have led to the exclusion of those now admitted to the School, raised a cry of opposition here and there, but it has been spasmodic. Only a year or two before, we had the closing of Doveton College, Calcutta, than which there was scarcely a more time-honoured and beloved institution for the educational welfare of the community in Bengal. It is deeply to be regretted that even to this present day there is no public voice in the community, one can well imagine what would be the result of the closing of any institution staffed, or cared for, by Indian gentlemen. What is most necessary therefore, to make the public voice of the community a factor of importance to all those who have the guiding of things in India, is to form a body of independent Anglo-Indians that should deal with all such matters, political and social, in a firm and convincing manner.

H.W.B. MORENO.

MILITARY CLERKS

To The Editor Of The Statesman SIR, – Regarding the block in promotion of military clerks in India mentioned by Mr. Montagu in the House of Commons, it is hoped that the Government of India has brought to the notice of the Right Hon. gentleman that something should be done for the Corps of Military Staff Clerks, Indian Unattached List, to put them on a level with other Indian Departments as they are the only Department who do not get the rank of Staff Sergeant after three years’ approved service on the Indian Unattached List, but have to wait for remote vacancies on the Indian Miscellaneous List, waiting anything from eight to ten years, whereas Sergeants of other Departments get their Staff rank in three years.

HOPEFUL.