"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [و‎‎٣‎٧] (٤٥٤/٧٨)

ARMY IN INDIA : PRE-WAR MILITARY POLICY 53
(*)
Fromlqno’t’inl 0 " 5 ich , en< ! Ur u d 0n the North - w est Frontier
Jrom 1900 till the outbreak of the world war and after* The
general aims and principles were stated by Lord Curzon in his
budget speech of 30th March 1904 as being “ not so much to
prevent war by preparing for it, as to produce peace by creating
the requisite conditions,” and in the official despatches they
were summarised somewhat as follows ^ y
{a) to avoid locking up regular garrisons in costly fortified
positions at a distance from our base, where the
troops themselves are practically lost to the offensive
strength of India, and in time of emergency would
probab y require additional forces to be detached from
tne Indian army for their protection ;
inasmuch as positions or districts, which had been
taken under a greater or less degree of control by the
Government of India, could not be left without military
protection to interest, as far as possible, the inhabitants
of the locality in their own defence, and at the same
ime to establish a lien upon their loyalty by enrolling
them in varying systems of organisation as a tribal
force to supply the local garrisons ;
to maintain movable columns of regular troops at bases
within or contiguous to the administrative frontier of
ndm, ready to march at a moment’s notice to the
relief or defence of the advanced positions : further to
connect the cantonments in which the movable columns
are quartered with the military resources of India by
means of light railways joined to the main railway
systems. -r
rp L t 2 ® , n ®, xt s , even y ears the ar my was to be reorganised,
had W “a re - e< 3. m PP ed - Th e necessity of such reform;
tteAFSTl? and C p ntmued t0 be increasingly apparent until
the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 placed the relations of
due to th° UI ; S ° n & m ° re friendl y basis ' This necessity was
Rnss a Itt C T P rox ! mit y t0 our North-West Frontier which
Russia attained ; to the growing power of Afghanistan ; and
to our increased responsibilities on the North-West Frontier
hwT"’ "Vr® Debate ° f 1903 in the India n Legist
that we? Un «’ V° rd Y rz0n drew attention to the world changes
that were affecting Asia and which wou ld, as he said, ” hive