Colonel Starr had been sent to 'arrange,' if possible, and to fight
if necessary. Perhaps we need not inquire into the arrangements
the Government had commissioned Colonel Starr to make. They were
arrangements of a kind frequently submitted to the princes of
independent States in India when they are troublesome, and their
result is that a great many native States are governed by English
political residents, while a great many native princes attend
parties at Government House in Calcutta. The Maharajah of Chita
had been very troublesome indeed. Twice in the year his people had
raided peaceful villages under British protection, and now he had
killed a missionary. It was quite time to 'arrange' the Maharajah
of Chita, and Colonel Starr, with two guns and three hundred
troops, had been sent to do it.
His Highness, however, seemed indisposed to further his social
prospects in Calcutta and the good of his State. For the twenty-
four hours they had been in camp under his walls the Maharajah had
taken no more notice of Colonel Starr and his three hundred
Midlanders than if they represented so many jungle bushes. To all
Colonel Starr's messages, diplomatic, argumentative, threatening,
there had come the same unsatisfactory response--the Maharajah of
Chita had no word to say to the British Raj.
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