CaptainYounghusband, lately Assistant-Resident at Chitral, gave a lecture at. the
Metropole on Tuesday, which we recom- mend to the Fabian Society. He found that the principal evil in the mountains outside his station was the want of desire for money. The mountaineers, secluded from mankind amid their hills, have never used any, and have consequently no idea of the value of coins. They took the rupees for orna- ments, and were greatly aggrieved when asked to carry loads up the hills and repaid only in silly bits of silver. As the British Government wanted a good deal of work done, and was reluctant to employ forced labour, it was necessary to train the people to the love of money. Hawkers, therefore, were brought up from the plains; and when the people found that they could obtain things they wished for with rupees, they began to desire then, and therefore to work willingly for wages and to trade. The absence of desire for money was in fact proof with the Chitralis not of virtuous instincts, but of Eiavagery, which, now that money has been introdueed, will gradually disappear. It is probable, by the way, that the simplicity of the Chitralis is a result of retrogression, a kind of civilisation having dropped off them in their centuries of seclusion, as it would drop off from men who were hopelessly imprisoned.
Previous page
