Volume II Part 24 (2/2)
For some time after the early months of 1885 the political situation was very unsettled The Government formed by Lord Salisbury after the defeat of Mr Gladstone in June was only a ”Cabinet of Caretakers,” and it was not worth Miss Nightingale's while to approach any of thenized the Secretary of State for India as a hopeless subject She was right Lord Randolph Churchill was all against Lord Ripon, and all for economy When Lord Salisbury's Governeneral election in Deceh various channels, approached Mr Gladstone, and begged him to send Lord Ripon to the India Office He returned polite but evasive answers, and so controversial an appointment was obviously improbable
Lord Ripon went to the Admiralty The excitement of the first Hoeneral election was necessary, and all was in confusion Dr Sutherland, anxious to retire fro Miss Nightingale to devise one She pressed hi the political earthquakes of the last 8 , no permanent interest can be expected,” she wrote to him (July 20, 1886), ”in those who are so little permanent The subject excruciates ht that the tiood causes--an opinion which defeated Ministers are apt to hold ”There are waves in theseis to co for the Army and Sanitation if it had not been for the crash in the Criale, however, did not allow herself to be tempted into inactivity by this wave-theory For theto be done with Ministers at ho relations with Anglo-Indians and Indians in positions of influence In 1885 she had added Sir Neville Chalo-Indian acquaintances Lord Reay had called upon her (March 1885) before leaving to take up the governorshi+p of Bombay, and she corresponded with him frequently on sanitary subjects In October, Lord Roberts cahtingale took great pains with this interview, Dr Sutherland having furnished her in advance with an adht still be done to improve the health and welfare of the troops Lord Roberts's coale had been a pioneer He established a club or institute in every British regiment and battery in India He closed canteens He opened coffee-stalls He established an Arhtingale received in her Jubilee Year can have pleased her more than one which the Coust 6 In this letter Lord Roberts told her that the Government of India had sanctioned the employment of female nurses in the Military Hospitals A coe military centres of Umballa and Rawalpindi, and 18 nurses, with lady superintendents in each case, were to be sent out froland at once The selection of nurses was entrusted to Surgeon-General Arthur Payne, who in the following ale Thus, after twenty-two years, was the scheht to fruition Miss Nightingale saw the Superintendents before they went out, and letters from them were now added to the pile of those which she received fro advice Miss C G Loch wrote fro how she had found that, as Miss Nightingale always said, the education of the Orderlies was thefor the nurses to do
[225] See his _Forty-one Years in India_, chap lxvi
The official introduction of fe into the Indian military hospitals was by no ale received during Lord Dufferin's Viceroyalty He had declared his, but had proood as his word, but Lady Dufferin was keenly interested also She founded the ”National association for Supplying Medical Aid to the Wo been interested in the subject, and Lady Dufferin consulted her at every stage One of the first things needful, Lady Dufferin had written (Sept 19, 1885), was a supply of Sanitary Tracts ”In using the word tract, I a of some little books in Hindustani written by ALOE which I ae They are stories with a ht not be published with health as asuitable rawthe remainder of Lord Dufferin's Viceroyalty wrote to her by almost everyLord Dufferin's Viceroyalty, of sanitary ”shot” supplied, as he had requested, by Miss Nightingale; but we must now turn back to London, where, partly froale was presently engaged in a vigorous ca these years upon a matter which is referred to in some of the letters as ”The Sutherland Succession” Now, Dr Sutherland was in Miss Nightingale's eyes the indispensable er in the personal sense, as described in an earlier chapter; for he was now a very old man, and was only able to help her on rare occasions She had already found a successor in this personal sense, or rather she had put Dr
Sutherland's place into co these later years her most constant collaborator in Indian las Galton[226] She had often chafed at Dr Sutherland's delays, but I expect that when Sir Douglas succeeded to him she may in one respect have parodied to herself the well-known Caram, and said, ”Poor Dr Sutherland! we never felt his loss before” For Sir Douglas Galton, though devoted also to Miss Nightingale's service, was an exceedingly busy andman, and she had to be content with the crues,” she wrote (May 13, 1887), ”since I saw you last--my memory impaired by years cannot fix the date within a decade--I seize the first day you kindly offer” And again (Dec 3, 1889): ”I arswill see you to- as you can stop” Miss Nightingale relied greatly on Sir Douglas Galton's advice; she had a very high opinion, not only of his thorough knowledge of all sanitary subjects, but of his sound judgenerally Froone