The heart of a continent : vol.1 / Page 404 (Color Image)

0404	The heart of a continent : vol.1

trained in the use of rifles, to do the advance guard and
scouting work of a small force which was moving towards
Chitral. Both chiefs immediately agreed to the proposal,
and the Hunza chief said he would not send twenty-five, but
fifty men, or, as far as that goes, a hundred or two hundred,
if so many were necessary, and he would send his Wazir—his
chief adviser—with them. In 1895 he again sent men with
Colonel Kelly's force to the relief of Chitral, and Colonel
Kelly has placed on record how useful these men were in
scaling the heights and turning the enemy's position. In this
manner the chiefs, recognizing that their interests are bound
up with those of the British Government, have definitely
thrown in their lot with the British, and by so doing have
not diminished their dignity and importance nor lessened
their independence, but, on the contrary, increased this inde-
pendence, and placed their relations with the supreme power
more on a basis of alliance with than of dependence on it.
And the history of British rule in India shows that states
which act on this principle most consistently retain their
independence longest. The Sikh state of Patiala, in the Punjab,
from the very first assisted the British Government, and there
is now not even a British Resident in it. Lahore, on the
other hand, attacked the British even after the state had once
been defeated. It had, therefore, of necessity, to be subdued,
and it is now British territory, and administered by British
officials.
In the hands, then, of the rulers and people of little states,
such as Hunza, lies the decision as to whether they shall
remain dependent or be absorbed, and those officers who have
had dealings with these states recognize best how much
to the interest, both of the British Government and of the
people, it is that they should be allowed to retain the amount
of independence which Hunza, for instance, still possesses.
Even from the point of view of picturesqueness, it would be

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books