THE HIGHLANDERS OF THE INDIAN FRONTIER. A NT E find it nearly
impossible to understand the criticisms upon the present expedition against the Zakka Khel. The operations are apparently being very well managed, with as little loss of life as may be, and lie cruelty at all ; while certainly no one of our "little ware " ever had better justification. The Afridis of the frontier are fighting highlanders, resembling in courage, in degree of civilisation, and in poverty our own Highlanders as they were two hundred years ago, and like them divided into clans which obey hereditary, or sometimes elected, chiefs, and are always ready to slaughter one another, sometimes on local grounds of quarrel, sometimes out of hereditary antipathies, and. sometimes in defence of hills or valleys which they claim for their own. At all times they look to plunder as a means of subsistence, and from time to time make raids upon the lowlands in search of spoil. As these lowlands either pay us taxes, or have a right from one Agreement or another to claim our protection, we are bound to defend them, and there is only one method. of maintaining order. We cannot occupy the wilder region with an armed. police, first because of the expense, and secondly because their appearance would be a new incentive to the Afridis to frequent raids, the pleasantest kind of plunder in the eyes of the hillraen being rifles and ammunition. The armed police Would be robbed every day, or bribed. every day, Afridis, who have no other wants, being always ready to pay high prices for weapons upon which they can rely. Moreover, the occupation of the hill districts would. be regarded with extreme jealousy by Afghanistan, a State with which we are bound by carefully arranged Treaties to keep on good terms, and a State, too, to which the disaffected of Northern India look in certain contingencies with a faint, but still real, hope of armed assistance. We itt this country think of the Amir as a small potentate ; but with the plunder of the rich peninsula to offer as a reward. to the adventurous, the Amir, if spurred by sudden ambition or by fear of invasion, could. attract to his standard a very large Mohammedan army, which our own Mohammedan subjects might reinforce; or might help Us to crush, according to the temper of the hour. Neither can we keep an army perpetually on foot to drive back the Afridi raiders whenever they are in Motion. That expedient is too costly, and might prove ineffective, for the raiders can move two feet for our one, and can, if defeated., always find protection in the remoter mountains or within the Afghan dominion, where we do not want, if we can help it, to follow. The only practical method, therefore, of checking raids, as has been proved by the experience of many years, is to punish the raiders, to destroy their fortified. houses or " peels, ' and to inflict fines equal to the value of the phindered property. As the raiders fight with desperate determination, enjoying a battle much as our own people enjoy a game of football, this can only be accomplished by despatching small but thoroughly equipped. expeditions into their fastnesses. Of all the raiding clans the Zakka Khel are the most formidable, and they have recently been giving unusual trouble. They are magnificently brave, they are as hungry as the poorest Highlanders of our own island ever were, and they are increasing in audacity, a band of them having within the last few weeks actually plundered a bank within Peshawar itself. The Indian Government, accordingly, which is always patient because it hates unexpected expendi- ture, and dreads the ignorantly philanthropic comment Me to be poured out at home, picks out it. best reginientil, entrusts the command to some well-proved officer, draws out most c.arefully a plan of operations, and sends the well- organised expedition into the very centre of the hills occupied by the offending clan, which usually accepts the challenge with a sort of ferocious glee. The priests always approve the fight, for will not the God of the Mussulmans on some propitious day 'protect his special children ? The chiefs are always wanting money, and can get it only by defending their clansmen with success ; and the young men of the clan, trained to regard such contests as natural incidents in life, are thirsting for opportunities of renown as the only " careers " which are worth follow- ing, and which, indeed, are open to them. If they win, they are famous, and in their own judgment have infinite chances ; if they are beaten, they have no extirpation to fear, their women can be hidden away in safety, and if their peels and houses are destroyed, why houses and peels may be gradually rebuilt. Of course, a certain number of, lives are taken ; but Afridis look upon that as a condition of the game, and when they are tired submit, pay the few rupees they can scrape together, send in a few hostages—a concession rather to etiquette than to policy, for they are never executed—and wait serenely hopeful for the next better opportunity.
But why, ask many British philanthiopists, and, alas ! many relatives of the officers and Sikhs " sniped " in the operations—why waste the lives of trained men in doing this rough work? Why not annex at once, extend the Paz Britannica to the A:fridi hills and valleys, and govern them as we govern many wild districts within our own dominions ? For this very good reason. These Afridis are among the best fighting men on earth. Once included within the "thin red line," they would add heavily to the strength of our effective regiments, and excite throughout Afghanistan, from the Indus to the Russian frontier, a belief that the• British were bent ultimately on conquest, —that, finding the way open, with new regiments and new railways, to the conquest of Central Asia, which seems to these critics in their colossal ignorance a prize well worth the taking, they would proceed to conquer it. Once alarmed in that way, no foe of the British would be convinced by any explanation or pacified by any pledges, and millions of square miles beyond our frontier would be occupied by deadly enemies waiting only an opportunity —a command from Kabul, a promise from St. Petersburg, or an incitement from a popular Mullah—to try the effect of a rush and a summons to the seventy millions of Mussul- mans within our own dominion. It is much better to avoid such risks, and if we could avoid them by doing nothing, the Indian Government would be quite contented. Only then its taxpaying subjects on the frontier would regard the Viceroy as Londoners would regard Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman if he introduced a Bill for the abolition of the police,—that is, as a governing authority indifferent to the first duties of its position, and either too avaricious or too cowardly to protect its own children. You cannot govern and tax India and then refuse household safety to her people. Why the Government of India should be even suspected of needlessly ordering such expeditions it is difficult to conceive. There is nothing to be got in the way of revenue out of those wild hills. There is no military party clamouring for such raids, for the military party does not like police work, and would much rather adopt the only alternative,— cetnplete subjugation. As for native feeling, if any exists it takes the form of a general objection to military expendi- ture. The only reasonable explanation we can offer is that the feeling of unreasoning pity so often manifested in this country for any offenders whose crimes have brought them within sight of the scaffold extends itself to the wild clans- men who have invited retribution by killing quiet cultivators and innocent shopkeepers. It seems to us a foolish weak- ness, though we are willing to admit it is well that whenever Britain finds it necessary to maintain the Paz Britannica by the use of the weapons of civilisation, there shall always be men in Parliament willing to earn the repute of deficient patriotism by insisting that all such operations should be conducted under white light, with all the restraints of civilised warfare, and amidst all the censures which are sure to be poured out whenever the soldiers, infuriated by murder—and the raids are always marked by incidents indistinguishable from murder— thew the slightest disposition to take the bit in their teeth and exceed the just measure of reprisal. To hold our immense dominion we must be trusted, in time of war as well as of peace, to remain a reasonable and a Christian Power.
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