ar that the maintenance of a separate army for each
presidency, Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, was at the root of the evils
it was our duty to consider and try to reform; and I promised the
President that, before the Commission again assembled, I would prepare
a scheme which might form a basis for them to work upon.

I considered it an anachronism, since railways and telegraphs had
annihilated distance, to keep up three Commanders-in-Chief, and
separate departments, each having an independent head, in the three
different presidencies. I put my ideas on paper, and Eden announced
himself in favour of my scheme, which substituted for the three
presidential armies four army corps, all subordinate to the
Commander-in-Chief in India. Portions of my recommendation began to
be carried into effect directly they had received the sanction of the
authorities in England--such as the amalgamation of the Commissariat,
Pay, Ordnance, and Stud departments--but it was not until April,
1895, sixteen years after the proposal had been recommended by the
Government of India, and although, during that period, four successive
Viceroys, each backed up by a unanimous Council, had declared
themselves strongly in favour of the change, that the finishing touch
was given to the new organization, by the abolition of the offices of
Commanders-in-Chief of Madras and Bombay, and the creation of four
Army Corps, namely, the Punjab, the Bengal, the Madras, and the
Bombay, each commanded by a Lieutenant-General.

[Footnote 1: The late Major-General Sir George Colley, K.C.B.]

[Footnote 2: Kabul was expressly selected by Yakub Khan as the place
where he wished the Embassy to reside.]

[Footnote 3: At this parade I had the great pleasure of decorating
Captain Cook with the Victoria Cross, and Subadar Ragobir Nagarkoti,
Jemadar Pursoo Khatri, Native Doctor Sankar Dass, and five riflemen of
the 5th Gurkhas, with the Order of Merit, for their gallant conduct
in the attack on the Spingawi Kotal, and during the passage of the
Mangior defile. It was a happy circumstance that Major Galbraith, who
owed his life to Captain Cook's intrepidity, and Major Fitz-Hugh,
whose life was saved by Jemadar (then Havildar) Pursoo Khatri, should
both have been present on the parade.]

[Footnote 4: Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIX.
1879

Massacre of the Embassy--The Kabul Field Force
--Lord Lytton's foresigh