New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-15
India may pay the debts incurred in prosecuting
England's puerile policy in Afghanistan.

England's puerile policy in Afghanistan.
These two questions-the cotton and the opium
trade--are sufficiently important to merit brief
notice. India formerly manufactured an enormous
supply of cotton goods whereby she served her own
market and considerable trade abroad. English
manufacturers were protected in England by
tariff on Indian goods. Similarly India pro-
tected by tariff English goods. 30 that neither
could be undersod in its own market by the other
In 1850, when a general election in England was
imminent Lord Beaconsfeld's last act to repeal
the duties or the main portion of the duties, on
English cotton manufactures imported iuto India
The object of this measure was TO secure the votes
of the Birmingham and Manchester voters for the
coming election. The duty on indian goods coming
TO England was not, however, altered. The effect
of the law was to enable England to undersell
india in the Indian market with cheap and heavily
sized goods. At time when the Indian cotton
trade was still suffering severely from the depres
sion consequent on tie re-estabishment OF order In
the United States a measure of this kind was
extremely cruel The English press. at the
time stated that the loss to India was
very small, amounting, if l remember
rightly to only about thirty thousand pounds ster-
ling per annum of the tariff revenue. They calmly
ignored the change wrought in the Indian market
by Englands new power of underselling Inc law
Is still in force and Indian manufacturers nave
suffered enormously.
The opium question is of greater Importance.
Opium is grown in India as Government monopoly,
and any attempt on the part of native growers to
sell at their own prices is severely punished. The
Government collects and weighs every year the
total production and transports it to Calcutta
where the opium is sold to exporting houses BY
this business the Government makes about eleven
million sterling per annum, or about quarter OF
its total nominal revenue. What the English ex-
porting merchants subsequently make by II Is not
known, bu; the profits of the trade enormous.
Concerning the iniquty of the opium trade need
say nothing, for the question has long been before
the world The working of it results practically,
in largely increasing the amount of money annually
sent out of the country. Men who make money In
India VIGOROUSLY spend it in England-those who
do not squander it reckessly in kind of barbara
extravaganza which does one any good. The
merchants for the most part only the agents OF
London houses just on larger scale the Vlceroy
or GovernorG General, formerly the agent OF the
East India Company and now represents the chief
of the scrlbes under the Imperial trading house.
In SUNNI ng up the points to which l have here
briefly referred the difficulty consists IN apprecat-
ing the magnitude of each individual question. and
IT must not be forgotten that India has other and
great grievances, such as the depreciation of the
silver currency, the exorbltance Of the taxes to
which landed property is subjected, the restrictions
laid upon all natives who enter the Civil Service,
and the entire absence of representation.
England points with pride to the system OF roads
and RAILWAYS which has been created in the country,
| arguing that increased facility of communication
| must of necessity improve the conditions of com
merce forgetting that facilities OF that kind help
| her IN underselng the Indian market and IN the
! transportation Of opium, very much to the detriI
| mcnt of midas wei are, and that these DnaSed
railways failed entirely TO render appreciate as
slstance in the last great famine emergency. Ihe
principal use Of these railways III nelto mas Deen
! to carry men aud money 10 the northern frontier,
! whence they could be conveniently thrown a way
among the barren rocks OF Afgharistan to use
| the words of a very sensible English writer.
Reviewing the history OF the last fifty years il is
! beyond the power OF any upright human conscience
| to believe that England has done her duty by bel
| Eastern subjects. There have been good men there
! sometimes and they have done what they could
| Lord lawrence was good man. aud Lord Ripon
has shown that be has sense of the right aud can
! brave some opposition IN oheying his conscience;
Vt il seems as ihOu IA the body of the great Civil
Service machine were too Gillette and sluggish aud
selfish 10 think of anything but the bares perform
nance of duty compatible with the greatest person
| nj advantage. \ few strong ana honest men may
! sweat blood III the enormous effort OF government
| but what are they among so many petty nttlt
| money graSping Englishmcn What ayaied 1t that
! Lord Lawrence should DO his best. If Lord Lvtton
was TO follow him IN a few years rs the exponent OF
p.eudo pDctIc and most ultTa-sensational imperial
| ,smf Why should the Marquis of RIpon incur all
| manner of hatred and hostility IN the effort 70 do
right f he is To DC succeeded by Mr. O,car IldeI
or by any other eccentric genius OF the Beaconshed
! SCHOOL, Above all, where Is The use OF MI. Edwin
Arnold's scholarly eloquence in the columns of IN,
Daily 1deDaph, If his peace is only another
name for an Afghan war If h' order turns oui
IN he only the piteous silence of downtroddeu and
bankrupt people, and If his justice means lmpu,
| uity Tor the white Anglo-SdxOn-tortuIe packed
| ia, lps h
suneradded religious terrors of eternal damnatiOI
All these questions can DO fairly asked, and many
more Ii kr them As for the answers 10 them. they
will not he found IN the English press, but they viii
| be very certainly found by any honest man who
! will stay SIX months IN British India, and who Il
wiling To trust the evidence of his senses. There
| nothing easier than for a despotic government e
| defend despoiism. ana TO speak OF II IN strains OF
| portlc admiration or in Il spirit of ecstatc virtue
| There is nothing all the world harder than FOL
! one man. or a handful of men, to make people lOOh
! M "A wrong OF which they have never heard o
dreamed. f. NAHUM OhA"fohO'
Ap,H H. 1883.