An attack on our Indian frontier is likewise, I venture to think, a very
improbable contingency. There may possibly be in Russia some political
dreamers who imagine, in their idle hours, that it would be a grand
thing to conquer India, with its teeming millions of inhabitants, and
appropriate the countless wealth which it is falsely supposed to
possess; but I have never met or heard of any serious Russian politician
capable of advocating such a hazardous enterprise. Certainly there is no
immediate danger. When the European struggle in which we are now engaged
is brought to an end, the nations who are taking part in it will husband
their resources for many years before launching into any wild
adventures. Moreover, our position in our great Eastern dependency has
never previously been so secure as it is now. The Government has long
been taking precautionary measures against possible troubles on the
frontier, and in the interior of the country the great mass of the
inhabitants are prosperous and contented. Hindus and Mahommedans alike
are learning to appreciate the benefits of British rule, as is shown by
the fact that in the present crisis the native Princes are generously
placing all the available resources of their States at the disposal of
the Central Government.
An additional security against danger in that quarter is afforded by the
character of the present Czar.
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