'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎8v] (16/46)

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12 The Western Frontiers of India.
warded to the Secretary of State a minute drawn up by
himself, in which, after a full and clear review of the past
history of the frontier, he described the existing adminis
trative arrangements as “labour without responsibility for
the local, and responsibility without control for the supreme,
Government.” Lord Curzon had visited the frontier, and
examined the question on the spot before drawing up his
exhaustive minute, in which he recommended the construc
tion of a new agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. or Province, under the immediate
control of the Government of India, created out of the
trans-Indus districts of the Punjab in which direct relations
with the tribes occur, and he considered the adoption of
such a scheme essential to the prosecution of the frontier
policy which had just been approved, the main features of
which are above described. Lord Curzons minute was
adopted by General Sir E. Collen and by his four civilian
colleagues, and it may be regarded as certain that Sir
Clinton Dawkins and Sir William Lockhart would have
approved of a measure which set a seal upon the policy
which they had already embraced.
A great deal has been said and written concerning
alleged differences of opinion as to the creation of the
frontier province. In fact, however, the Secretary of
State had found the existing administrative conditions un
satisfactory ; the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir
Mackworth Young, had objected to the scheme suggested
by 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. , which he thought would place the
Frontier Commissioner in the position of serving two
masters, and had recorded his opinion that if it was desired
to eliminate the Punjab Government from trans-frontier
control, this could only be done by removing the frontier
districts, or such portions of them as were closely con
nected with trans-frontier tribes from the Lahore adminis
tration, and forming that tract into a separate charge
under the direct orders of the Government of India. The
Secretary of State had practically expressed such a desire,
and Sir Mackworth Young, while disapproving the measure,