The accuracy of the average could not be denied. Because the statement was made on the authority of Sir Alexander Tulloch, and confirmed by a separate inquiry made with the help of the Registrar-General's Office, at the request of the Commission.
But it was endeavoured to explain away the obvious result of the figures, by showing that the average was not constant—that, in certain years and groups of years, the death-rate was much greater than in others; that the mortality in the years of excess was due to wars or other causes; that peace, and not sanitary measures, was therefore the remedy. And, in short, that the statement of a death-rate, averaging 69 per 1,000 per annum, was not a fair representation of the case.
To this there is the simple reply that, during this present century, there has been an average loss, from death alone, of 69 men out of every 1,000 per annum—it matters not how the mortality has been distributed—that there is every reason to believe that, if things go on as they have done in this present century, we shall go on losing our troops at the rate of 30, 50, 70, 90, 100 and upwards, per 1,000. And all the arithmetic in the world cannot conceal the fact that the law, by which men perish in India under existing sanitary negligence, is 69 per 1,000 per annum; this death-rate is, in fact, understated, for it says nothing of the invalids sent home from India who die at sea, or within a short time of their arrival at home; nor of the loss to the service
