The Government of India has resolved on a rather surpris-
ing policy. It finds it necessary to order Umra Khan, the Pathan chief who has seized Chitral, and is besieging Mr. Robertson there, to retire under penalty of an instant appli- cation of force. If he obeys, well and good; but if not, a corps d'armee of fourteen thousand men is to enter the hills and reduce him to submission. The regiments and the Generals are already chosen, all of them picked men. We never contradict experts on theii1 own science, and it may be necessary to make these great preparations; bat they seem to old Anglo-Indians a little excessive. The history of India is a history of daredevil feats, and two thousand men ought to be able to reach Chitral, rescue Mr. Robertson, a ad eat up Umra Khan and his tribe. To move three fully equipped divisions, cut roads for them, and feed them, will cost half a million, which the Treasury can ill spare. It is possible that Lord Elgin dreads a general rising of the Pathan tribes behind the invading force, but on the evidence he is clearly a most cautions Viceroy.
