INDIGO PLANTERS AND THE I.A.R.O.

To The Editor Of The Statesman
SIR, – In your columns lately many have ventilated their opinions regarding the number of men who would be available from Calcutta mercantile, commercial and trades firms – also from industrial concerns.

Tea planters and planters’ agencies have also had their say in the subject, but up to now I have seen nothing regarding the men who would be available if some steps were taken to comb out the indigo-planting districts of Mozufferpore, Darbhanga, Saran, Chapra and Bhagalpore.

I am sure the harvest would be a rich one, not only in the number of men available but in the quality of the men. There are surely too many young men in these districts, and amongst them there are many who could easily be spared.

There are a number of young married men, well-to-do, who can well afford to provide adequately for their wives and families, and who would make useful members of the I.A.R.O., content to live the peaceful lives of indigo planters rather than undertake a serious duty. These men should be called out at once.
W.O.H.

THE MONTAGU-CHELMSFORD SCHEME

To The Editor Of The Statesman
SIR, – May I, now that the Montagu-Chelmsford reform scheme has made its appearance, through the favour of your columns, request my own countrymen as well as Englishmen, of all shades of opinion to defer their judgment till they shall have fully and seriously considered the scheme in its entirely both as regards the underlying principle and the various steps that have been recommended for giving effect to it.

I am not anticipating the judgment of the country on the scheme which to me seems the most momentous that has been formulated since the establishment of the British Empire in India.

The scheme should be judged not only by its immediate provisions but also by its future potentialities, if it has any.

Let us never forget that in honest criticisms we need not wound anybody’s feelings, and that we Indians and Europeans can both materially add to the prosperity of the Indian Empire if we will only agree to work together in a friendly spirit.
JADUNATH MOZUMDAR.
Jessore.

THE COLLECTOR OF INCOME-TAX

To The Editor Of The Statesman
SIR, – I feel sure that the general public will endorse the remarks that you make in today’s issue of The Statesman regarding the post of the Collector of Income-Tax, Calcutta.

The application of the Income-Tax Act as at present amended bristles with difficulties, and, to cite one of many, I have only to refer to the consternation that it has caused in the Tea Industry.

To enforce this tax properly and at the same time equitably requires the services of an officer of great experience in this branch of revenue law.

No one can deny that Mr. George Girard, the present Collector, has that experience and is in every way fitted to deal with the problems to which the new regulations for assessing income must necessarily give rise.

I think the general consensus of public opinion is that if Mr. Girard’s services are available after the expiry of his present term of office they ought not to be dispensed with.
LAWYER. Calcutta.