Speaking at the Conservative Colston Banquet at Bristol on Monday
night, Lord Selborne congratulated his hearers on the prospect of a pacific settlement of the North Sea affair. Dealing with the governing factors regulating the size of the Army, Lord Selborne laid especial stress on the great march made of recent years by Russia towards our Indian frontier. The Empires of Russia and India were now separated only by the independent State of Afghanistan, and Russia had two lines of railway terminating on the Afghan frontier, the distance from thence to our railway lines being something less than four hundred miles. This great military fact must henceforth govern the strength of our Army in India. Lord Selborne also emphasised the paramount necessity of garrison- ing our coaling stations if we were to keep the command of the sea. This warning in regard to India is sound enough, but how are we to reconcile it with the fact that Lord Selborne, as a member of the Cabinet, is responsible for Mr. Arnold- Forster's scheme, which, as we showed last week, will deprive us of the machinery we now possess for raising extra troops in cases of great national emergency such as the invasion of India?
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