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THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 27, 1940
Page
CHINA MAIL The Soldier Of India
--WINDSOR HOUSE &
NAZI SETBACK
In attempting to say something about the part now being played
The diplomatic bomb-by the Army in India in this latest war, I know that I shall find many shell for which Nazi pro-who from personal knowledge can paganda prepared the underline my sentiments and en-
world during the Molotov
dorse my appreciation. Australian contacts with India are close, Has
On Duty
Jand and disturbed the sleep of the Army in Indin in holding the visit to Berlin has shrunk not the "aler" been the medium Foreign Secretaries in Simla for rugged fastnesses of that difficult
old
khas and the 14th Sikhs is hori
sula. To-day the Indian Army is
profoundly gratified by the know- ledge that, in this war, the gallart fee of those Gallipoli days is our
staunch friend.
several decades.
Army Strength The Army, in india, which
Meanwhile, especially when the Empire is at war, the watch on the Frontier múst be a heavy res-. ponsibility for the Army in Indja. To-day Afghanistan, independent and member of the League of Na- tions, is a, true friend of Great Bri- tain, but beyond Afghanistan lles Soviet Russia, and Russian intri- gues on the Frontier, and indeed in Afghanistan itself, is a plant of terrain has given India” a. sure long and persistent growth. In the shield against the aggressor. So last war Germany made pertina- successful has this watch and ward clous attempts to shake the then been, that I often think that India Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan herself-peacefully working cut from his sage polley of friendship her political salvation over the ex-
with-India. Those attempts panse of a vast sub-continent ignominiously failed. The story does not realise its vital import-cannot be too faithfully remem ance. Such vigilance is not light-bered. em-¡ly purchased. Even when the Em-
By Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood,
G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., C.I.E., D.S.O.
pire is at peace British and Indian soldiers are on active service in the north-west; whether, in the torrid. fierce heat of the Frontier summer or in the hitter cold of its shove capped hills in the winter.
→
Keynote Of Service
in
to the adherence of Hun-
of introduction of Australian horse lovers to the officers and gary, Rumania and Slova-
men of the cavalry in India? Aus- kia to the Tokyo-Axis tralian officers have long been scconded for service with the In- Pact; providing a degree dian Army. Above all, my of anti-climax which is ecmrades of Anzac have no need as comforting as it is to be told of the valour of the In- significant. Even dull-
dian Mountain Batteries, the Gur-braces the British units serving witted Germans who be-oured by all who fought alongside lieve everything they read of them on the Gallipoli penin- in their State-dictated
In the problem of Frontier, de-.
In this task of defending India. fence, prime preoccupation arises British and Indian officers and newspapers must puzzle
over the situation in that Indepen- men have a wonderful comrade- dent tribal territory-a "no man's ship. It strikes the keynote of over the precise gain to
land" where there are 500,000 service in the Indian Army, and the power and might of
in that country and the Indian Sghting men, half of whom at if account myself fortunate, Germany that has been! When I read of the Russian in-Army, with strengths respectively least are armed with modern rifles, having enjoyed its privilege ever
Bound together loosely by a com- since as a subaltern from a Brit achieved by a diplomatic how strongly the Imperial
vasion of Finland and could see of about 50,000 and 150,000 in mon Pathan blood, these tribes-tish Cavelry Regiment, I entered am-peacetime, has for its main fune-men are split up into clans which the 11th Bengal Lancers, now the
owe 'no allegiance to any one ac-
5th King Edward's Own Probyn's flurry terminating in the bitions of the Czars were rising in tion the defence of India against cepted leader. Their problem is Horse, well over 50 years ago. My
Misunder-.inainly economic. The country
family's
with signatures of three al- the breast of Stalin, my mind was outside
close assoclution India for nearly 150 years is a ready completely subser-
matter of great pride to me, cover- ing as it does service in the Army vient States to Hitler's
as well as in the Civil Service. In writing about the Army I do line-up against the vil-
not discuss politics—a soldier has. lainous British.
| no "politics—but I have never per- miled my military life to cut me off. from study of the Indian ad- ministration. My old colleagues in the Indian Legislature' will, I think, bear me out in the assertion that I have been a whole-hearted champion of India's advance to ward self-government within the Empire which the Indian Army has served to gallantly-097 de÷ corations were won by that Army in the Great War-and which has greatly benefited the moral and material progress of India. The co eneration of British and Indians in the Civil Services has been as splendid as that in the Army' it- self and has made notable contri- butions to the consolidation of In 'dian policy, for the good of the many peoples of that country.
་་ The conclusion to be drawn fairly leaps out of the procession of events. It is, of course, that M. Molotov's trip to Berlin was a dismal failure from the German viewpoint, and that Ribbentrop had| to do some quick thinking to show anything at all.
aggression.
An Indian Mountain Regiment assembling a mountain gun.
faster than it can.
terest of Moscow Radio in nearly nitty-five years ago, when mands * in India, only one their rough-and-ready codes of last week's debate in the Russia's advance to within mea- Bulgarian Parliament. Emphasis throughout the Soviet version of the pro- ceedings was upon the pro-Soviet- and the anti- German feelings express- ed during the discussion; and upon the sharp criti-
crcised to prevent Turkey from becoming involved in hostilities. Which is in- teresting.
