INDIAN CIVIL AND MILITARY SERVICES (TRIBUTE) (Hansard, 7 August 1947)

§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee)
I beg to move, That this House on the occasion of the transfer to Indian hands of the responsibility for the affairs of India wishes to place upon record its profound appreciation of the ability and devotion with which, during the long period of British rule, the Civil and Military Services of the Crown in India have served India and its peoples I think that the House would not wish to see the termination of great historic Services without paying their tribute to the men who, decade after decade, have striven to serve India and its peoples. These Services comprised both Indians and British, and, for many years, they were staffed entirely by men from Britain. They have often been services which have called for devotion from generation to generation in many families. A great work of administration has been done, and a great work also in training the Indian peoples for self-government. The Indian Civil Service, in the widest sense of the term, dates back to the days of the East India Company, the days when, in 1765, that company first issued covenants to its servants. It has a great tradition of devoted, honest and efficient administration.
It would take too much time to enumerate all the varieties of service that have been performed or all the different Services—the Indian Civil Service, which has borne the main weight of administration, the Indian, Police, and the technical Services—the Public Works Department, the Education Department, the Department of Agriculture and the Veterinary Department. The men in these Services have been surprisingly few in number, and only those who have visited India realise that often they were only one man among a population of a million. The work they have done, considering how few they have been and how many they have served and the greatness and variety of the work entrusted to them, has been without parallel in the world. That work has often meant being lonely and working in trying climates, and it has also been dangerous. These men have been responsible for great advances made by the Indian peoples, culminating in their achievement of full self-government. There is the Indian Medical Service, which has its own special place, and it is due to its pioneer work that India 1651 now has 50,000 medical practitioners It has many very distinguished men, and it has made great advances in medical science.
No less important than the Indian Civil Service has been the Indian Army. The Indian Army that is now being divided has achieved, on many battlefields, a high reputation for courage, devotion to duty and efficiency. It is an Army mainly of Indians, but the British element has been the cement which has brought together and kept together men of different languages, races, religions and castes. In the younger Services, the officers of the Indian Navy and Air Force have done a like task, and I think one of the great unifying influences in India has been the Indian fighting Services.
Therefore, I think that today it is right that we should honour the men of these Services, these servants of the Crown, British and Indian alike; and we in this House naturally would wish to pay a special tribute to the British members of those Services who have overseas, year after year, done honour to the land that bore them and set a shining example to the world.

§ Mr. Eden (Warwick and Leamington)
We on this side of the House would wish to associate ourselves with the terms of the Motion and with the words which the Prime Minister has just used. None will deny either the devotion or the ability with which members of the Services in India have served her peoples. Great reputations have been made or enhanced in the period of British rule, and the pages of Indian history record the deeds of Viceroys, Governors and Generals whose names will endure for all time in her annals.
But our thoughts turn today, I think, not so much to those in high places, but rather to the humbler servants of the Crown, who gave their best not in the hope of some glittering honour or reward but solely from a desire to do their jobs well. I have in mind the collector and others of his rank, the police, medical and forest officers and the like, and the officers of the Indian Army, who, mingling with those for whose well-being they were responsible, got to know and to love the common peoples of India, listened to their grievances and did their best to redress them. Above all, they won their respect, 1652 and, in many cases, their abiding affection. To such men service to India was the mainspring of their work. Indeed, with many of them, it had become a tradition which passed from father to son. I am reminded of the opening sentence of Kipling's story, "The Tomb Of His Ancestors": Some people will tell you that if there were but a single loaf of bread in all India it would be divided equally between the Plowdens, the Trevors, the Beadons, and the Rivett-Carnacs. That is only one way of saying that certain families serve India generation after generation as dolphins follow in line across the open sea. What, may we ask, would be the best monument to these men who have served India with such loyalty and devotion? It will be found, I think, not in bricks and mortar, not in administrative reforms nor in vast irrigation schemes, but in the concepts of British justice and fair play which they brought to the peoples of India. To all classes, poor and rich, Hindus and Muslims, they have made available a standard of justice which we can say with pride has no equal in the world, and which, whatever the other changes that may come about, is likely to remain the foundation of all law and order in the new India.
Nor must we forget the Indians themselves who served the Crown in so many capacities from Governor down to the humblest peon. I think it can be said that they, too, were impelled by a sense of mission in their work, and that they showed themselves fully worthy of the great Service to which they belonged. Those, Indians and British alike, who continue under the new regime have a great part to play, and their knowledge and experience will be of the highest value to the Governments of the new Dominions. We are under deep obligation to all who have so served, an obligation we must not fail to honour.
Finally, if there are any in the Services, past or present, who today feel deeply about the severance of our direct connection with India, let them recall that they have helped to build up two new Dominions which will rank equally with other countries in the Commonwealth, and to fit their people to govern themselves. Of all forms of human endeavour, I can think of none which could bring to those who shared in this achievement a greater satisfaction or a livelier sense of work well done.

§ Mr. Clement Davies (Montgomery)
May I be allowed, on behalf of my colleagues and myself, to associate ourselves with the Motion which has just been moved? I do not wish to add—nor could I do so—to the very eloquent words which have been used by the Prime Minister and the right hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Mr. Eden). I would only like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to all concerned.

§ Colonel Gomme-Duncan (Perth and Kinross, Perth)
I would not wish for one moment to sound any discordant note on this impressive occasion. I have, in a very humble capacity, devoted more than half my military service to the service of India, and all I would like to say to the Prime Minister is, will he please bear in mind that there are still a considerable number of Britons serving in India who are desperately worried and anxious as to their future prospects and compensation. I hope the door has not been finally shut on their appeal to be considered along with those who have been generously treated.