162 REPORT—1874. 
As, then, all military operations must be based on a knowledge of the country in 
which they are to be carried on, it should never be forgotten that every country 
contiguous to our own (and the ocean brings us into contact with almost every 
country in the world) may be a possible theatre of war, and that it is equally the 
duty and policy of a good government to obtain all possible information respecting 
it. More especially is this the case with regard to the little-known districts, 
inhabited by uncivilized or but partially civilized races, that lie beyond the fron- 
tiers of many of our foreign possessions and colonies. Is it with much satisfaction 
that we can turn to the efforts made by this country to acquire that geographical 
knowledge which may be of so much importance in time of need? Though we 
had for years had military establishments on the Gold Coast, and though we 
had, more than once, been engaged in hostilities with the Ashantees, and might 
reasonably have expected to be so again, no attempt appears to have been made 
to obtain information about the country north of the Prah, or even of the 
so-called protected territories. The result was, that when the recent expedition 
was organized, the Government had to depend chiefly on the works of Bowdich, 
Dupuis, and Hutton (written some fifty years ago), and on a rough itinerary of 
the route afterwards followed by the troops, for their information relating to the 
country and its inhabitants. Nor is the Gold Coast an exceptional case: with 
settlements at Singapore and Penang we know absolutely nothing of the interior 
of the Malay peninsula, and not much of the adjacent islands. How little have 
the garrisons of Aden and Hong Kong contributed to our ae of Arabia and 
China! What advantage has been taken of the presence of the officers who have 
been in Persia during the last ten years to increase our knowledge of that country 
—Iknowledge which would be very useful at present in the unsettled state of the 
boundary questions on the northern and north-eastern frontiers? How little has 
been added to our knowledge of Afghanistan since the war in 1842! and what 
part did India take in Trans-Himalayan exploration before Messrs. Shaw and Hay- 
ward led the way to Yarkand and Kashgar P 
It was with feelings of no slight satisfaction that many of us heard last year 
that the policy of isolation and seclusion which India appeared to have adopted, as 
_ the last soldier of Pollock’s relieving force recrossed the Indus, was at last to be 
broken, and that an expedition, well found in every respect, was to be sent to 
Kashgar. It seemed an awakening from the long slumber of the last thirty years, 
during which we were content to stay at home in inglorious ease, resting under the 
shadow of the great mountain-ranges of Northern India, whilst we sent out Mirzas 
and Pundits to gather the rich store of laurels that hung almost within our grasp. 
Far be it from me to depreciate the valuable services of those gentlemen—services 
frequently performed at great personal risk and discomfort; but who can compare 
the results they obtained with those that would have been brought back by English 
officers, or by travellers such as Mr. Shaw, Mr. Ney Elias, and others? 
If it be true (and few will be disposed to doubt it) that arctic exploration is one 
of the best schools for officers of the navy, it is equally true that exploration on 
shore is one of the best schools for officers of the army. The officer who has had 
for weeks or months to depend on his own resources, organizing his own commis- 
sariat and transport, fighting his way amidst hardship and discomfort against all 
difficulties, will be found to possess many of the most valuable qualifications for 
active service in the field; and not the least of these will be that eye for ground, 
or ready appreciation of relative height and distance, which often comes like a 
second sense to the explorer. : 
It has been said that if officers travelled in countries where Government could no 
longer protect them, they might be killed by the natives, and that then, if the 
murderers were not punished, England would suffer loss of prestige; but is this the 
case P Did any loss of prestige follow the murder of Conolly and Stoddart in Bok- 
hara or of Hayward in the mountains of Gilgit? It is hard, too, to believe that 
the danger Of loss of life has not been somewhat exaggerated when we find mission- 
aries living for several years in comparative security at Coomassie; Maltzan, Halevy, 
and others exploring Southern Arabia; Ney Elias crossing China at a time when 
political circumstances made travelling more than usually unsafe; Prjewalsky, 
with six Kuzaks, wandering about China for nearly thtee years, and spending 
