533 CRITICISMS ON THE CAMPAIGN movement in India itself. It was a dangerous crisis. How widespread wasthe sense of unrest, the zeal for war against the infidel, the hope of victory amongthe Moslems of Asia,is curiously shown by an event,little noticed at the time, that occurred in the veryheart of the continent, in June, 1897, on the eve of the North-West Frontier outbreak. Two companies of Russian infantry were encamped near the town of Andijan in Khokand, away to the north of the Pamirs, when they were suddenly attacked by about a thousand armed natives. They were to theconduct of thisindividual orthatregiment. There were not many correspondents with the army. There wasa feelingthat thecensorship was beingvery strictly enforced on these few, some of whom were soldiers actually serving with the expedition, and the public got nervously ready tolisten to the wildest rumours as to what was reallyhappening. One at least of the generals, and onegallant regiment, the Royal Irish,were thus made for awhile the victims of baseless calumny,buthappily vindicated fully andclearly before long. But after discounting mere camp DICTATING TERMS OF PEACE TO THE AFRIDI CHIEFS.

forced to retreat with a loss of twenty killedand eighteen wounded. No such reverse to the Russian arms, nay, no sign of opposition to the Russian conquest,had been seen in the district for many a year. The Russian Government took a terrible vengeance, dispersed the rebels, and executed some scores of them. They confessed that they had been induced to take up armsby tales of the victories the Sultan had won over the Christians in Europe (an allusion to the Greek war),and by predictions made by their mullahs of a great and successful uprising of Islam all the world over.

The conduct of the North-West Frontier campaign was sharply criticised at home and in India while it was in progress. Some of these criticisms werebased on unfounded rumours as gossip there seems to be reason to believe that many of the staff appointments, dueto personal influencein officialcirclesrather than professional merit, were filledin a way that did not conduce to success in matters of detail, and many good judges hold that the forces employed were too large, the employment of divisions instead of brigades meaning a numerous staff and a heavybaggage train,both of them sources of delay in a mountain march. On one point the campaign of Tirah has led to a useful reform in the Indian army. It was rightly pointed out that whilst Goorkhas andSikhs from the hill districts were at home in warfare against the tribes of the mountain frontier, most of the men in the British and Indian army had no practical acquaintance with the methods of war on the