my Lord, I recognise the fact that the Imperial Conference is
an assemblage of officials pure and simple, consisting of
Ministers of the United Kingdom and of the self-governing
Colonies. But, my Lord, there is an essential difference
between them and ourselves. In their case, the Ministers are
the elect of the people, their organ and their voice,
answerable to them for their conduct and their proceedings. In
our case, our officials are public servants in name, but in
reality they are the masters of the public. The situation may
improve, and I trust it will, under the liberalising influence
of your Excellency's beneficent administration; but we must
take things as they are, and not indulge in building castles in
the air, which may vanish "like the baseless fabric of a
vision."

It was said to be an epoch-making event that "Indian Representatives"
took part in the Conference. Representatives they were, but, as said, of
the British Government in India, not of India, whereas their colleagues
represented their Nations. They did good work, none the less, for they
were able and experienced men, though they failed us in the Imperial
Preference Conference and, partially, on the Indentured Labour question.
Yet we hope that the presence in the Conference of men of Indian birth
may prove to be the proverbial "thin end of the wedge," and may have
convinced their colleagues that, while India was still a Dependency,
India's sons were fully their equals.

The Report of the Public Services Commission, though now too obviously
obsolete to be discussed, caused both disappointment and resentment; for
it showed that, in the eyes of the majority of the Commissioners,
English domination in Indian administration was to be perpetual, and