Lord Kitchener, now Commander-in-Chief in India, has issued a very
strong General Order forbidding soldiers to assault natives. He says that there have been many complaints of such cases lately, " sometimes with fatal results," and he announces his intention to prevent soldiers front " disgracing " themselves in this manner. We fear that the Order, which is in entire accordance with British traditions in India, will be quoted on the Continent as proof of British oppressiveness ; but it owes its origin, we believe, to a sort of feud which has sprung up between the soldiers in cantonments and the people around them. The soldiers, who find life very monotonous, have been accustomed to form small shooting parties, and hitherto no opposition has been offered. Recently, however, the villagers in many places have objected to the shooting, and have assailed the soldiers with clubs and brickbats. The soldiers have naturally retaliated, and there has been some faction fighting, which in India might produce grave conse- quences, and which Lord Kitchener has very wisely deter- mined to prohibit. A North Country native with his long bamboo club on his shoulder and a strong belief that the law is behind him is not exactly the meek person Englishmen are apt to picture to themselves.
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