Page:Arthur Cotton - The Madras Famine - 1898.djvu/21

 paper, which was by Col. Chesney, paragraph by paragraph, and concluded by respectfully, but most earnestly protesting against the matter being left there; that as it was most certainly a case of life or death to India, (as it is assuredly at this moment,) they would come to a formal decision on the subject, and decide between Col. Chesney and myself. We were diametrically at issue; it was a vital question to India, and in justice to our great dependency, it could not possibly be right to leave the question unsettled. I begged them to appoint a real Committee, fairly and honestly selected, consisting of men who would represent both or rather all sides, so that all concerned in India might be put in possession of the different points of the question. No answer was conceded to this letter, and this vital question has been left to drift into the present awful state of things, and the only certainty in the whole matter now is that millions will perish. Wherever Water is led over the land, there is life, abundance, prosperity, contentment with our rule, ample revenue; wherever the country has been left in its natural state there is want of revenue, heavy expenditure, disgrace to our rule, poverty, misery, and death. If it is still said what are you to do if the people will not take the water; I ask, is an exception to command our proceedings? And further, if we are such clumsy administrators, that we can’t get over so absurd a difficulty, why should we be as obstinate and stupid as the poor ignorant ryots of that one tract? Why don’t we rather give them the water for nothing, than allow it to run still to waste? Even then we should receive large returns, for we cannot enrich the people without enriching the Treasury. But recurring to the India Office, I have received so many applications from many parts of the world asking for information on the subject of the India Irrigation Works, (for the fame of them has so extended now that they are looked to from all quarters for instruction,) that I wrote to the office begging that they would prepare a Blue Book, if not for our own use, for the information of others, but the answer was a refusal to give any information for publication. Inquiry has been made from California, the Cape, Australia,