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with picked men duties experienced in Police as the Indian Police act prohibits natives leaving the force two months without having given notice previous to resignation. Also if pressed for time I might be unable to get a sufficient number of Seikhs in which case I suggest that men of some of the Mohamedan classes be admitted as they are, in the Punjaub, notoriously superior to those of the Bombay side; and some of the hill men (Puthans) are superior both in physical strength and Courage to the Seikhs themselves, these however I could not calculate on getting except in small numbers but even as the Mohamedan classes are, in the Punjaub, much more numerous than Seikhs, I should have many more to select from, which would perhaps be an advantage more than compensate for the inferiority of the former as a class.
The travelling expenses of men from the Punjaub would be something considerable. I have calculated that I should probably raise the largest number of recruits in Umritsur and march them to Delhi. 360 miles from thence to Calcutta by railway, this route would take about thirty-five days. The cost would not much exceed the railway fare from