Threatened Trouble in India

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 213, 10 September 1886, Page 2

Threatened Trouble in India

If it be true, as suspected, that tho Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, the native ruler of tho Punjab Slate, in British India, is tho author of tho seditious circular that has been scattered broadcast among tho natives, thore is some reason for apprehension. Tho Punjab is a large border state, having an area of 10G,0li'2 square miles, and a population of about nineteen millions. Tula country watt annexed to British rule nearly lii'ty years ago, on condition that the native I'iitieo, then an infant, should receive 140,000 a year, mid it Ims since been Administered as » British province, Sir C. U. Aitehison being the present Lieut. -Governor. Outside of British administration there are still in tho Punjab SI Feudatory Native States with a population of nearly four millions, and armies containing 00,000 trained men ; and in addition there are numerous frontier tribes, under no settled rule, who have 130,000 lighting men. The liability of these frontier tribes and feudatory states to be won over to a hostile movement headed by the Maharajah of the Punjab, makes the situation critical, and tho possibility ot Russian cmissui-ios having been the real cause of tho revolutionary circular being issued, adds to the gravity of tho position. Of such complicity there is at present no proof, however, and even tho suspicions against Dhuleep Singh may rest on very slight foundation. That ruler, if he hits proved false to his obligations to tho British Government, will only afford another instance of how tho English (iovornmout and people spoil petty foreign potentates by too much attention. This Dhuleep visited England in his youth as a loyal and Christian prince, was naturalised as a British subject, took up his abode in England and was quite an " interesting figure at the Court of St. .Fames for several years. Ho finished by marrying an English wife and retreating peacefully to his Indian home, where lie is now stispoetcd of hatching sedition. Of course the British force in India is quite capablo of suppressing any rebellion that might arifo in the Punjab ; buL there is no telling',to what dimensions a revolt might grow if it were once started, arcl the army of India is at present much reduced by the heavy drafts sent to Burmah. The probability is that there tt ill be no rising, and that Dhuleep Singh will cover up his duplicity with adroitness, while English statesmen will, it is to bo hoped, pocket the lesson—" Put not thy trust in (native) Princes."