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174 has facilitated a centralisation of authority, and permits of a rapid concentration of troops at any point either within Indian limits or on the frontier. The improvement of roads and other communications, of frontier defences, barracks, transport services, and field establishments, should also be taken into account; and a fair survey of the situation must compel even the pessimist observer to admit that, at vast labour and expense, the military position of India is, on the whole, satisfactory, and is being still strengthened, day by day, under the eyes of an ever vigilant Government, aided by experienced military commanders.

Should the question be asked as to the resistance which India could offer, in the event of an attack from without; it may be stated with some confidence that the Government, at the present moment, could put into the field with comparative ease two strong army corps, fully equipped; while for purposes of a reserve, and on what may be called the lines of interior defence, it would not be difficult to employ, in addition to the number of regular soldiers left behind, a considerable portion of the 32,000 Europeans and the 800,000 native Christians resident in India: not to mention the assistance which could be obtained from the native population (including about 50,000 Indian Portuguese and Pársís), who might be largely employed, for temporarily holding strategic centres during operations on or beyond the frontier.

It would be undesirable here to enter upon a discussion of various minor details of military organisa-