INDIA'S DANGERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

INDIA'S DANGERS.

The Admiralty and Horse Gnards Gazette contains an article on the Russian advance on ludia, and the internal dangers which threaten in that part of our empire. We extract the following passages :—" At the present moment Russian policy is neither troubling itself about Panslavism nor Constantinople, but about Afghanistan—and something else, says the Deutsche Revue. T«at something else is our Indian Empire. We are nbt to be blinded by the flimsy pretext of the frontier demarcation farce now in rehearsal. Already the Ameer has, through his agents, had startling evidence placed before him exhibiting the aims of the Muscovite in all its treachery. Prince Gortechakoff is no more ; General Skobeleff is dead ; but the calm, calculating M. de Giers now dircct3 the Eastern policy of the Czar Alexander. Fortunately for this nation, the rule of Lord Ripon is at an end, and this sentimental Viceroy will be succeded by a taan cast ia another mould. At the present moment the race-feeling between conquerors and conquered in British India is one of deep bitterness. Oar beneficent rule has been shaken to the core, and the difference between rulers and ruled have assumed a dangerous divergence. Owing to the Ilbert Bill and a generally mistaken line of policy, Lord Ripon has left our great empire of the East very much in the condition Lord. Canning found it in immediately before the great Sepoy War. The difference of the position of 1557 from that of ISS4 is that in the former case the ostensibly mutinous element was military, whereas now it is civil. That Russia is concentrating all her energies towards the making a big bid for supremacy in Hindostan may be taken for granted. The invasion of India i 3 the uppermost thought at St. Petersburg ; and slowly at times, rapidly at other, but always certainly, preparations are ceaselessly being elaborated to strike us an ugly blow. Advantage will be taken of some time of serious European complication, when our hands are tied at home. The coming of the Russian is discueyed seriously and persistently in every bazaar from Cape Cotnorin to Peshawur, from Eastern Assam to Quetta. The storm is brewing, and may be nearer bursting with hurricane force than we anticipate. When the time arrives for us to make a supreme defensive effort on or beyond our north-western frontier we must not be trammelled at home by internecine discord. We should insist upon being acknowledged as the paramount Power, whose duty alone it is to tiad the means for and to guarantee the safety and security of all. The armies of the native States, with few exceptions, are thorns in our flesh, and sources of great dciuger. We have never been able to divine why the3e various armies are kept up, and why the money lavished on their maintenance should be permitted to be thus expended. Let us trust, that one of the Earl of Daffcrin's first act 3 on assuming the reins of office will be to rid us of this danger in our midst. India now enjoys profound peace, and the time for weeding out these daogerous creations of native Courts is propitious. We shall want every fighting-man worthy of being so called, massed in the Panjaub or pushed up the passes to meet the coming Muscovite. We must not leave trained armies of dubious loyalty in our rear, nor can we afford to detach columns to watch them. Susceptibilities need no longer be considered when imperial policy demands action. Scindi's teeth must be drawn, painlessly if possible, but still drawn.