1940-11-27 — Page 7

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THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 27, 1940

CHINA MAIL The Soldier Of India

INDSOR MO

NAZI SETBACK

In attempting, to say something about the part now being played

underline my sentiments and en-

lorse my appreciation. Australian. contacts with India' are close. Has been the medium introduction of Australian

The diplomatic bomb-y the Army in India in this latest war, I know that I shall find mipy shell for which Nazi pro- who from personal knowledge can paganda prepared the world during the Molotov visit to Berlin has shrunk ot the "w to the adherence of Hun-of gary, Rumania and Slova kia to the Tokyo-Axis Pact; providing a degree

horse lovers to the officers : und inen of the cavalry in India? Aus- tralian officers have long been.

seconded for service with the In dian Army. Above all, my old

of anti-climax which is comrades of Anzac have no need as comforting as it is to be told of the valour of the In-

On Duty

Hand and disturbed

t

sleep of the Army in India in holding the Foreign Secretaries in Simla for rugged fastnesses of that difficult

several decades.

Army Strength · The Army in India, which

terrain has given India a sure shield against the aggressor. So successful has this watch and ward been, that I often think that India | herself peacefully working cut her political salvation over the ex- panse of a vast sub-continent does not realise. its vital import ance. Such vigilance is not light- em-ly purchased. Even when the En- pire is at peace British and Indian

significant. Even dull-ian Mountain Batteries, the Gur-braces the British units serving

vient States to Hitler's line-up against the vil- lainous British.

khas and the 14th Sikhs is hon-

sula. To-day the Indian Army is

By Field Marshal Lord, Birdwood,

rofoundly gratified by the know-G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., edge that, in this war, the gallant G.C.V.O., CHE., D.S.O. 100 of those Gallipoli days is our

aunch friend.

1

soldiers are on active service in the north-west, whether in the torrid flerce heat of the Frontier summt/ or in the hitter cold of its snow- capped hills in the winter.

Meanwhile, especially when the Empire is at war, the watch on the Frontier must be a heavy rés- ponsibility for the Army in India. To-day Afghanistan, independent and member of the League of Na- tions, is a true friend of Great Bri- tain, but beyond Afghanistan lies Soviet Russia, and Russian intri in Afghanistan itself, is a plant of gues on the Frontier, and indeed

long and persistent growth. In the last war Germany. made pertina“. clous attempts to shake the then Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan from his sage policy of friendship with

India. Those attempts ignominiously failed.

The story cannot be too faithfully remem- bered.

Keynote Of Service

In this task of defending India, British and Indian officers and men have a wonderful comrade- service in the Indian Army, and ship. It strikes the keynote of

I account myself fortunate

in

witted Germans who becured 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- fence, prime preoccupation arises newspapers must puzzle

over the situation in that indepen- dent tribal territory-a "no man's over the precise gain to

land" where there are 500,000 the power and might of

in that country and the Indian fighting men, half of whom at Germany that has been' When 1 read of the Russian fa-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 new strongly the Imperial

vasion of Finland and could see of about 50,000 and 150,000 in mon Pathar blood, these tribes-tish Cavalry Regiment, I entered am- peacetime, has for its main func-men are split up into clans which the 11th Bengal Lancers, now the flurry terminating in, the bitions of the Czars were rising in tion the defence of India against cepted leader. Their problent is Horse, well over 50 years ago. My

cwe no allegiance to any, one ac-

5th King Edward's Own Probyn's

signatures of three al-the breast of Stalin, my mind was outside. eggression, Misunder- mainly economic.

family's The country.

close association .with India for nearly 150 years is a ready completely subser-

matter of great pride to me, cover- ing as it does service. in. the Arniy es well as in the Civil Service, In writing about the Army I do not discuss politics-a soldier hus no politics-but I have never per- mited my inilltary 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 Indie's advance to- ward self-government within the Empire which the Indian Army has served to gallantly-997 Ce- corations were won by that Army in the Great, War—and which has greatly bencated. the moral art material progress of India. The co- speration 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.

An Indian Mountain Rogin ent assembling a mountain gun.