already; but in his official capacity he was still indispensable He was theof the system of sanitary administration, both for the hoale had built up He was the one paid workingbrain, of the Army Sanitary Committee, and it was to that Committee that Indian sanitary reports were referred But he was iht becoements had beenas he rees were likely to be made; but if he retired, it was very probable that no successor would be appointed, and that the whole systenorant of Dr Sutherland's services, had been burnt in upon Miss Nightingale'sso with the ested the reference of it to Dr Sutherland ”Who is he?” said the minister; ”I have never heard of him” At the India Office it was much the same ”I don't think,” wrote a friend (Sept 8, 1886), ”that this office in general appreciates the importance of those reviews of Indian sanitary matters of which Dr Sutherland has been the real author hitherto” The whole syste
[226] Captain Galton was knighted in 1887
Nor was this all The sanitary service in India itself was in danger
The annexation of Burma had made retrenchment necessary; a Finance Cohtingale received private information that the Sanitary Commissioners were marked down by the Committee for destruction The whole edifice thus see This hat she had in herof the chapter, she said that the work of thirty years had all to be done again
She turned with all her old energy to efforts commensurate to the threatened calamity In accordance with her usual method, she first consulted st others), and then acted with great energy She wrote a long statement to Lord Dufferin (Nov 5) ”I have sent your letter _in extenso_,” he replied (Jan 18, 1887), ”to the head of the Finance Committee You should understand that it does not at all follow, because the Co, that their recommendation will, as a matter of course, be accepted by the Governo most carefully into this question in which you naturally take so deep an interest, and will be careful to have it thoroughly discussed in Council byhad your views placed before them” A few months later caale_) SIMLA, _August_ 20 [1887] I write you a little line to tell you that the Indian Government have finally determined not to sanction the proposals of the Finance Commission for the abolition of the Sanitary Commissioners, about which you were naturally alarmed There is no doubt that the Finance Commission was in a position to prove that these officers had been able to do very little, owing to the unwillingness, or rather the inability of the local Authorities to supply funds, and in soy We are noever, taking the question up, and the result of the attack upon your proteges will be, not their disappearance, but their being coive us the worth of the overnments to put the whole subject of sanitation upon a , and to establish a systeramme in accordance hich from year to year their operations are to be conducted I cannot say how grateful I aand pleasant letters In them he tells me fro, but of your unflagging energy in the pursuit of your noble and useful aiale had been busy with Ministers at home In the latter half of 1886 Lord Salisbury's Government was firmly seated, and she received visits from the Secretaries of State for India and for War (Lord Cross and Mr W H Smith) She found Lord Crossfollowing years, and they had a good deal of correspondence To Mr W H Shest compliment; in some ways he reminded her, she said in her notes, of Sidney Herbert Superficially, and in several of their real characteristics, no two men could be more unlike; but in certain respects Mr Smith resembled her ideal of a War Minister He had a sincere concern for the welfare, alike physical and moral, of the soldiers; and he showed a quick and industrious aptitude for administrative detail She saw Mr Smith several times, and at his request had an intervieith the Chaplain-General[227] It seemed as if the work, which she had done with Sidney Herbert, ht be resumed with Mr Smith, when there was a thunder-clap froned The Ministry was for a while in confusion, and Miss Nightingale in despair ”We _are_ unlucky,” she wrote to Sir Douglas Galton (Dec 23) ”As soon as we seeot hold of two Secretaries of State, this Randolph goes out! The Cabinet will have to be remodelled, and perhaps we shall lose ourat once” Of her two ”men,” the one was taken, the other left Mr W H Smith became First Lord of the Treasury, but Lord Cross reive up the War Office,” said Mr Sale, ”but I aed him to indoctrinate his successor, Mr Edward Stanhope She was already acquainted with him, and presently he came to see her It ith peculiar satisfaction that she presently heard of the Government's intention to take a loan for fourof new barracks and the reconstruction of old ones This was a resumption of the work of Sidney Herbert, thirty years after[228]
[227] It was a subject of recurring self-reproach to Miss Nightingale in subsequent years that she had not found tianize a new crusade for the spiritual and moral welfare of the soldiers She had already donecomment was to the point: ”Why complain because you cannot do more than you do, which is already more than any other ten women could do?”
