For all I can tell I might as well be in Siberia

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 73.

As the threat of mutiny gathered steam, all decision-making ground to a halt. Over-harsh action was take to stamp out rebellion, over leniency was practiced elsewhere in order to avoid triggering something worse. Some officers were certain regiments were about to explode. Other officer's in those very same regiments were convinced that it would all blow over.

The thing was simply unknowable.

Feeling is as bad as can be and matters have gone so far that I can hardly devise any suitable remedy. We make a grand mistake in supposing that because we dress, arm and drill Hindustani soldiers as Europeans, they become one bit European in their feelings and ideas. I see them on parade for say two hours daily, but what do I know of them for the other 22? What do they talk about in their lines, what do they plot? . . . For all I can tell I might as well be in Siberia.

I know that at the present moment an unusual agitation is pervading the ranks of the entire native army, but what it will exactly result in, I am afraid to say. I can detect the near approach of the storm, I can hear the moaning of the hurricane, but I can't say how, when or where it will break forth ... I don't think they know themselves what they will do, or that they have any plan of action except of resistance to invasion of their religion, and their faith.

But, good God! Here are all the elements of combustion at hand, 100,000 men, sullen, distrustful, fierce, with all their deepest and inmost sympathies, as well as worst passions, roused, and we thinking to cajole them into good humour by patting them on the back, saying what a fool you are for making such a fuss about nothing. They no longer believe us, they have passed out of restraint and will be off at a gallop before long. If a flare-up from any cause takes place at one station, it will spread and become universal.