The morning call., 1891-12-14
TIE NEWS FROM INDIA.

The Importance of the news from India
arises first from the vagueness and incOn-
sistency of the dispatches, and secondly,
from the proximity Of the theater OF conflict
to the Russian outposts in Central Asia
Gilghit, the place where the fighting oc-
CURED, is on the head waters of the Indus
between Cabul on the west and Cashmir on
the east Its outlying defenses were held
by force of native troops under British
officers. Now the Governor General of
India telegrapbs that they have been
taken" by Colonel Durand. How could
they be taken" if they were already in
the hands of the English9 1t must be as
Sumed that they had been captured by an
enemy in fight of which the world has
heard nothing, and that Durand retoOk
them. If there has been a suppression of
facts public uneasinesS in England will be-
come painful.
Again, the territory on which these &C.
currences have taken place is uncomfortaby
close to the Russian line of march through
Central Asia. The Pamir frontier is an
imaginary line which divides the extreme
northern territory under British control
from KhOkand, where the Russians have
been entrenching. Gilghit is in the same
latitude as Merv, well to the north of Herat
The whole of that country is unsurveyed.
and is not included within the dominion of
any established power Much of it is
mountain, which is unfit for habltation, and
much is steppe, only suited to nomad races
For several years the Russians have been
creeping along the northern border of this
unmapped region, through Bokhara and
Merv and Samarcand, toward Kashgar;
their alleged object being to survey a route
for their Siberian railroad Butthe English
have always felt that their real purpose was
territorial acquisition, and that they had an
understanding with the border tribes of the
mountain country to rise at the proper time
and push the British back into the low
lands. An attack upon Gilghit by natives
would fit into this theory.
Accidents such as the one now reported
create the more uneasiness. as well-informed
EngliShmen understand perfectly that Brit
ish India is in a transition state, and that
the rule Of 275.000.000 Hindostanese by 1O0,-
coo Englishmen cannot endure for ever The
British Government has tried to anchor
itself in the affections OF the people Of India
by giving them better Government than
they ever had under their native suvereigns.
by presenting them with a system OF rail-
roads ten thousand miles long, by restoring
the ancient irrigation systems, by establish
ing colleges and schools for the education
of youth, by putting in force an enlightened
code of laws, and by administering Justice
impartially and honestly. But these meas
ures of policy are more eredtabIe to the
virtue OF Engilshmen than to their sense of
policy. 10 educate a people is to prepare
1t for independence. To teach the Hndo-
stSnese the rights of man is to goad them to
rebel against a power which denies those
rights. The railroad system, which was
built with English capital to enable
the Governor-General to concentrate troops
against another mntiny, would also as
sist fresh bands of mutineers to concen-
trate their forces. The example which the
English are setting of an upright admins
tration of justice and an equal distribution
of taxes is imparting TO the natives knowl-
edge of the practical working of Govern
ment; they would not be human If thew
did not cherish a desire to try it for them
selves.
Every Englishman who goes to India
consoles himself with tile thought that the
present system will last his time; after him
lei the deluge fall. But no mans prescience
enables him to determine when the opera
ton Of natural laws will begin. Nothing
but extraordinary good fortune saved the
English from an Afghan uprising, which
would probably have spread to all the hill
tribes, when the Russians occupied Merv
and Sarakhs in 1854 A little bioodshed
might have brought on general war. In
1857 the ''mutineers." as the English face
tiously called the insurgents, were divided
and had no means of inter-cOmmunication.
Hayelock and Campbell attacked ch band
III detail and destroyed them; neither Luck
now nor Delhi were able to summon succor
from tribes which sympathized with them,
but which had neither information of their
straits. nor leader, nor transportation, nor
a concerted purpose. 1t might be very
different If new uprising took place today,