There was a discussion in the Commons on Tuesday in
favour of carrying out the repeated 'recommendation of Military Commissions that the three Armies in India be amalgamated into one. That plan would, it was shown, as it has been shown a dozen times, reduce expenditure considerably, and probably improve the Bombay and Madras Armies, the latter of which, many soldiers say, is only tit for garrison,— s libel as regards its best regiments, but partially true as regards the whole force. We are very glad, nevertheless, to see that the Government, through Sir J. Gorst, repudiates 'the plan. The political reasons against it are overwhelming. If India has only one Army, the next Mutiny will °over a continent instead of a Presidency, and we shall have no native reserve on the spot at all. Moreover, the system of confining military training to one Indian race, as with one Indian Army we should be certain to do, is radically bad. We already disarm India so completely that its people are losing their old military virtues, and becoming almost incapable of self-defence. That is convenient sometimes from the policeman's point of view ;. but who gave MI a right to emasculate a continent in. that style P There is neither justice nor decency in telling a people like the Malrattas that they shall neither carry arms nor enlist as soldiers; and that would be the first consequence of "amalgamation." Do we want every born soldier among the Indian populations, not a Hindostanee, to be driven by forces into the Native Armies P
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