, 1880-12-04

ALI NC1J a go VI SdINSbtlOAC~CH AlllACSAJ
law. The complaints on this score may be
exaggerated, and we have no intention of
entering on a controversy fit only for ex-
perienced soldiers, but the result is admit
ted on all hands. Recruits will not serve
without bounty E; even with bounty they
do not come forward in sufficient numbers;
and the value of the regiments depends too
much on individual officers and ~fuctuating
circumstances The e are admirable corps
IN the Bengal Army, regiments as good as
the Europeans, but the system does not
enable Government to treat every regi-
ment as efficient for every work. Tho
Government, in fact, instead of possessing
an Army, has a large number Of regiments
seldom or never full, among which it may
pick and choose q few on which it can rely
for hearty and effective performance in the
field. That condition of affairs, which
deprives the Bengal Army of half its force,
is admitted even officially, is distinctly
bad, and requires immediate reform. 1t
cannot be reformed, because the Govern
mens, while it keeps Candahar, must use
up it's picked regiments on the frontier,
cannot carry out any new system OF officer
ing, and is most reluctant to sanction the
large indispensable increase in the pay Of
the rank and file.
In the Madras and Bombay Armies the
difficulty is somewhat different. 1t is
maintained that, apart from any question
about defective offering, the men i'll those
armies are inferior to the SepoyS Of Bengal.
1t is not, as we believe, certain that this
assertion is true. The Madras regiments,
though organised on a strangely clumsy
system, and therefore comparatively i'm
mobile, have always done their duty !; and
the Bombay regiments are full Of Oude
Sepoys and Raipoots, and behaved striking
w we'll on the last occasion on which they
had much TO d0;-tho great Mutlny OF
1897. They kept thoir faith, they marched
across India, and they were never defeated
Nevertheless. it IL quite certain that com
pctent Generals of rofUta hOId the MADRAS
Army to be an excellent local militia but
no more; and the Bombay Army to have
become within the past twenty years sadly
deterioYatcd. Indeed, the Government OF
India have admitted the last proposition,
il a most unexpected and even alarming
way, According to the kilograms received
this week, they have withdraw all Bonn
bay troops from the front in Candahar, j
superseded them by troops from Bengal,
the reason assigned on AL sides BENG
that the men are, for some reason, unable
TO taco the AfghanS, while the Bengal men
are able The order is probably based OIL
fail knowledge, and is py|Rd tCclG JuStIlled
me failu & OF General Burrows force 10
HI. e. Maiwanl, and Of General PhaNres
tlsl ID advance in time 70 his rellel; but
IN .ssuung it lie Government have maQe
re|organi8atio an immedat necessity. II
the Bombay troops are reasonably eihcleht,
officers and men alike have received q
stigma which will break their hearts; and
if they are not efficient, one which VIII
destroy The last relies OF professional pride.
Soldiers without honour, whether SepoyS
or Europeans, are yalueless, and Tor regl"
ments to be told that they are unsulted LOT
the front is to take away from them thelr
motive power. We cannot, OF course,
v0uch for the accuracy of special CORES
~pondents; but if their statements are
correct, the Army of Bombay ought TO DO
Instantly ~reorganised, or fused with that
of Madras, in a completely reconstructed
Army of Southern India. No Army, ana
least of all an army Differed by aliens, ana
not imbued with national feeling, can sur
vive the kind of treatment to which this
one has been subjected. by the public ana
by the Supreme Government OF India,
The treatment may be justified or other-
wise-we are carefully avoiding that point
but it is an inevitable corollary OF 1t that
reorganization should at once.
Yet how is it to commence at once, Win q
wal beyond the frontier lingering on, with
the Government still preoccupled by Tor
eign policy, and the Treasury still exhaust
ed by a steady drain for the support not
only of the army in Candahar-an army OF
at least 10000 men-but Of b larger army
- nrIa ~ If