The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-23
Lord Curzon's Resignation.

Lord CURzoN's resignation of the post
OF Viceroy Of India, which he has held
with credit for some years, is due to
the tardy recognition by the British
Government of the fact that if England
desires to retain her colossal Indian
Empire she must keep it as she gain ed
it, namely, by renouncing as i'm practi-
cable that subordination of the military
to the civil power which in the United
Kingdom itself is deemed vital feature
of the British Constitution. The fric-
ton which had long existed between
General Lord KITCHENER and the head
of the Calcutta Government has ended
with the triumph Of the former, who
will now have free hand to REQ rganize
the Anglo-Indian army and convert it
into an instrument fitted to Withstand
alike internal disaffection and Russian
aggression.
The notion that the consti tutonal
principles of government which have
been adopted in Great Britain are appli-
cable to an empire comprising more than
three hundred million human beings and
ruled by fewer than three hundred thou
sand white men, including civilians as
we'll as soldiers, is, on the face Of things,
absurd. The absurdity has been gener-
ally acknowledged at the India Office
by the repeated refusal to heed dogmatic
reformers and shortsighted phil an
thropists and concede to the natives
Of India large share in the manage
ment of their political and economic
affairs. Such a concession would I'M
doubtedly be fatal to the continuance
Of the British raj The rule established
by the sword of Give and the iron will
Of HASTINGS can only in the last resort
be upheld by force and fear. That is a
truth unacceptable to humanitarians, yet
the long history of India proves that the
vast population of that country would be
incomparably worse off were the strong
grasp Of England relaxed.
We're the British soldiers to leave India
tomorrow, as the Roman legions once
left Britain, there would be witnessed
an immediate and ferocious outbreak
Of racial and religious hatreds between
the innumerable devotees Of Brahmanism
and the sixty millions Of Moslems, be-
tween Mahrattas and Pathans, between
the Gurkas, who are Buddhists, and
the Sikhs, who have creed Of their
own. The vast peninsula, which stretches
from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin
and from Afghanistan to Burmah, would
T.. +.on, Gown, al ;pot optlx, into n eb,r,h loe
and a hell. Ultimately, no doubt, Rus
sian armies, descending from the noun
tains in the guise of liberators or the
allies of a faction, would deal with the
diverse clinical types and modes Of
worship in India as they have dealt
with the Mohammedans Of Turkestan
and the Buddhists of Mongolia applying
the Roman blend of severity and lenity
described in the we'll known maxim,
Parcere SUBJECTS ct debelldre supcrbos--
Spare the submissive and war down the
proud.
Many decade, however and perhaps
many a generation, would necessarily
elapse before substitution of Russian
raj for anarchy could be permanently
effected throughout the Indian peninsula.
In the meantime such CHASTITY atrocities
would be witnessed as are unexampled
in the history of mankind, for never
has so huge population been con-
signed to political and social disin-
tegration and to merciless civil war.
For the prolonged and awful suffering
Of which India would be the victim
fecreant England would be as distinctly
responsible as was decadent Rome for
the engulfment of Western Europe in
the night Of the Dark Ages. History
would term England recreant because
having conquered the Indian peninsula
she shirked the duties and flung of the
burdens inseparable from conquest.
In the eyes Of just, enlightened and
generous minded Englishmen it be-
hooves them to discharge patiently and
faithfully the obligation imposed upon
their country when it accepted the
hard won heritage Of CLIvE and HAS