Hawke's Bay Herald SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1878.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5046, 6 April 1878, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1878.

The Nineteenth Centni'ij for February contains an article on the value of India to England, Ivy Colonel Cliesnoy, the author of the "Battle of Dorking." The article is in refutation of Mr Lowe's proposition that England loses more than she gains by the possession of India. Amongst the disadvantages stated by Mr Lowe he mentions, as one of them, the drain of men involved in keeping up an army of British troops in that country ; Colonel Chesney shows that there is i-eally no disadvantage in it at all. The actual number of British troops in India is 60,000, and their maintenance and pay are reimbursed to the English Government from Indian funds. There is, therefore, no loss on that head. As to the drain upon the population, that is, in actual fact, only a mere trifle after the 60,000 men are once on Indian soil, it being limited to the loss involved by reason of the higher rate of mortalit} r of Englishmen living in India. This loss, Colonel Chesney demonstrates, is little more than half per cent, of the number of adult males who yearly emigrate from England to the colonies, and must in reality be a gain to those who remain behind by relieving the labor market. On the future value of India to England in a military point of view Colonel Chesney speaks in veiy sanguine terms. His remarks, which coming from so high a military authority, are worth quoting, go far to show that the military strength of England is not entirely to be estimated on the basis of its population of 40,000,000. He says — . Moreover, if India draws troops from England, it is able to furnish, them in return. That country affords a practically unlimited recruiting ground, and the Indian Government is the only one in the world which finds no difficulty about keeping up an army of any strength required by voluntary enlistment. There is not a native regiment in India without its followers, the brothers and cousins of the men in the ranks, hanging on to the camp, looking out to be enlisted whenever vacancies occur. The Indian army is now on a very reduced establishment, made up of a large number of skeleton battalions, but the Indian Government has only to give the signal to draw recruits to its colors to any extent necessary, from the perfectly inexhaustible supply available both within and without its borders, of manly races possessing the qualities for making a splendid soldiery. In this way the military resources of India are capable of immediate and indefinite extension without an additional soldier being sent from Europe. The proportion of Europeans to native troops is at present far in excess of what has been found necessary in all former wars, the native army being kept in peace time on the lowest practicable scale for political as well as economical reasons ; but a native army is dangerous only in peace time, without excitement and occupation, and if military operations had to' be undertaken on a large scale in the East, the Indian army could be expanded with safety and certainty to any degree thought necessary. England is in fact, through her Indian Empire, a first-class military power, and could bring into the field an army quite as large as those with which recent history has made us familiar, and containing material which for sobriety, power of endurance, and contempt of death, would be found quite equal to the men whose gallantry has been lately the admiration of Europe. The value, commercially, of India to England is also a very important point. Remarking upon it, Mr Lowe says it is very possible that Great Britain may be raising xip a very effective competition against itself, in the extreme cheapness of Hindoo labor, and he adds, " The Romans would have drawn thirty millions per annum from India, the English Government does not draw a single penny." Colonel Chesney very correctly points out, in answer to the first part of Mr Lowe's remarks, that there is always the same likelihood of being competed with whatever may be the country traded with ; and as to England not drawing a single penny from India, he replies that though the English Government do not, the English people do, and yet India is enriched by an intercourse mutually profitable to both sides. "To defend India," he says in conclusion, " might conceivably demand a great effort ; to lose it must involve a shock that would vibrate through every section of English society, and would go far to work a calamitous revolution in the material condition of the English people."