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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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X11 V MEMOIR OF SIR HENRY YULE
1854-5.5.
Ik
Í
Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways at Head-quarters.
In this post he had for chief his old friend Baker, who had
in 1851 been appointed by the Governor-General, Lord
Dalhousie, Consulting Engineer for Railways to Government.
The office owed its existence to the recently initiated great
experiment of railway construction under Government
guarantee.
The subject was new to Yule, " and therefore called for hard
and anxious labour. He, however, turned his strong sense and
unbiased view to the general question of railway communication
in India, with the result that he became a vigorous supporter of
the idea of narrow gauge and cheap lines in the parts of that
country outside of the main trunk lines of traffic." 36
The influence of Yule, and that of his intimate friends and
ultimate successors in office, Colonels R. Strachey and Dickens,
led to the adoption of the narrow (metre) gauge over a great
part of India. Of this matter more will be said further on ; it is
sufficient at this stage to note that it was occupying Yule's
thoughts, and that he had already taken up the position in this
question that he thereafter maintained through life. The office
of Consulting Engineer to Government for Railways ultimately
developed into the great Department of Public Works.
As related by Yule, whilst Baker " held this appointment,
Lord Dalhousie was in the habit of making use of his advice in
a great variety of matters connected with Public Works projects
and questions, but which had nothing to do with guaranteed
railways, there being at that time no officer attached to the
Government of India, whose proper duty it was to deal with
such questions. In August, 1854, the Government of India sent
home to the Court of Directors a despatch and a series of
minutes by the Governor-General and his Council, in which the
constitution of the Public Works Department as a separate
branch of administration, both in the local governments and the
government of India itself, was urged on a detailed plan."
In this communication Lord Dalhousie stated his desire to
appoint Major Baker to the projected office of Secretary for the
Department of Public Works. In the spring of 1855 these re-
commendations were carried out by the creation of the Depart-
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36 Collinson's Memoir of Yúle, Royal Engineer Journal.
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