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SUANETIA 229
will have set up a general store at Betsho ; the priest at Mujal
will keep a '
Gostinitza London,' and the village headman will have
a roll of porters and a tarilF for the Tuiber and Zanner Passes.
The Suanetians are a mixed race, a tribe of refugees ; they have
the qualities as well as the vices of their ancestors, and amongst
them there ai"e undoubtedly individuals of capacity, who, now that
reciprocal slaughter is forbidden, will turn their wits and energies
to some better account. The pacitication of their country without
serious hffhting has been one of the successes of the Russian Ad-
ministration in the Caucasus. It has been effected chiefly by
patience in overlooking petty offences and by the gradual introduction
of some control and new ideas. It is hardly, however,
a complete success. In the same time a more energetic and
wealthier government might have spent much more money, and
done much more for the district. Iloada might have been made,
mineral resources examined, and perhaps utilised. The defile of the
Ingur might have been opened. A district of ten thousand inhabitants
would hardly have been left to be administered by a
native civilian with ten men, lodged in a row of shal)by w-ooden
sheds. But the Caucasian Administration is compelled to do its
work cheaply ;
'
it aims at making things easy, under certain
conditions, to the mountain tribes. Its subordinate officials have
less money and less energy to expend, and are more easily influenced
by their surroundings than British Civilians. Not infrequently they
are members of subject races. So long as they can keep the peace
they are apt to let progress shift for itself They avoid, no doubt,
some of our mistakes and indiscretions ; but they are less capable
as
administrators. So long as Great Bi'itain maintains among Orientals
her unrivalled reputation for uprightness, justice, and tolerance, she
need not fear any contrasts that may be drawn by her subjects when
the great Empires meet in Central Asia,
'
According to Professor Hahn, however, the force at Betsho costs the Government annually
300,000 roubles.