The Governor’s speech

Lahore, Wednesday, November 12, 1924

THE first thing that strikes one about the speech with which Sir Malcolm Hailey opened the session of the Punjab Legislative Council on Monday is that the province again has a Governor with a personality, who holds strong views on public questions and does not hesitate to give expression to them with energy and vigour, who far from fighting shy of controversies seems to long for and take delight in them. The very expression of regret with which His Excellency prefaced his speech, that “an unkind convention forbids me today the pleasure of debating on the floor of your House the many problems awaiting discussion there,” shows this beyond the possibility of doubt. Nor is this regret a mere matter of form. Anyone who remembers how Sir Hailey acquitted himself as Home Member during the last Budget session of the Legislative Assembly, how he fought practically singlehandedly, so far as mere debating went, the whole body of Swarajists and Independents, will have no difficulty in believing in the genuineness of his regret that the governorship has deprived him of the opportunity of exhibiting the same ingenuity in the sphere of provincial administration. It is not meant, of course, that this passion for combat in a Governor, this energy and vigour are necessarily an advantage either to the government or the people. They are sometimes a positive disadvantage to both, as Sir Michael O’Dwyer showed conclusively during the six years of his regime as Governor of this province.