'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎6v] (12/46)

8
The Western Frontiers of India.
that the centre of interest and of danger has left this locality
—if, indeed, it ever really was focussed there—will probably
lead to the relegation of these tribal difficulties to something
more like their real relative importance, and to that absten
tion from interference which, in spite of all orders and
warnings, has been too much practised by frontier officers,
and too much favoured by the military element at the head
quarters of the Government of India. Officers who have
spent their lives and made their reputations on this frontier
admit as much. Witness Sir F. Cunningham, who says :
“In the policy which led to the occupation and, as the
tribesmen view it” (are they not right?), “the practical
annexation of Wana, Tochi, and Malakand, there are
elements so contrary to the feelings, traditions, and aspira
tions of the clans, so likely to arouse their fear of loss of
independence, that this alone would account for some of
the difficulties experienced in carrying out the aims of
Government on the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. .” Although, for
instance, the Sandeman policy, “ the occupation of a tribal
tract with (the officially reported) assent of the clan,” which
worked very well among the Beloochees, though it extended
our Empire well into Eastern Persia, although this policy
was proved beyond all question to be utterly unsuitable for
adoption among the wholly different Pathan tribes, “ Afreedi,
Hazara, and Ghilzai, who clamour for plunder or bribesd
efforts are none the less made even now in this country to
represent that this method of extending our liabilities and
responsibilities should be applied all along a frontier in
habited by tribes, who resemble one another in nothing,
but in having no resemblance to the Beloochi, whose
geographical position is moreover wholly different, in that
they have a back door open towards Afghanistan.
Lord Elgin, on laying down office, claimed that he not
only approved, but had followed, a policy of non-annexation
and non-interference, and explained that the expeditions
and advances he had made were inheritances ; and Lord
George Hamilton, who has been most insistent in forbidding