The appointment of Lord Willing-}don—wbo I ace has been visiting] Peking as head of the Commission jin connexion with the Boxer Indeminity—to the Governor Generalship lof Canada has been noted with great interest in India where he spent 11 strenuous years as Governor of Bom. bay and of the Madras Presidency respectively. He received a sound training in the Colonial diplomatic service when he served as. aide-d camp in his early days to his fa! in-law, Earl Brassey, when the latter was Governor of Victoria. Durin the War he proved his ability by the skill with which he governed Bombay and when he left Bombay for the Madras Presidency it was felt that} hho was just the man to undertake the difficult task of inaugurating the Reforms. In regard to these reforms Madras pursued a different line of development to the other provinces owing to the lack of clearly defined political parties which made it necessary for Lord Willingdon, as an expedient, to make use of the comminal division between Brahmin and Non-Brahmin, introducing party 7¥- ernment on the lines of this division.
Madras is now coming into line with, other Provinces, for new parties are being formed which are taking the place of this very unsatisfactory. division. During his five years of office in the Madras Presidency Lord Willingdon had to deal with—the serious Moplah rebellion, famines, cyclone and flood disasters, events which told heavily on the finances of the Provinces. Lord Willingdon faced all these difficulties with courage and energy, winning the high esteem of both Europeans and Indians in the Province.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.