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were
an ar
Unruly Tribes
India At Her Best
Were there any doubt about the setback, it would appear to be re-
feed moved by the sudden in-thrown back to the years just be-standing on this point leads me to breeds
fore I entered the Indian Army, the map. Of the four Army Com-them. Fine warriors, they have"
the Southern Command at honour, but they lack nothing in
The Army side of Indian life is The naturally, most, indeed I may say surable distance of the Indian Poona-lles south of the Ganges. resolution or ruthlessness.« border created disquietude in Eng- The other three-the Northern at maxim that to be a man one must very, familiar to me. In some ways have "begot a man and shot a the British officer in that Army Murree, the Western at Quetta,
man"
is characteristic of their sees India at her best. He enjoys and the Eastern at Naini Tal-all outlook.
the companionship in war, in have their headquarters to the
sport, in the countryside of Indian comrades, who, by tradition, tem, north of that river. This obvious-
ociament, and family ties are the ly shows that the chief duty of the
bound whole-heartedly to. service of the King-Emperor un- Amy is to keep itself in readiness:
der the Commander-in-Chief. As to repel attack on the North-West
Commander-in-Chief -myself . . I Frontier. If protection of India.
knew how much that meant. Soviet activities do not against internal trouble
Drawn from martial classes, most- In handling these 'unruly tribes ly of peasant stock, the men of cism by several Deputies imply a hint to Hitler that primarily required, such
the Government has a two-fold the. Indian Army are of the finest of King Boris's visit. to aid
policy. It establishes military-posts type which India produces. For to Italy against rangement would be irrelevant.
Jinked up with. roads in certain them the duty of defending the Berchtesgaden. Direct re- Greece must go through The North-West Frontier is In-dominating points in the territory, community with the sword is sult, too, apparently, was Yugoslavia instead of dia's vulnerable spot. Her 3,000- and gives the tribesmen the op- paramount. They are no mere cancellation of the pro-Bulgaria. Rather is it an mile coast line is protected by the portunity of sharing in the polic- swashbucklers. Underlying their recruitment as road guardians mesticity of the yeoman or pea- posed visit to Berlin of indication of Moscow's Royal Navy, with the young Ro-ing of the country by a system of martial spirit is the thrift and do- the Bulgarian Premier confidence that Yugosla- Indian Navy's special duties with allowances. Order is thus cant. When the Indian soldier goes and the Foreign Minister, via, with whom Russian frontiers of 3,000 miles the stretch weigh too heavily upon tribal on garrison duty overseas, the who stayed in Sofia for relations are greatly in-from the Pamirs castward turbulency. By thus allowing the manner in which he remits sub- and tribesmen to conduct their own stantial sums of money to lis talks with
Soviet repre- proved, is better able to south-westward is mainly guard-affairs in their own way it is people at home is an object-lesson sentatives.
take care of herself, es-ed by the gigantic snow curtains hoped to discourage them from in conjugal or filial piety. It ex- adventures into a administrative plains, too, the traditions which pecially now that the of the Himalayan Mountains. territory. The inevitable firebrand bring recruits to the Army to the The Kremlin, in fact, triumphs of Greece have Directly to the east, is Bumn, now crops up, of course, for religion third and fourth generation.. has not only flatly contra- stiffened every Balkan ca-responsible for her own affairs. can quickly fan the flame of fana- dicted the German at pital and removed a men Frontier, where the houndary be- action. Yet the Government roare Intimate and really healthy. There remains the North-West ticism, and then pacification has! The relations between the officer to be strengthened by punitive, of the Indian Army, and his men greatly Russia approved Hun southern borders.
ly coinciding with the administra-economic relief over and above strengthen the ties which bind the five border of British India and subventions to the guardians of people to the Government. They gary's accession to the
forming with that border, between law, the order. So plons for im- create friendships which persist Axis Tokyo Pact (giving Neutralisation of Bul- the Zhob Valley and the Pamirs, proving irrigation facilities in this throughout a lifetime and even the German Army right garia, Moscow's primary ritory, gives, continual, cause for the measures designed to bring have the honour to be Colonel of a strip of independent tribal ter-mountainous country are anong for many generations. To-day I- of passage through Hun- aim, is an aid to Greece, vigilance. Before the British came, real peace in no man's land. The the regiment which I first joined gary to Yugoslavia, if an aid to Yugoslavia, and the story of India was one of a ultimate goal is to make the nd-as n subaltern. My son is a serving | succession' of invasions by the ministrative border coincide officer of that regiment. So the tale. Hitler so decreed), but an aid to Turkey; and, Khyber Fass or its vicinity, on to everywhere with the true Frou proceeds. Somehow I feel that it has given Hitler fair therefore, also to the Al- the fich plains of the Punjab and tier, but so long as the tribesmen will continue to proceed; for what warning that an attack on lied cause. Is Stalin bebeyond. Three times in her his feel they must always carry rifles ever changes occur, the virility, tory has. India's fate been deter-on their backs for immediato de sense of fair play and chivalrous Greece through Bulgaria ginning to detect the mined in pitched battle, near the fence and accept the obligations honour of the Indian soldier must would be regarded by Rus- cracking of the Hitler ma- little village of Panipat sixty of the blood feud this is impracti-play their full port in the develop- miles north of, Delhi-and each cable. The forcible disarmamentment of India's nationhood. They sia as an unfriendly act. chine, or merely realising
the the invader won.
of them and advance to the Dur- are alert to-day when India hears and Line us the Frontier is called, the call to defend mankind against. The diplomatic pressure where Russia's funda- The British shuttered up the would be an operation unjustified oppression and arrogant domin- of the Boviet has been ex-mental interests lie?
financially as well as morally,ance.
in Indian waters. Of her land maintained on lines which do not on service, whether in wartime or
tempt to suggest that face from Yugoslavia's tween India and Afghanistan, part-cognises the need for devising In themselves they
novih".
Now, long experience of