OUR NEW OUTPOST IN INDIA

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1927, Page 4

OUR NEW OUTPOST IN INDIA

By LIEUT.-GEX. SIR GEORGE MacM CXN. Formerly Coipntmder-in-Chief in Mesopotamia and Quartermaster General in India.

The visit of Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, to Razmnk (pronounced Riizmuck), the new cantonment in the heart of Waziristan, on the NorthWest frontier, is not only a matter cj go—look—sec hut is a step farther in a brilliant attempt to capture the imagination of the tribesman which wo started by Lord Reading. Razmnk. the new fortilied comp in th<- very heart of tribal Waziristan, was started on the advice of Lord Rawlinson to heal once and for ail the open sore of the behaviour of the mountain tribes of Waziristan. For years the Government of India had tried to hit on some method of treatment which while ministering to their love of freedom would also prevent their living the life that the highlander usually lives where the lulls breed many and feed few—living on the raiding of peaceful and wealthier natives in the plains. In their case the raids were apt to become armed invasions, and, with other booty, both men and women, especially fat traders, would be carried to ransom. Since 1840, when Hritain became the heirs-at-law of the Sikh Government, the life of the frontier had been raid and counter-raid, the latter growing at times to punitive expeditions. Millions had been spent in this way, millions poured into the bottomless pit, hut less by far than the cost of occupying and (administering the territory.

Lord Curzon’s policy was to employ the young men in local militias to protect the trade, routes through their own country. This wayitlsg principle on which the Black Watch' was first raised, allowances being made to

tribal chiefs on the under.stmnliiig that they kept order, furnished some rough police,. anR endeavoured to give some education and civilisation to the sons of those chiefs who caret! to avail themselves of it. Slowly, very slowly, the leaven was working, when the Great War oune down like an avalanche and carried away the results of a quarter of a century’s endeavour. The Drum Ecclesiastic was rolling, the Caliph of Islam had proclaimed a Holy War, the highland Mullahs, the more fanatical 'because the more ignorant, echoed the ’ cry. ‘‘Glory, for all and Heaven for those who bleed,’’ an,) the tribesmen flung themselves at the British posts. Then as the war passed and the time came for the British bill of reckoning to he presented, lo! the King of Kabul must needs throw his army on India and with him went the tribes en masse—for who could resist the chance to loot fat, peaceful India? ■ Eventually it took very large forces of half-trained post-war soldiers to bring the tribes of Waziristan to order. It was decided to “lift the tribal curtain,” in the frontier metaphor, once and for all. Great motor roads have been driven into the hills from the frontier cantonment- of Banmi, up the Tochi Valley; and 7-000 feet at have the sOa. on the top of the' tribal .plateau, out of the summer heat of the Indus Valley, this cantonment of Razmak has been placed by the despairing British, a costly but effective euro. Now <:t six-inch howitzer is trained on the towers of the nearest, chief to answer the sniper's bullet and peace appears to reign.

The tribes loathe and hate it. -but acknowledge the advantages of the great, raids for their own trade and the constant work and wages that they engender. When a Viceroy comes, an,j local chiefs are treated with hospitality and honour, and rewards in the shape of dresses of honour are presented ;cs Lord Irwin lias just presented them, then it flashes across the tribal mind that all is not lest by the presence of the Sirkar. As an old chief once said to the writer: “Well, if the British try to take over the country it will give them a pretty pother, hut . . . it will perhaps he pleasant to us, as we grow older, to go to sleep in our towers and feel certain that we shan’t wake up and find our throats cut.” And the women with ailments to be treated and children to be cured are slowly coming to the belief that the pax Britannica is better than the old law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for l tooth.