cted with caste, as it has been possible
to remove Indian Officers from one part of India to another, and we
have made some efforts which have, I admit, proved less successful in
some districts than in others, to deal with castes which, within their
own lines, are often little more than Trade Unions with a mixture of
superstition.

Meanwhile, the practical character of our work has shown itself in
efforts to help in various ways the lowest of the people to improve
their circumstances. The need for this is instantly apparent when one
reflects that some 40,000,000 of the inhabitants of India are always
hungry. A system of loan banks, which has now been adopted in part by
the Government, has been of great service to the small
agriculturalists. The invention of an extremely simple and yet greatly
improved hand loom has proved, and will prove, very valuable to the
weavers. New plans of relief in times of scarcity and famine have also
greatly helped in some districts to win the confidence of the people.
Industrial schools, chiefly for orphan children, have also been a
feature of the work in some districts.

Recently the Government, having seen with what success our people have
laboured for the salvation of the lower castes, have decided to hand
over to us the special care of several of the criminal tribes, who are
really the remnants of the Aborigines. Although this work is at
present only in its experimental stage, all who have examined the
results so far have been delighted at the rapidity with which we have
brought many into habits of self-supporting industry, who, with their
fathers before them, had been accustomed to live entirely by plunder.
About 2,000 persons of this class are already under our care.

There are some 3,000,000 of these robbers in different parts of India.
They are only kept under anything like control at great cost for
police and military supervision; but we are satisfied that, if
reasonable support be given, a great proportion of them can be
reclaimed from their present courses of idleness and crime, and in any
case their children can be saved.

We have been able in India, perhaps more than in any other part of the
world, to realize the international character of our work by linking
together Officers from England, Germany, Holland, and the Scandinavian
countries, as well as from America, in the one great object of helping
the heathen peoples. But most of all we have rejoiced in being able to
blen