When Yule Resumed Work In The Secretariat At Calcutta At The Close Of The
Mutiny, The Inevitable Arrears Of Work Were Enormous.
This may be the
proper place to notice more fully his action with respect to the choice of
gauge for Indian railways already adverted to in brief.
As we have seen,
his own convictions led to the adoption of the metre gauge over a great
part of India. This policy had great disadvantages not at first foreseen,
and has since been greatly modified. In justice to Yule, however, it
should be remembered that the conditions and requirements of India have
largely altered, alike through the extraordinary growth of the Indian
export, especially the grain, trade, and the development of new
necessities for Imperial defence. These new features, however, did but
accentuate defects inherent in the system, but which only prolonged
practical experience made fully apparent.
At the outset the supporters of the narrow gauge seemed to have the
stronger position, as they were able to show that the cost was much less,
the rails employed being only about 2/3rds the weight of those required by
the broad gauge, and many other subsidiary expenses also proportionally
less. On the other hand, as time passed and practical experience was
gained, its opponents were able to make an even stronger case against the
narrow gauge. The initial expenses were undoubtedly less, but the
durability was also less. Thus much of the original saving was lost in the
greater cost of maintenance, whilst the small carrying capacity of the
rolling stock and loss of time and labour in shifting goods at every break
of gauge, were further serious causes of waste, which the internal
commercial development of India daily made more apparent. Strategic needs
also were clamant against the dangers of the narrow gauge in any general
scheme of Indian defence. Yule's connection with the Public Works
Department had long ceased ere the question of the gauges reached its most
acute stage, but his interest and indirect participation in the conflict
survived. In this matter a certain parental tenderness for a scheme which
he had helped to originate, combined with his warm friendship for some of
the principal supporters of the narrow gauge, seem to have influenced his
views more than he himself was aware. Certainly his judgment in this
matter was not impartial, although, as always in his case, it was
absolutely sincere and not consciously biased.
In reference to Yule's services in the period following the Mutiny, Lord
Canning's subsequent Minute of 1862 may here be fitly quoted. In this the
Governor-General writes: "I have long ago recorded my opinion of the value
of his services in 1858 and 1859, when with a crippled and overtaxed staff
of Engineer officers, many of them young and inexperienced, the G.-G. had
to provide rapidly for the accommodation of a vast English army, often in
districts hitherto little known, and in which the authority of the
Government was barely established, and always under circumstances of
difficulty and urgency.
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