also struck his imagination. Chitralis who have heard of
the mint can never understand how it is we can ever refuse
to give them as many rupees as they like to ask for. They
are told that we have a machine which turns out rupees in bucketsful without ever stopping, and they think that this stream of rupees is like a stream of water which never stops. They never consider that the silver for the rupees must be found first of all, and their only idea is that when we want money we have only to take a bucket down to the Mint and draw off rupees like water from a fountain. Chitralis have just the same ideas on the subject of money as children have on the riches of their parents. A boy at school cannot understand why his father, who has ever so many hundreds of pounds, is so chary about giving him even one ; and the Chitralis, when they know that the Government of India has this fountain of wealth down at Calcutta, do not understand why British officials should refuse to give them the few rupees they ask for. It may well be imagined, therefore, how indignant the Mehtar was when, on taking with him down to Calcutta thirty-three instead of the thirty men he had arranged for, he was asked to pay the railway fares for the additional three men.
There is no doubt that the Mehtar derived very great advantage from his visit to India, and my task in dealing with him was very considerably lightened from his possessing some idea of what the power and resources of the British Government really are. An intelligent prince, like Nizam-ul-Mulk, who visits India, recognizes how backward his country is. He sees the advantage to be gained from the improvement to be seen in India, and he knows that the arguments of the old-fashioned party, who say that things have done very well all these years and that there is, therefore, no need for change, are not sound He was, therefore, always wishing to make improvements in his country—most, it is true, for his own, and not for his people's,
IIIF Color HighRes
