230 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OF 
With the question of the supply of our army and reserve forces we 
have already dealt, and second-class arsenals will suffice for the require¬ 
ments of the comparatively few troops we still have left in our foreign 
garrisons and the colonies. The case of India, however, requires special 
consideration. It must be borne in mind that in that country we have 
not only to provide for the wants in war materiel of 63,000 British troops, 
but that we must also be able to satisfy the requirements of at least 
double that number of native troops. From what has been said before, 
we cannot attempt to supply the war materiel for so large a force entirely 
from England, without fatally contravening the laws of supply and 
demand. India produces the raw material required for the manufac¬ 
ture of war materiel in abundance. She is one of the greatest saltpetre 
producing countries in the world. She possesses wood for making 
charcoal, and is the home of the superior hard timber required for the 
manufacture of carriages. She has plenty of coal and iron, which it only 
requires time to develop. The raw material and the consumers being 
therefore on the spot, it is almost an economical necessity for us to 
retain manufactures of war materiel in India; but the conditions under 
which they have to be carried on are very different. We must never 
forget that in India we are only lodgers, and some day or other it may 
suit the landlady again to try and turn us out. The struggle of 1857-8 
will then have to be repeated, perhaps under conditions more favorable 
to the enemy and not less disadvantageous to ourselves. Thus, that 
decentralisation in the manufacture of war materiel which we have 
assumed to be in England a tower of strength, would be in India a source 
of weakness; for it would simply be a multiplication of the points open 
to attack. At the present time, Bengal possesses 3 arsenals, 2 magazines, 
and 5 depots ; Madras 2 arsenals, 3 magazines, and 7 depots; and 
Bombay 2 arsenals, 5 magazines, and 1 depot; making a total for the 
whole country of 7 arsenals, 10 magazines, and 13 depots. ’ The existence 
of some of these is to be accounted for by the triad nature of the 
Government, exemplified by the three presidencies and their separate 
armies ; but in any case it is evident that as the facilities of communication 
throughout the country are improved by the construction of roads and 
railways, we shall be able to dispense with a considerable proportion of 
them. In India the danger comes from within rather than from with¬ 
out ; therefore, instead of placing our great arsenal and place of arms in 
the centre of the country, we must seek a position for it on the seaboard, 
wherever we possess the shortest and readiest means of communication 
with England, so as to be able to receive and equip our reinforcements 
on their arrival in the country. The mistake of collecting vast quantities 
of warlike stores in the interior of the country was exemplified by the 
magazine at Delhi ; nor is it always to be expected that officers will be 
forthcoming so daring and devoted as, like Willoughby, to avert the 
consequences of such folly by the sacrifice of their lives. Signs are not 
wanting, however, that ere long we shall see effected a centralisation of 
the personnel of the three presidential armies under one Commander-in- 
Chief; and this cannot fail to be followed by a similar centralisation of 
materiel. The position of Bombay, situated as it is on the shortest line 
of communication with England, together with its magnificent harbor, 
