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[In the opinion of Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick]
.. no greater misfortune could befall us than to be forced on gradually
to extend our dominion over a turbulent region of this sort, where every
advance would bring us face to face with new troubles and lead to a further
advance, until we might ultimately find ourselves ruling in some sort of
way the whole country between the northern border of the Peshawar District
and the line of the Durand Convention, at an immense cost in men and money.
4. It will no doubt be suggested that it might be hoped that in time our rule would become less distasteful to the people and that peace would be established to such an extent that our military force in those parts could be considerably reduced; but it must be remembered that the assumption of control over a country like that here in question is a widely different thing from the assumption of control over a country like the Punjab, to which it is sometimes compared. The people of the Punjab before annexation had been living under the government of a set of grasping and tyrannical rulers; they therefore hailed us as deliverers, and our revenue assessments and system of justice came to them as a welcome relief after what had gone before. But most of the country between our Peshawar frontier and the line of the Durand Convention is a Yaghistan, i.e. a country occupied by tribes who live under no government in the ordinary sense of the word, and pay no revenue to any one, and would not for at least a generation become reconciled to any control from us. |
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