1 48 FROM THE DEATH OF NOO NEHAL SINGH
2 tained with the successors of Maharajah Runjeet
3 Singh by the British Government up to the pre-
4 sent time.
5 ‘Since the death of the late Maharajah Shere
6 Singh, the disorganised state of the Lahore
7 Government has made it incumbent on the
8 Governor-General in Council to adopt precau-
9 tionary measures for the protection of the British
10 frontier; the nature of these measures, and the
11 cause of their adoption, were at the time fully
12 explained to the Lahore Durbar.
13 “‘ Notwithstanding the disorganised state of the
14 Lahore Government during the last two years,
15 and many most unfriendly proceedings on the part
16 of the Durbar, the Governor-General in Council
17 has continued to evince his desire to maintain the
18 relations of amity and concord which had so long
19 existed between the two states, for the mutual
20 interests and happiness of both. He has shown
21 on every occasion the utmost forbearance from
22 consideration to the helpless state of the infant
23 Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, whom the British
24 Government had recognised as the successor to
25 the late Maharajah Shere Singh.
26 “The Governor-General in Council sincerely
27 desired to see a strong Sikh Government re-
28 established in the Punjaub, able to control its
29 army and to protect its subjects. He had not,
30 up to the present moment, abandoned the hope
31 ¢