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INDIA

taining the cost would probably not be prohibitive. The
most obvious from the strategic point of view is the connection
 between Palanpur, or Decca, on the Rajputana
line, with Sukkur on the Indus. This would at once
ring all Western India into direct connection with Karachi
and Baluchistan, But 300 miles of desert is not to be
lightly negotiated. It was not easily spanned, even in
Egypt; and Southern Sind would present far more
difficulties than Egypt.
Still there is every probability
 that this line
will finally stand the
test of construction,
although it is possible
that commercial views
may indicate Haidarabad
 in Sind, rather
than Sukkur, as the
first point in the Indus
Valley to be brought
into direct connection
with Bombay.
Equally obvious is
the value of direct
communication by rail
between Lahore and
Quetta, for which the
long line of the Zhob
Valley, debouching
into the Indus plain
at the mouth of the
Gomal River, gives opportunity.
 Only in this way can we obtain a second line
of approach to our defensive position in Baluchistan, or
an alternative to the low level railway which crosses the
Indus flats between Sukkur and Sibi. I have already
alluded to the Kandahar-Herat extension as forming the
shortest, simplest, and cheapest overland connection with
Europe. Strategic reasons, however (if not commercial

1c. aR. —Rurma Railwe