Your Lordship; and a zone of neutral ground has now been fixed, and a
line of peace marked by the Boundary Commission. The strong defences
which Your Excellency has provided on the frontier add another bright
stone to the building of your fame, and constitute in themselves a
lasting memorial of Your Excellency's martial skill. Never had any
British General to face more arduous tasks, and none has proved more
completely successful in overcoming them than Your Lordship. The
result is that India has been rendered safe from the fear of invasion
from without. Your Excellency is not only adorned with heroic
qualifications, but the love and affection with which the people of
India regard Your Lordship show what admirable qualities are exhibited
in the person of Your Excellency. Terrible in war and merciful in
peace, Your Excellency's name has become a dread to the enemies of
England and lovely to your friends. The interest which Your Lordship
has always taken in the welfare of those with whom you have worked in
India is well known to everybody. The Sikhs in particular are, more
than any other community in India, indebted to Your Lordship. We find
in Your Excellency a true friend of the Sikh community--a community
which is always devoted heart and soul to the service of Her Most
Gracious Majesty the Empress of India. No one understands better than
Your Excellency the value of a Sikh soldier, and we feel very grateful
that the military authorities recognize the necessity of requiring
every Sikh recruit to be baptized according to the Sikh religion
before admission to the Army--a practice which makes the Sikhs more
true and faithful, and which preserves the existence of a very
useful community. The Sikhs are said to be born soldiers, but
they undoubtedly make very good citizens in time of peace also.
Unfortunately, however, they have had no opportunity of fully
developing their mental powers, so as to enable them to advance with
the spirit of the age. We thank God that Your Excellency was among
those who most desired to see the Sikhs refined and educated by
establishing a Central College in the Punjab for the use of the Sikh
people, and we confidently hope that the Sikhs, of whom a large
portion is under Your Excellency's command, will give their mite in
support of this national seminary. The subscriptions given by Your
Lordship, His Excellency the Viceroy, and His Honour the late
Lieutenant-Governor, were very valuable to the In