THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY MARCH 13, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7984, 13 March 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY MARCH 13, 1906.

In a recent issue of the Melbourne Argus, Dr W. H. Fitchett, who has but lately returned from a tour in India, discusses in a most interesting article the probabilities of another Indian mutiny. "The writer stood one peaceful Sunday morning lately, while the sound of the church-going bell was Ailing the air with its call, beside that famous grave in the shadow of the Memorial Church at Cawnpore. Ah the writei stood and meditated, there came the sound pf marching feet. The Somersets were coming to service. Their winter uniforms had been served out, and they wore, not drab-coloured khaki, but the historic scarlet, and as they swung along they looked a splendid body of foemeu. But the eye presently recognised in their equipment one odd feature. They were breaking into single file, and marching through the church doors, but every man carried his rifle and wore bis ammunition pouch! Where else

within the British dominions does the appear armed at church parade? But this is the rule in India; and the usage datea back to the Mutiny and ia one of ita memorials. The original plot of the yepoys was to rise when the British troops were in church and unarmedi The plot went wrong as it happened, butever since, by way ,of precaution, British trooos in 'ln dia appear with rifles aud ammunition pou'chus at church parade. And to see the red-coated Somerset'?, with rifles on shoulder, swinging round the angle of tlae historic entrenchments, and passing into t&e Memorial Church, equipped as for a ring line, was something more than a dramatic memorial of the great peril of bygone days. It was a concrete proof that in the judgment of the men who are responsible for India thß peril is not quite over." * * * * * The writer goes on to say that there are other significant precautions taken in India which betray the consciousness that Great Britain holds by the title of the sword, and must keep its sword keen and bright. At Laobnow standa the ruined, sbot-torp. Residency, mute witness of ancient strife; but if another mutiny oocurred the scanty foroe upholding the British flag at Lucknow would uot need to improvise. hasty defenoes iu a garden. The great barraoks to-day are really armed posts, capable of resisting everything except the Are of heavy guns. They are so placed as to cover each other with their fire, are armed with quick-Bring guns, and are kept in constant readiness for siege. The railway station itself is covered by dafeusive works, and the same precautions are taken practically on all the great military statious. The „les9ons of the Mutiny have burned themselves in deeply on the official imagination. The very structure of the native army itself reflects, it may be added, the same idea. The Droportion of native troops to the British foroe in India is not allowed .to exceed two to one. The artillery is all British; the f stresses are held by white regiment. Only light batteries of rco'-vi tain guns are in native hands. The rank and file of the native regiments have inferior rifles to those of the British , rank and file. Not even.the desire to make the native arm 7 formidable against a foreign invader makes the* authorities blind to the risk that the army may become too formidable against its own-creators. .

"Bat is there any real peril of a second mutiny?" asks Dr Fitchett. "On that question the experts differ. If we are to believe some melanoholy prophets, that miracle of modern politics, the British Empire in India, which was born in a day, will perish in night. And it is easy to recite a long catalogue of arguments for anxiety. Arithmetic itself seems to be against the permanency of British rule. How can a nation of 40,000,000, at' a distance of 8,000 miles, expect to permanently rule over one of 294,000,000? One may travel for whole days in India and see millions of brown or blaok faoes, and not one white faoe. Out of every 10,000 persons in India there are only 34 males and females returned as "literate in English." The Indian civil service—the ruling class—numbers less than 1,000. The number of British officer%in the native army is 2,500, of whom only 2,000, are actually with the regiments. Here are 2,000, British officers, that is, sprinkled thin'y along the line of a native army numbering 140,000. The whole British garrison- in India is only 74,000." The writer watohed a sepoy regiment on march. It was a Pathan regiment, numbering over 1,000 men, complete in e n ery detail down to the water-oarriera, and tit to enter on a campaign. The men swung along in column formation, tall, fierce, martial-looking. They wore a'peculiar turban, rising high above the brows and overhanging the face, with the regimental badge in front. The effect was in the nighest degree soldierly. The regiment, for warlike aspeot, might have e.tood beside the Lifeguards or a regiment of Pomeranian Grenadiers. And in' that splendid column of over a thousand men, lit for instant battle, were just nine British officers. Is it possible that the units can hope for ever to qontrol the millions in this fashion? It might almost seem that, if eaob of the in' India cast a handful of earth on the tiny British ' garrison, it would be overwhelmed."