There was a debate in the Commons on Thursday, raised
by Mr. Grant Duff, on the Indian frontier policy, but it came to very little. The India Office denies that it has annexed Khelat, or that it has seriously changed its frontier policy, and says that
the idea of a speoial Chief Commissionership of the Frontier is still under consideration. It is in that plan that Anglo-Indians smell danger. A Chief Commissioner of the Frontier will always be wanting to do something conspicuous, and the only thing ho can do is to extend "British influence,"-- that is, to worry the Central Asian chiefs with advice, remonstrances, and envoys. If he merely collected informa- tion, he would have no prestige, and would get no decora- tions. A watchman set to look after the village green is sure to get to loggerheads with the small boys, whom, if he were watching the whole village, he would disregard. We believe this danger to be so serious, that we trust yet to see the project abandoned in favour of appointing a Political Secretary to the Chief Coin- missioner of the Punjab.
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