The expedition to Chitral may be considered over, orders having
been issued to General Low to abstain from a further advance, and to return to India as soon as con- veniently may be. E here Afzul, who besieged the fortress, has been made prisoner with all his leading men, and will be interned in India, while Umra Khan is in the hands of the Ameer of Afghanistan. All resistance by the tribesmen appears to have ceased, and Chitral will be administered in the name and interests of a boy Mehtar. Other chiefs will be pensioned, and the Khan of Dir, whose assistance has been invaluable, will obtain an increase of territory, and probably a considerable grant. With a small bodyguard of regularly paid men, he can keep the road we are construct- ing, and it may be possible to leave Pathanistan, Chitral excepted, without British troops. This policy will be sharply criticised, both in India and in Parliament, but it appears to be a sensible one. Granting even that Pathanistan is worth having—which we question—we cannot govern all the de- sirable regions of the world with less than two hundred thousand trained men. It is well to consider what is worth taking, but we must consider means too, and of late we have not done so. Our only true and permanent base is the sea, and the further we go from it the more exhausting every occupation becomes.
