POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 237
will be found working alongside each other. It is in
this manner generally that employment is found for that
mixed race known as Eurasians.
« Qut of the total number of civil employees in India
go per cent. are natives, but of course the great
majority of these are in minor posts. Excluding the
765 offices held by covenanted officers, there are about
2600 persons in the superior grades of the executive and
judicial branches of the service, and very nearly all of
these are natives. Thus although the higher offices of
control are held by Englishmen, the greater part of the
actual administration is in native hands.” Sir John
Strachey wrote this in 1888, and during the ten years
which have elapsed since then the proportion of natives
has increased. Every post or appointment, except
perhaps the very highest in the land, is within the reach
of a duly qualified native so long as it is a purely civil
appointment.
In this connection it is well to note the opinion of
so eminent an authority as Sir John Strachey on the
efficiency of the mative civil service. After detailing the
important part they take in magisterial and judicial work,
he says: “I have already stated my belief that, as a rule,
their work is quite as good as that of the English judges.
Twenty years ago the native civil service was badly paid,
comparatively inefficient, and not always trustworthy.
In these respects there has been a great change. Nothing
 in the recent history of India is more remarkable
than the change which has taken place in the standard
of morality amongst the higher classes of native officials.
Much of this has certainly been due to the fact that their
positions and salaries are much better than they were,
and that temptations to corruption have been removed.
But I do not doubt that much has been due to their
better education. Another powerful cause has been in
constant and silent operation. The native officers have
had before them, through a long course of years, the
example of the irreproachable integrity of the Englishmen
 employed in the higher ranks of the public service.