4b3 PANORAMIC VIEW SHOWING THE CAMP AT MINGORA IN THE SWAT VALLEY.

CHAPTER VI THE GENERAL RISING OF 1897 DURING the advance to Chitral, and still more after the relief of the besieged garrison, there was a keen discussion both in England and at home as to what was to be the subsequent policy of the Government. Some argued that Chitralshould be retained, and that to withdraw from it would be a perilous act of weakness. Others held that our soundest policy was to revert to the old order of things, place a British agent at Chitral with a small escort, and then retire from the country, erecting no forts in the passes, making no roads over the hills— in a word, observing literally the terms of the proclamation issued before General Low's advance. Men who had held high command and high office in India spoke and wrote on both sides of the controversy. As to the proclamation, those who urged that Chitral should be held argued that it no longer bound the Government, as the tribes of Swat and Bajaur, instead of giving free passage to the relief expedition,had fought against Low at the Malakand Pass, and on the banks of the Panjkora River.

The final decision of the Home Government wa.,practically to retain Chitral. A battalion of native infantry, with two Maxims, was to hold Chi-ral fort and the pass of Gairat,between that p-ace andKila Drosh. Kila Drosh itself was to be held by a battalion of Goorkhas, with two tain guns, all these troops being under the command of Colonel Hutchinson, of the Goorkhas. Brigadier-General Waterfield, with four native battalions and a battery, was to hold the MalakandPass and the crossing of the Swat River at Chakdara,thus securing communication between Chitral and Peshawur. Forts at the Malakand andChakdara, amilitary roadthrough the valley and the passes, and a permanent suspension bridge over the Swat River, were to complete the British holdon Chitral. A native council of regency was to assist the boy Mehtar, little Shuja-ul-Mulk, to rule the Chitral state, and Dr., now Sir George, Robertson was to be the first British resident under the new regime.

Thisplantingof garrisons andmaking of roads and bridges was one more step in the general "forwardpolicy." Those whoadopted it quite foresaw that, as in the past, it might well cause resentment among the tribes and lead to some of the usual incidents of frontier politics, a raid or an attack on a fort, and a consequentpunitive expedition to exact submission and reparation from the tribes concerned. What wasnot foreseen was what happened— a widespread rising against the Indian Government of the tribes all along the frontier from the Waziri country at its southern end right up to the passes leading into Chitral.

Therising began in the summer of 1807, and the tribes were not subdued till the Indian Government had put into the field a more powerful army than had been engaged in any campaign since the Great Mutiny forty years before. The discontent of the tribes of Swat