166 HAPPY INDIA 



rainfall is very small, from 5 to 10 inches over the 

 greater part, but there is a considerable 'area where 

 the rainfall is under 5 inches. 



Very little use is now made of the enormous 

 volume of water in the Indus, a volume far exceeding 

 that of the Ganges. Money laid out on the irrigation 

 of the province of Sind would be an exceedingly 

 profitable investment for the people of India. It 

 is necessary for the Government to give its attention 

 to these practical matters of vital importance to 

 the well-being of the people, but it continually delays, 

 and such delay is ruinous and wrong. The money 

 which has been wasted on fantastic campaigns in 

 Afghanistan and the North-Western Provinces would 

 have made a fertile and rich province of Sind, and 

 forests would now be growing on the bare mountains. 

 It is about eighty years since the East India Company 

 first made its great war on Afghanistan, from which 

 the British troops were ultimately driven back. 

 It is about forty-four years since the second Afghan 

 war was made, from which also our troops wisely 

 retreated after carrying fire and sword into the homes, 

 and destroying the orchards of the poor people of 

 Afghanistan who had never done us any harm. 

 This second war cost a hundred million pounds 

 (100,000,000). 



The great and beneficial works which their pro- 

 fessional advisers recommend should not be held 

 up because the Indian Government prefers to spend 

 money on military armaments. The conditions 

 are not the same as they were sixty years ago from 



