hat our country owes a great deal to Lady Roberts, to whom we beg
that Your Excellency will convey our heartfelt thanks for her lively
interest in the welfare of Indian soldiers in particular and the
people generally. In conclusion, we wish Your Excellencies God-speed
and a pleasant and safe voyage. That Your Excellencies may have
long, happy, and prosperous lives, and achieve ever so many more
distinctions and honours, and return to us very shortly in a still
higher position, to confer upon the Empire the blessings of a
beneficent Rule, is our heartfelt and most sincere prayer.

* * * * *

APPENDIX XV.

(Referred to in Chapter LXVIII, Note *.)

_To His EXCELLENCY GENERAL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FREDERICK BARON
ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR AND WATERFORD, BART., V.C., G.C.B., G.C.I.E.,
R.A., Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces in India._

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

We, the representatives of the European community in the Punjab, are
the prouder to-day of our British blood, in that it links us in close
kinship, to one who has so bravely maintained the honour of the
British Empire alike in the years of peace and storm that India has
seen during the last three decades. During the Mutiny Your Excellency
performed feats of gallantry that are historic. Since then your
career has been one of brilliant success and growing military renown.
Whenever, in the histories of war, men speak of famous marches, that
from Kabul to Kandahar comes straightway to the lips. When our mind
turns to military administration, we remember the unqualified
success of Your Excellency's career as Quartermaster-General and as
Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces in India, in both of which
high offices you have added honour and glory to your great name, which
will never be forgotten in India. When the private soldier, rightly or
wrongly, thinks he has a grievance, his desire is only that somehow it
may be brought to the notice of Your Excellency, from whom, through
experience, he expects full justice and generous sympathy. When we
look towards our frontier and see the strategic railways and roads,
and the strong places of arms that threaten the invader, we know that
for those safeguards the Empire is in no small degree indebted to
the resolute wisdom of Your Excellency as military adviser to the
Government of India. Last, but not least, as a Statesman, Your
Excellency ranks second to none in the Empire in