Fugen eBooks

It is interesting, in
reading the Blue Books on Indian questions, to watch the emotions of
party principles, stirring beneath the uniform mask of official
responsibility--which the most reckless of men are compelled to wear as
soon as they become ministers. The language, the style, the tone of the
correspondence is the same. It is always a great people addressing and
instructing their pro-consuls and administrators. But the influence
inclines backwards and forwards as the pendulum of politics swings. And
as the swing in 1895 was a very great one, a proportionate impulse was
given to the policy of advance. "It seemed" to the new ministry "that
the policy . . . continuously pursued by successive Governments ought
not to be lightly abandoned unless its maintenance had become clearly
impossible." [Despatch, Secretary of State, No.30, 16th Aug., 1895.]
Thus the retention of Chitral was sanctioned, and the road which that
retention necessitated was completed.
I approach with nervousness so great a matter as the "Breach of Faith"
question.


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