Sir Alfred Lyall contributes to the Times of Saturday last
a striking letter on Army administration in India. He does not write from the point of view of a thick-and-thin admirer of Lord Curzon's policy, but as a distinguished Indian official who may he assumed to be well acquainted with the military needs of the country. He traces in detail the history of the dispute, and points out that under the arrangement sanctioned by the Imperial Government the odds will be heavily in favour of the Commander-in-Chief, not only on purely military questions, but in every matter concerned with Army interests. He further notes that Lord Kitchener's protest against criticism by an officer of inferior rank would apply equally to criticism by the Military Department of the India Office. On Constitutional grounds, again, the new system may be criticised, since an ordinary Member of Council is prohibited by the statute which fixed the Indian Constitution from holding any military command during his tenure of office, and the Commander-in-Chief is now to all intents an ordinary Member. Finally, it may well be doubted whether the most competent soldier will be able to find time for the manage- ment of an onerous Department of Government as well as for his duties as head of the Army. His conclusion is that Lord Curzon was justified in declaring that the scheme would produce a military autocracy as well as violate a fundamental principle of the Indian Constitution ; and that he took the only possible course in such circumstances in resigning the Governor-Generalship.
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