_Xmas Day_, 1915.
... I'm so glad Gwalior was a success. I think a good native state is
the most satisfactory kind of Government for India in many ways; but
(a) so few are really good, if you go behind the scenes and think of
such fussy things as security of life and property, taxation and its
proportion to benefits received, justice and administration,
education, freedom of the subject, and so on. (b) It spells stagnation
and the abandonment of the hope of training the mass of the people to
responsibility; but I think that is an academic rather than practical
point at present.
Christmas is almost unbearable in war-time: the pathos and the
reproach of it. I am thankful that my Company is at Kut on
half-rations. I don't of course mean that: but I'm thankful to be
spared eating roast beef and plum pudding heartily, as these dear
pachyderms are now doing with such relish. I'm glad they do, and I'd
do it too if my Company was here. I'm always thankful for my thin
skin, but I'm glad dear God made thick ones the rule in this wintry
world.
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