3-085-789 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Indian Frontier Rising: with the Buner Field Force, 1898. '[British Army] Bengal Sappers and Miners blowing up the council-chamber of Said Ullah, the Mad Fakir who led the attack at Malakand in July last. From a Sketch by Lieutenant H. Maclear, 20th Punjab Infantry... The command of the army on the frontier remains with General Sir Robert Palmer...It is expected that the "forward" policy on the Indian Frontier will now resolve itself into some plan for holding the Khyber Pass, and interfering as little as possible with the independence of the pugnacious tribesmen... Lord George Hamilton is understood to have vetoed the suggestion of Major Younghusband that the tribes should be disarmed. Disarmament does not seem a very practical idea just now. Major Younghusband also suggested that the tribes...should be forced to make roads for the use of the Indian Government. It would be interesting to know how large an army would be required to superintend this compulsory road-making'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.