69
418. All this is very disappointing, for if purchasers are not forthcoming
for the stock bred it must be driven into the hands of the dealers, and the
profit will be theirs instead of the breeders'.
419. On this point the Political Agent, Thal Chotiali, in his report on this
show, states:—
"The most remarkable fact regarding this fair was, that there were practically no purchasers. Although
the Native Cavalry maintain that they cannot get remounts, and are compelled to buy walers at high prices to
complete their numbers, yet here was a fair where 1,263 horses were exhibited, and only one Native Officer
came to buy. He, too, acted in a half-hearted way. He only wanted a very few horses, and preferred to wait
for the Jacobabad Fair, where the breeders would have no further chance of selling. He bought no horses
at Sibi.
"The Remount Officer only purchased six young stock. He could have got many more, quite up to his
standard, had he wanted them. Besides these two, the Lahore dealer, Wazir Khan, was the only buyer. He
purchased 44 animals at, practically, his own prices. I need not say how utterly disappointed the breeders were,
they had been led to expect there would be a brisk demand for horses fit for army purposes , and Government
too, as if to emphasise this, have stationed 35 of the best stallions they have in Baluchistan. Veterinary Officers
have pronounced the Baluch mares to be the finest brood stock in India.
"It seems to me to be unfair to the breeders to, as it were, break faith with them. It is also waste of public
money to keep 35 stallions, a Civil Veterinary Officer, and a considerable staff of men, merely to provide six
remounts. Given encouragement, horses can be bred in large numbers, and they are horses that can stand both
heat and cold; and that are good in the hills, as well as in the plains. On the other hand it would be a pity to
let the breed die out. Most of the brood mares have now one, if not two, crosses of English or Arab blood in
them. Very probably the supply of four-year old horses, fit for army purposes, will be small in the next, and
all succeeding Sibi Fairs. Breeders do not care to keep their stock so long. If Government wish to get Baluch
horses for the Native Cavalry, and do not care to work them younger than four years of age, then some arrange-
ment must be made for runs.
* Or at Gunbaz in the Tal plain, or in Barkhar.
"I do not see why it should be impossible to manage this. The Sind Regiment might have one somewhere
in Sind,* the Punjab Frontier might have another in the
Darajat, and so on.
"Moreover, breeders will not, and cannot, give their young stock the food and exercise they require
between three and four years of age. Up to two-half or three years of age they can manage possibly well, but
beyond this they utterly fail.
"What is happening at the present time, in a great number of cases, is this. Dealers buy the young stock
from the breeders whenever they can get them cheaply, and keep them tied up, and fed on spices, until they are
old enough to sell to the Remount Officers. By this system the breeders get a very short, and often quite an
unremunerative price whilst the young animals got the worst possible treatment."
420. Two points are raised here:—
(a) The purchase of Northern horses by Native Cavalry.
(b) The purchase of indigenous young stock by the same, and the advis-
ability of running it until such age as will render it fit to enter
regiments as remounts.
As, however, both these subjects have been dealt with separately, I do not
purpose entering into these questions again.
421. This show has always suffered from the date fixed; the date of all
others that would suit it best is the second Monday in January. It must be
remembered that the Sibi Meeting is not merely a Horse Fair. It is the occa-
sion of the great annual gathering of all the Sirdars and Tumandars of Balu-
chistan, at which the opportunity is taken to settle in Jirga all the important
tribal and inter-tribal disputes which have occurred during the year.
The Agent to the Governor General on this point says:—
"The cases to be settled sometimes number as many as 300, and their settlement takes the better part of
a month, sometimes more than a month. Until all cases are settled, the Agent to the Governor General himself
remains in Sibi. The Jirga work cannot commence until the fair is over."
422. Having had an interview with Mr. Barnes, and having ascertained
the views of the Authorities in Baluchistan, I proceeded to Jacobabad where I
was fortunate enough to meet the Commissioner in Sindh, who convened a
meeting of the Collector of Shikarpur, the Deputy Commissioner, Upper Sindh
Frontier, and both Superintendents, Civil Veterinary Department, Bombay
and Baluchistan. I laid the whole case before them, pointing out that it was
necessary that the Sibi Show should be held in January ; that the natural
sequence of fairs would lead to that of Sibi being held before that of Jacobabad,
and therefore I proposed that Sibi should be held on the first or second Monday
in January, and the Sindh Show on the third or fourth Monday in that month;
this would mean that Sindh would have to put its show back one week or a fort-
night, but the Committee would not entertain the idea, and decided to adhere
to their original date, viz., the second Monday in January. Of course Sindh
claims the prior right of fixing their dates, as being the oldest show, but still I