drawing all troops from the country, and as an instance of the way in which this may be done, the state of affairs in Hunza may be described.
What these rough hill-men like above everything else is being ruled by their own rulers—that is, by members of their own reigning families—and having their customs kept up without innovation. In Hunza the people are now ruled by a member of the family which has sat on the throne for
probably hundreds of years—at any rate, as long as tradition goes back—and not by the murderer who brought their country into trouble, but by another son of the murdered father, by a man liked and respected by them. And not a single custom, unless raiding can be called a custom, has been interfered with. In their internal affairs the people are in much the same condition as when I first passed through the country in 1889. All cases are brought before the chief now, as then, and the British officer who resides in the country is only too glad to be free from the responsibility and trouble of having to deal with them. In only one respect is control exercised by the agent of the Government of India, and that is in regard to the foreign relations of the state. In that one single respect this country must lose its independence, but that is inevitable. Even the larger state of Afghanistan has to this extent been compelled to lose its independence. And little states like Hunza no longer can remain entirely independent as regards their foreign affairs. A wise ruler, however, would recognize the altered conditions which the spread of two great civilized Powers through Asia has produced, and would seek to form his relations with the suzerain power as much as possible on the basis of an alliance, and this the new chief of Hunza has informally done. On two occasions he has been asked by the political agent to give aid to Government. On the first occasion I was told by Colonel Durand to ask him and his neighbour, the chief of Nagar, to give, each, twenty-five men,
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