The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-18

able fighting material No one knows only the Hindu who emigrates eau ina zine what the fighting tribes of India are like. They are warriors by race and by training. From their birth almost they are trained to arms. and they are now immensely proud of bein.. selected to fight side by side with the British troops against a white enem., and determined to acquit themselves we'll
 England's forces in Indian may be dt- vided into two of even three classes First there Is the British army. com posed or white men--battalions of tn, regular army regiments recruited It home and supplied constantly bv drafts from England. Many of them are al. ready Tn the fighting line. and for the purpose of this article. at any rate, they can pc disregarded. Next comes the native army composed of native troops with white and native officers, and tnlrd the armies of the native indepen- cent and semi-independent states, un- oer native leadership, but organized more or less on European lines and most of them trained by British officers lent for the purpose It Is with these two last divisions that we have to deal.
 The Indian. army is Kitcheners own work. He found it very little changed. in training and efficiency from the days of the Indian mufiny. and he remade it. Now 1t is known that he holds the opinion that it is equal to the best troops in the world. It consists. with reserves. of about 3OO,000 men. There are 90 regiments of cavalry, 13 noun tain batteries. three regiments of en- gineers, and 140 battalions of infantry with service, medical transport, and other corps. The men enlist voluntar- fly for period of three years and they have the option of extending their service to s2 years. They almos, always accept the opportunity of ex- tending their service. About 35 per cent of the men are Mahomedans, 63 per cent are Hindus by religion and the rest pagans. Christians and Jews About one third of the cavalry and infantry regiments are ''class regi- ments' each composed of men of a particular race or religion and even within the regiments the companies are often organized on caste lines Tn addition to these there are about 20,001 excellent soldiers who are known as Imperial service troops. They arc raised and maintained by the princess or the native states in British India, but the imperial government has the right to cali on them and they arc armed and organized on the same lines as the Indian army Next to them come the troops of the independent rulers. It is estimated that. trained and organized on more or less modern lines. there are about 50.000 of them but such a figure is misleading. for in states like these practically every man is trained to arms and is a potential soldier. India. if the pinch really came could probably send to Europe an army that would be reckoned in millions rather than in hundreds of thousands
 The best known of the native troops are the Ghurkas. of whom there are 20 regi- ments. They are hilmen. many of whom come from the independent states over the Nepal border. They are the romi- nant race in Nepal. Little brown men they are wonderfully active and hardy and are among the finest fiehters and most loyal troops in the Indian army. They remained loyal throughout the In- dian mutiny and rendered splendid serv- Ice to England. When Lord Roberts was in India they were his favorite troops and his memory is still green among them. When anything goes wrong their