LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MUNEEPORE.
[-re THII EDITOR OT THE " SPECTATOR.'l SIR,—In the Spectator of April 4th appears an interesting article on the Muneepore outbreak, which is, however, in certain respects somewhat misleading. The ruling idea of the article seems to be, that the people with whom we have to deal in Muneepore are genuine savages who scarcely know the Use of clothes, and are as brave as Soudanese. Your readers may be interested to hear that the Muneepore people have attained to a very respectable degree of civilisation ; that silk garments curiously embroidered are largely worn; that there is an organised Government; and that there are "regular" troops of a very irregular description, headed by Generals and Colonels who wear English uniforms made by European tailors. The fact that the rebel General was able to employ guns against us, guns given by ourselves a short time ago, serves to show that this rising was no mere savage onslaught where "thousands of spears, arrows, and curved swords made a speedy end of resistance."
It is also quite a mistake to suppose that without artillery our Sepoys are scarcely the equals of these stout little Mon- golians, and I do not hesitate to say that the worst Bengal regiment would make short work of twice their number of Muneeporees under almost any conditions.
Finally, I would endeavour to impress on you that Munee- pore never can become the great line of communication between India and Burmah. Such a line would be at right angles to the drainage of the country, and would cross I forget how many ranges of hills. A railway by this route is a dream which has deluded many, and which, I venture to say, will never be realised. For such a line of communication as that desired, we must either go as far south as the Aeng Pass, or northwards to the Singpho country—I am, Sir, &c.,
ONE WHO OUGHT TO KNOW.
[Our correspondent has entirely misconceived our article, the whole drift of which was that the outbreak was no work of the Muneeporees, but of the " Senaputty " and his Kuki allies, who are strictly "savages," The Muneepore artillery joined in, but the telegrams were clear as to the main force employed.—En. Spectator.]
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