[228] A succinct statement of such reforms, up to 1899, was compiled by Mr Frederick on his retirement from the War Office and was issued as a Blue-book: _Record of Reco Sanitary Iether with the Actual I the last 50 years_
An early intiale the more anxious about the fate of the Army Sanitary Committee If the sanitary condition of the barracks was to be i Sanitary Committee should be in existence to supervise the work At first, however, she had been unable to secure any promise about the Sutherland Succession The War Office would not consider the matter until a vacancy occurred; the India Office would do nothing until it knehat the War Officehappened Dr Sutherland resigned No successor was appointed The whole subject, she was informed, was under consideration, and then under reconsideration Ultiale, reconstituted the Colas Galton remained upon it Dr J Marston was appointed paid ale's friend and ally, Surgeon-General J W Cunningham (formerly Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India) was appointed as an Indian expert Her friend Mr J J Frederick retained his post as Secretary to the Coer was overpast
V
Sanitary reports from India were still to be referred to the Coht that the time had come for an advance in India Lord Cross was so sy her former plea for a sanitary department in India which should be ham (married to a niece of Sir Harry Verney) had been in coh Court of Calcutta, and had taken an active part in the cause of sanitation in that city He now prepared a ale's ally on the India Council, Sir Henry Yule, prepared another, which was so far approved by the Secretary of State that he ordered it to be circulated in the Office as the draft of a proposed dispatch to the Government of India This draft was, in fact, the joint production of Sir Henry Cunninghaale
It went the rounds It was minuted on It was considered and reconsidered; printed and reprinted Soale was that it would be adopted and sent; at other times, that it had been postponed for further revision, recirculation, and reconsideration Ultimately it became in some sort out of date, because the Government of India took a step on its own motion, in accordance with the intention which Lord Dufferin had already coale (p 373) By Resolution, dated July 27, 1888, the Government of India provided for the constitution of a Sanitary Board in every province, which would not only advise the Government and local authorities upon sanitary es in which the latter point is insisted upon ale herself[229] Lord Dufferin's ter to a close He had proved himself an apt pupil of the ”Governess of Governors-General” As on the voyage out he had proave some account of his stewardshi+p:--
(_Lord Dufferin to Miss Nightingale_) SS KAISER-I-HIND _at sea, Dec_ 26 [1888] We are now on our way hoe, thanks to which we are all picking up wonderfully, and shall arrive in Europe quite rejuvenated This issent you the Report of a speech I made at Calcutta recently I would not have troubled you with it, were it not that on page 15 I have tried to give a parting lift to sanitation[230] My ladies go home at once, but I, alas, am coet st the first persons whose hands I hope to come and kiss will be yours
[229] The Resolution is printed at pp 38-42 of vol xx of the annual _Report of Sanitary Measures in India_ (1888) It contains on the administrative side a history of the ale's ”second Royal Commission” (1863) The Secretary of State's dispatch (Jan 10, 1889), approving of the Resolution, is full of ”the Nightingale influence” (vol xxi
p 173): Colonel Yule's Minute was forwarded as an enclosure with the dispatch (pp 173-184)
[230] ”The Governiven its serious attention to the subject of Sanitation, and has laid down the lines upon which, in its opinion, sanitary reforiven Sanitation a local habitation and a naed for the establishencies from one end of the country to the other, ill be in close communication with all the local authorities within their respective jurisdictions”
(Speech at Calcutta, Nov 30, 1888)
Lord Dufferin was succeeded by Lord Lansdoas introduced to Miss Nightingale by Mr Jowett She saw Lord Lansdoice before he left for India, and they corresponded frequently on sanitary affairs
”He did much for us in every way” is her comment on his Viceroyalty