The Indian Government has at last made up its accounts
for the Afghan war. It was at first to have cost only 0,000,000, and then Lord Lytton and Sir E. Strachey affirmed that £6,000,000 would, at all events, not prove too small an esti- mate. The total cost, including that of frontier railways, but deducting receipts for additional traffic on State Railways, is now given at twenty-one crown, or taking the rupee at its official value, more than £17,000,000 sterling. To this has to be added the future charge for the evacuation of Candaliar, which may prove, in the existing state of transport, a most costly operation, and the claims made after the war, and the total will scarcely be under twenty millions. Lord. Rnrtingtou remarks that as Lord Lytton has returned, and the financial officers have resigned, it is useless to apportion blame, but censures strongly the inefficiency of the Government. Finance is the Indian weak point, and it will remain so, while errors like this, involving millions, are allowed to pass unpunished. Lord Lytton, who is firat of all responsible, has received an earldom in reward, and not one of those who advised him and furnished him with accounts has been dismissed her Majesty's Service.
India is not governed by opinion, but by Services responsible to an absolute Government, and Services can only be made to reveal unpleasant truths to their superiors by inflexible discipline. Crassa negligemtia, is as dangerous in India as in a Queen's ship, and ought to be regarded with as little lenity.
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