Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/529

 PRESENT TOP-HEAVY ADMINISTRATION. No scheme of reform can possibly benefit India that does not recognise that the present administration is top-heavy and ruinously expensive and for me even law t order and good government would be too dearly purchased if the price to be paid for it is to be the grinding poverty of the masses. The watchword of our reform councils will have to be. not the increase of taxation for the growing needs of a growing country, but a decrease of financial burdens that are sapping the foundation itself of organic growth. If this fundamental fact is recognised, there need be no suspicion of our motives and I think I am perfectly safe in asserting that in every other respect British interests will be as secure in Indian hands as they are in their own.

INDIANS IN CIVIL SERVICE.

It follows from what I have said above that we must respectfully press for the Congress- League claim for the immediate granting to Indians of 50 per cent, of the higher posts in the Civil Service.

�� �