INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

182 EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT.
vouchsafed to them. This, as it seems to me,
perverted sentiment of sacrificing utility to comfort
of labour, has been the cause of very considerable
waste in all previous famine relief-works;
and, as far as one can judge, this will especially
prove the case in th.e present one. As already
noticed, the area affected by the present Bengai
famine is large, and it therefore fulfils one 01
the conditions given for utilising labour; but
this large area has been forcibly divided into
smaller areas. It has been cut up piecemeal,
and the work distributed in patches. It is not
my object to criticise the Government in th(,
details of this policy; in fact, I have not the
necessary local knowledge to enable me to do
so: but judging by the ideas previously formed
on the subject, I would have thought it better
policy to have drafted oft' all, or at any rate a
large proportion, of the able-bodied popUlation
and their children to some large works, than
to attempt to provide work at every village,
as it appears has been the main object in the
~resent famine. I had some personal experience
in 1869 of the ease with which this