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 faster than it can

fore I entered the Indian Army, the map. Of the four Army Com-them. Fine warriors, they have “India At Her Best terest of Moscow Radio in nearly fifty-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- the Southern Command at honour, but they lack nothing in

The Army side-of Indian life is surable distance of the Indian Poona-lles south of the Ganges.resolution or ruthlessness. The naturally most, indeed I may say Bulgarian Parliament.

order 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 begat a man and shot, athe, British officer in that Army Emphasis throughout the

Murree, the Western at Quetta, (man" is characteristic of their sees India at her best. He enjoys in Soviet version of the pro-

and the Eastern at Naini Tal-all outlook.

the companionship in war, ercised to prevent Turkey have their headquarters to the

sport, in the countryside of Indian ceedings was upon the

comrades, who, by tradition, .tem- pcrament, and family ties are pro-Soviet and the anti- from becoming involved north of that river. This abvious- ly shows that the chief duty, of the

bound whole-heartedly to the in hostilities. Which is in- Army is to keep itself in readiness

service of the King-Emperor un- German feelings express-

der the Commander-in-Chief. As teresting.

to repel attack on the North-West

Commander-in-Chief myself 1. ed during the discussion:

knew how much Frontier. If protection of India

that meant. and upon the sharp criti- Soviet activities do not against internal trouble

Drawn.from.martial classes, most- In handling these unruly tribesly of peasant stock, the men of cism by several Deputies imply a hint to Hitler that primarily required, such an ar-

the Government, has a two-fold the Indian Army are of the finest. of King Boris's visit woaid to Italy against rangement would be irrelevant. polley. It establishes military posts: type which India produces. For linked 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

Underlying their cancellation of the pro-

Rather is it an mile coast line is protected by the portunity of sharing in the polic swashbucklers. 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- recruitment as road guardiansmesticity of the yeoman or pea- yai Indian Navy's special duties with allowances. Order is thus sant. When the Indian soldier goes the Bulgarian Premier confidence that Yugosla- in India waters. Of her land maintained an lines which do not on service, whether in wartime or and the Foreign Minister, via, with Russian of 3,000 miles the stretch weigh too heavily upon tribal on garrison duty overseas, the who stayed in Sofia for relations are greatly ini- romlions of good n'das war at redid (turbulency. By this allowing the manier inuma of money, to his which he remits sub- talks with Soviet repre- proved, is better auin to south-westward is mainly guaril 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 ploty. It ex- pecially now that the of the Himalayan, Mountains, adventures into a administrative clains, too, the traditions which territory. The inevitable rebrand bring recruits to the Army to the

こ

were

Unruly Tribes

mere

The Kremlin, in fact, triumphs of Greece have Directly to the cast is Burma, now crops up, of course, for religion third and fourth generation.

responsible for her own affairs, can quickly fan the flam of fang- has not only flatly contrastiffened every Balkan cahere remains the North-West ticism, and then pacification has! The relations between the officer

Ito be strengthened by punitive of the Indian Army and his men

dicted the German at pital and removed a men-Frontier, where the bouquary enction. Yet the Government re- are intimate and really healthy. tempt to suggest that ace from Yugoslavia's tween India and Afghanistan past cognises the need for devising In themselves

they greatly Russia approved Hun- southern borders.

y coinciding with the administra-economic relief over and above strengthen the ties which bind the

ve horder 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 and order. So plans 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 strip of independent tribal ter-mountainous country are among for many generations To-day I ritory, gives continual cause for the measures designed to bring have the honour to be Colonel of of passage through Hun- aim, is an aid to Greece, lance. 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 story of Indin was one of a ultimate goal is to make the adonia subaltern. My son is a serving

succession of invasions by the ministrative.. border

coincida officer of that regiment. So the tale. Hitler so decreed), but an ald to Turkey; and; yuer Pass on 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 rich plains of the Pupjob and tier, but so long as the tribesmen will continue to proceed; for what- warning that an attack on lied cause. Is Stalin beyond. Three times in her his feel they must always carry rilles ever changes occur, the virility, tory has Tnila'a foto been deter on their backs for immediate de scuse of tair 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-miles north of Delhi and each cable. The forcible disarmament ment of India's nationhood. They Hittle village of Panipat sixty of the blood feud this impractiplay thair full part in the develop- sia as an unfriendly act. chine, or merely realising time the invader won,

of them and (advance to the Dure are alert to-day when India hears: The diplomatic pressure where Aussia s

Mountain Bed Set kaka and Line, as the Frontier is called. the call to defend mankind against The Britlah "shuttered up the would be an operation unjustified oppression and arrogant domin of the Soviet has been ex- mental interests lie? north? Now, long experience of financially as well as inorally.

lance.

Lunda-