CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11557, 19 April 1898, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A HINDOO VIEW OF ENGLISH CUSTOMS.

An idea of the difficulties experienced by tbe British authorities in enforcing plague regulations in India can only be obtained by a

knowledge of how widely Hindoo customs and modes of thought differ from those in vogue in England. In a little hook, “ London and Paris through Indian Spectacles,” Mr G. P. Pillai, a graduate of the Madras University, has just been expounding to the British public the Indian native’s view of Occidental manners. After some commonplace remarks on English streets, polite treatment of foreigners and the virtues of the London policeman, the author comes to the great woman question, and, of course, in his own way. His English experiences increased his respect for women a hundredfold. In England you have to talk up to the woman; in India it is all talking down. But the t privilege has its embarrassments for the native. His lifelong training in the idea of the seclusion of the sex, at first made Mr Pillai’s life a burden to him in London. He seems haunted by the notion that the traveller is expected to kiss the singing chambermaid; or, at any rate, to make aa acknowledgment in kind of the smile of the maid who opens the street door. His embarrassments increase on his reaching tho drawing-room and entering the presence of his “friend’s mother.” She drops herhandkerchief. What is he to do? Is it the proper thing to pick it up ? In India you dare not do that. Then, in comes your friend’s sister, and her “ eagemesato shake

whole frame! Fancy your friend’s sister being introduced to you at home in India! Can anything be more atrocious? But it is the custom in England.” There are further perplexities and surprises instore for the -visitor when he finds that he is expected to take a lady in to dinner. “'The idea of giving your arm to a lady •whom you respect as your own mother! You never touched your own mother, at least not after you became a man. And how could you touch your friend’s mother ?” To sit at dinner between two women seems to him almost insupportable, but he manages to survive the ordeal sufficiently to offer some pertinent criticisms upon the style of head-dress-affected by his English friend’s sister These decorative vegetables and plants are all very well, but he thinks they had better be grown in the kitchejn garden. This is a point upon which many English people mil be able to agree with the Baboo, v

It seems to be fairly clear now that the rebel tribes on the Indian frontier are thoroughly pacified. The

THE ' EBONTIEB WAR.

work accomplished does not appear- to be very great, though there can be no doubtthat it was sufficiently arduous. Sir William Lockhart’s despatches from November to February have lately been published, and afford many lessons that will be useful in future wars. With reference to the delay of the advance into Tirah, Sir William explains that it was due to the inferiority of the transport animals. He points out that “ a peace organisation which has to be rapidly expanded when war breaks out takes time to render it efficient, arid that the requirements elsewhere had. already absorbed much of the better class of pack transport which would otherwise have been available.” The results .attained by the expedition may be given in dhe Commander’s own words: -—“The troops under my command,” he says, “have marched everywhere within the Orakzai . and Afridi limits, and the whole of Tirah has now for the first time been accurately surveyed. Our enemies, wherever encountered, have been punished, and their losses are stated on unimpeachable evidence to haare been extremely severe. The towers ami walls of almost every fortified village in the country have been levelled to the ground, and the winter supply of grain,, fodder and fuel of both tribes has bee; a consumed by the force. The Orakzai have been completely sub dned, and have , complied with the terms prescribed for them; but the Afridis still hold out, although I have strong hopes that they may before long submit and thus save their country from a fresh invasion m the spring.” Judging from the absence of news. Sir William's hopes have been realised, for since the date of these despatches, many more of the tribes have submitted, and-the whole district is now comparatively quiet. If ever a nation was

..xUS TRANSSIBERIAN RAILWAY.

stricken with the intellectual complaint of “ Megalomania,” the passion for big

things, surely Russia comes under the charge. Before the first huge tindertaking of a railway from the Baltic to the Pacific is nearly finished, comes the proposal to cut a water-way from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Both projects are, of course, military ones, to enable troops to bo sent from one part of the Empire to another in the shortest possible time* r ; T he "Trans-Siberian,” as everyone knows, has long been regarded as a necessity, and various portions at both ends and the middle are already in use for military purposes. When the Jast connections between the various sections have been finally completed the whole Russian army could, if necessity arose, be thrown across the intervening continent to the Pacific in about seven days. And from Yladivostock a railway is projected through maritime Manchuria. Soldiers have in a great measure constructed the railway, and the few travellers who have so far availed themselves of its accommodation are surprised at finding unwashed members of the military forces performing the multifarious duties of station hands and train conductors. -It is threatened, among other things, which the great TransSiberian is to accomplish, that the mail journey to Australia will be shortened by seven days. , Further than that, M. Chilkoff, the Russian Minister of Communications, is, reported to have stated that when the Siberian railway is opened throughout its entire length, the tour of the world might be made in thirty-three days. Of course, these commercial considerations are by the way, for the great object of the Russian authorities has been to provide a railway that will give them easy access to the Pacific. A singular law has been made prohibiting anyone from purchasing land within sixty miles of either side of the line. This was clone to prevent capitalists from monopolising all the valuable land nearest the railway, but the law is hard upon farmers desirous of owning their own farms,for they must send their produce at least sixty miles, and probably more, to the railway. But it is always to he remembered that civil considerations are entirely left out of the construction of the “ Trans-Siberian,” which will one day he the greatest military railway in the world.