'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎37v] (79/454)

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HISTORY OF THE WAR: MESOPOTAMIA
an effect upon India that is at present but dimly discerned.”
He pointed out how India was being brought moie into touch
with European nations and Asiatic empires and states and
that consequently it could no longer be said that the foieign
policy of India had little to do with any other foreign nation.
He continued “ The geographical position of India will more
and more push her into the forefront of international politics.
She will more and more become the strategical frontier of the
British Empire. All these are circumstances that should give
us food for reflection, and that impose upon us the duty of
incessant watchfulness and precaution, dhey require that our
forces shall be in a high state of efficiency, our defences secure,
and our schemes of policy carefully worked out and defined.”
It may appear unfortunate that this point of view was not
kept more in mind after 190/ and in 1912, when the Army
in India Committee ” was appointed to consider and report
whether any measures for the reduction of military expenditure
were compatible with the efficient maintenance of the army
having regard to the obligations it might be called on to meet
during the next few years. But the Russian menace had disap
peared for the time ; the Amir Habibulla of Afghanistan was
not unfriendly ; the foreign relations of the Empire gave little
warning of the world calamity to come ; India was a poor
country, whose form of government necessitated a small
budget with low taxation ; and there was great need for
increased expenditure on social and economic reforms and
development. In 1885, the Russian attack on Afghans had
brought about a large increase of military expenditure, but in
the following years the operations in Upper Burma, the
financial crisis owing to the depreciation of the rupee, the
series of expeditions on the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. from 1895-1898
and the famine of 1896 had caused the reduction of all
the ordinary military estimates to the lowest practicable
limits. The South African war and the increasing Russian
menace showed clearly, however, by 1900 that reorganisation
and re-equipment could not be delayed ; and funds, at first
not available, accrued by reason of the savings due to the loan,
for Imperial service in South Africa and elsewhere, of a part
of the Army from India, and then for a period became annually
available owing to the exceptional prosperity enjoyed by India.
The reorganisation and redistribution undertaken during
the period 1900-1908 remained practically unaltered till the
outbreak of war, and it is necessary to refer to some of these
reforms to allow of a proper understanding of the military