Lord Curzon on March 30th made an important speech at
Calcutta to the Legislative Council. He stated positively that he intended to return to India, and recapitulated the great improvements which had been made in India in finance, in military organisation, and in frontier policy during his five years' tenure of office. Regarding the last subject he was very explicit. India, he said, was well defended by the sea and her mountain barriers, but beyond the latter was a " glacis '.' which it was necessary to watch. He had no wish to occupy that glacis, but enemies, or possible enemies, could not be permitted to occupy it either. That was the central idea of his policy in Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Siam,—the last-named being probably an unexpected allusion, which we have noticed elsewhere.
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