NigG (#224),
...holding him to account for the loss of her soldier son, who died in a 'Snatch Landrover'...
Intended only for crowd and riot control in places like Belfast, no armour, so unsuitable as a battle weapon in the Gulf War. The point here is the causal connection between the parsimony of peacetime Government and the resulting extra casualties in war.
Kipling drives the same message home in the final stanzas:
Chorus
"We had a kettle: we let it leak:
Our not repairing it made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week. . .
The bottom is out of the Universe!"
Conclusion
"This was none of the good Lord's pleasure,
For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free;
But what comes after is measure for measure,
And not a God that afflicteth thee.
As was the sowing so the reaping
Is now and evermore shall be.
Thou art delivered to thine own keeping.
Only Thyself hath afflicted thee!"
In plain words: "it's probably your own (Government's) fault, that your son died".
...the Princely States that were left in the administration of the local ruler...
At the height of our powers, we only directly ruled some 60% of the population of the subcontinent. The other 40% were indirectly ruled the through their own Rajahs and Maharajahs. These Princely States numbered no less than
550+ at the end.
.... So it was never truly a 'British Hill Station', though Brits went there to stay, and it had all the features of a colonial Hill Station...
In the days of the Raj,
all the Hill Stations (and everything else, for that matter) were 'British', there was no distinction between the directly and indirectly ruled States. We went where we wanted and did what we liked (within [our] law) from the Himalayas to Cape Cormorin.
All our coins bore the superscription "IND IMP"; the Crown ruled India (through the Viceroy, who was God for all practical purposes out there) absolutely.
A lot more juicy tit-bits to be found, but enough for now.
Danny.