'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎41v] (87/454)

62 HISTORY OF THE WAR: MESOPOTAMIA
existence in India, that we should from the outset carry the
war into the enemy’s country. Any permanent occupation of
tribal territory was at this stage considered to be unjustifiable
and all that could be done was to keep military forces in
readiness to act at the shortest notice.
Internally the situation had passed into a new phase. The
loyalty to British suzerainty of the feudatory states had grown
as it became increasingly apparent to them that their interests
and ours were identical and that we had no desire or intention
to interfere with their independence. British rule in India
depends on the firmness, justice and impartiality of its adminis
tration, and its success is due to a great extent to our capacity
for governing Asiatic peoples and to our military superiority.
Although it is alien rule, no government of India—owing to
its size and its diversity of races and creeds—can be other than
alien and any government must be as dependent as we are on
the personal self-interest, or hereditary connections, of its
indigenous agencies of administration.
Up to the present there is no definite national feeling among
the majority of its three hundred odd million inhabitants—
of whom about one three-hundredth part are really literate;
but it has commenced to grow. Improved communications
(internally and externally), the spread of education, the Japanese
victories in Manchuria, emigration to British dominions, the
increasing number of cheap vernacular newspapers, and the
extended use of the English language all help to this end. In
the process of evolution, agitators found their opportunity and
—though, in 1914, the majority of the population were contented
and were likely to be only passive spectators in case of trouble—
unrest, agitation, attempts to corrupt the Indian army and
sedition have created a feeling during the last six or seven years
that at times has caused the Government some anxiety and
led our enemies to believe that India was ripe for revolt. The
Army in India Committee in their review of the question in 1913
had come to the conclusion that a considerable proportion of
the army had to be allotted for the purposes of internal control
and security ; and in this connection it must not be overlooked
that the number of male Europeans and Anglo-Indians in
India, including aliens and males of all ages, amounted in 1914
only to 144,000, of whom 118,000 belonged to the army or
volunteers.
On the outbreak of war the army was organised in two armies
of ten divisional and four biigade areas and provided a field
army of seven and one-third divisions, five cavalry brigades