1 136 APPENDIX.
2 offer every facility and accommodation to British troops and
3 detachments, employed in securing the protection guaran-
4 teed, or for purposes otherwise connected with the general
5 interests of the state, whenever the same might be marched
6 into, or stationed in, their respective territories.
7 Fifth, — In case of invasion or war, the sirdars were to
8 join the British standard with their followers, whenever
9 called upon.
10 Sixth, — Merchants conveying articles, the produce of
11 Europe, for the use of the detachments at Loodianah, or of
12 any other British force or detachment, should not be subject
13 to transit duty, but must be protected in their passage
14 through the Sikh country.
15 SeventL—ln like manner horses for the cavalry, when
16 furnished ifsith passports from competent officers, must be
17 exempt from all tax.
18 The above declaration being published and circulated,
19 became the charter of rights, to which the chiefs have since
20 looked, and appealed, for the settlement of all questions that
21 have arisen between them and the British Grovemment
22 The matters specifically provided for were those that imme-
23 diately pressed. There has been much, however, of intricate
24 dispute between rival candidates for sirdarees; — between
25 chiefs who had divided their territory before the declaration
26 of protection was published, and had bound themselves to
27 their co-proprietors by mutual obligations ; between chie&
28 and their dependants of the Sikh nation, as well asr Ze-
29 mindars, as to the extent of right and authority possessed
30 at the time of the declaration of protection ; and, perhaps
31 more than all, boundary disputes and quarrels r^arding
32 participated rights. These differences, whenever they have
33 arisen, have required adjustment and arbitration by the
34 British officers on the spot, and have formed the subject of
35 continual references to the Supreme Grovemment at Cal-
36 cutta. The regulation of successions was also a matter, that
37 from the first required to be undertaken by the protecting