The Mahsud Waziris, who have disturbed the peace of the
Indian frontier for some months past, have made their sub- mission. The punitive columns sent against them had some sharp fighting last month, but the tribesmen soon saw that further resistance was useless. It is safe to conjecture that they were stirred up by hostile Afghan agitators who resented the .Amir's decision to make peace. The campaign has revealed once again the old and seemingly incurable defects in the Indian Army transport service. The Indian Government have always tried to save money on their transport in frontier campaigns, and have thus wasted lives. With an efficient commissariat such as the War Office provided in France these small mountain wars would present comparatively little difficulty, but the Indian Government prefer the old bungling methods of which we had a shocking example in Mesopotamia.
Previous page
