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 land frontier of India. It is true enough that the defence of India has long been recognised as the essential military problem of our times. Statesmen and soldiers who have made this question their study, who have been connected, whether for long or short periods, with England's great Eastern dependency, have over and over again pleaded for a just consideration of the military claims of India. By precept and by practice, a long and distinguished succession of Governments of India have endeavoured to establish the doctrine, and, although the full measure of our responsibilities has not always been taken, even in the East, efforts have been steadily, if gradually, made to give effect to the principles of defence. But until quite recently these things have been dealt with from the Western point of view, in an insular and isolated fashion. 'India must look to herself, and no doubt we shall come to her aid if she is hard pressed, as we have done before. So long as we supply her with drafts for her normal garrison, she must be content to rest assured that we shall do our best when the time comes, if it ever does come; but we cannot make any promises. We may have to stand against enemies in our own gates, and we must be careful not to encourage false hopes. 'India has great natural barriers, and she must make the most of these'—and a great deal more to the same effect. This sort of argument has now somewhat fallen into the background, but its supporters are still not inactive, and they have been reinforced by the fact that the military Power, Russia, whose outposts have been pushed nearer and nearer to the Indian border, has sustained a series of defeats from a people small in numbers, but animated by lofty patriotism, by the courage which despises death, and by a long-sustained effort to organize their forces for victory. There is a very simple reply to those who do not believe in the possibility of Russian aggression in Afghanistan. Russia has undoubtedly lost heavily in military power and prestige in Asia, and this fact, and the probable change in her domestic institutions, may