'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎7v] (14/46)

io The Western Frontiers of India.
1. To avoid locking up regular garrisons in costly forti
fied positions at a distance from our base, in which the
troops themselves are practically lost to the effective strength
of India, from which in time of emergency they need to be
reinforced.
2. To interest the inhabitants of each district or post
whence the garrison is withdrawn in their own defence, and
to establish a lien on their loyalty by enrolling them as a
tribal force to supply the local garrisons.
3. To maintain movable columns ready to march to the
relief of the advanced tribal garrisons from bases on or near
the administrative frontier of India, and to connect the
frontier cantonments with the large Indian garrisons by
light railways pushed forward from the existing railway
systems.
In pursuance of this policy, which the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors.
approved, with a recognition of the judgment, ability, and
promptitude with which the questions had been treated, the
garrisons at Chitral and Lundi Kotal were reduced ; the
proposed new fortifications on a large scale were abandoned;
native levies were utilized in Chitral, and in a more regular
corps, in the Khyber ; the garrison duty of the Indian army
was reduced ; the publicity and exaggeration, the pomp and
circumstance, of petty frontier expeditions was eliminated,
to the dissatisfaction of the soldiers concerned, and to the
advantage of the Indian taxpayer; the tribes were con
ciliated by the employment offered, and not alienated by
interference ; and the construction of a light railway from
Nowshera to Dargai and the extension of the standard
gauge line to Jamrood were sanctioned — the last two
measures being such as conduce to the safety and conveni
ence of trade and of the public, and are of equal value from
a military or a civil point of view. Proceeding upon similar
principles, it was decided to withdraw the military garrisons
from the forts on the Samana range, replacing them by a
battalion of military police raised from the tribes, com
manded by police officers, and occupying an intermediate