Evening star., 1940-01-28
=sss - -. s..s.--. Z. s-
Britain UTILIZING
Indian Troops as
Imperial Reserve


Defenses Are Weakened
By Withdrawal Of Many
Army Units
By MAI. GEORGE FIELDING
ELIOT.
Very little news of a military
nature comes to us today from
quarter of the world which is vitality
important to at least one of the
belligerents in this war-from India.
We occasionally hear of political
unrest there, of moves by the Ma
tionalists to obtain better terms
than last time In exchange for IN
dia's war efforts in behalf of the
empire, of difficulty in reconciling
the views of the Congress party
with those of the Mohammedan
minority and with the interests of
the native princes. Blu. of India
as a military factor in the war we
hear but little.
In the war of 1914-1918 Indian
forces were active from the first.
An Indian army corps Gncluding,
of course, a proportion of British
units was sent to France, arriving
in october, 1914, and serving with
distinction on the western front
for just over a year before being
withdrawn-not, as has so often
been said, because of the inability
of the native soldiers to face the
climatic conditions of Europe, but
almost entirely because there was
no way of replacing the British
officers of the native units with
others properly trained and ac-
customed to this sort of service. An
Indian cavalry corps also served in
France. Indian troops formed part
of the garrison of Egypt, were the
mainstay of the Mesopotamian
campaign, and were used in steadily
increasing numbers in Palestine.
But it Is fair to remark, that there
was at this time no serious danger
to India itself, Russia being an ally
and internal conditions being fairly
well in hand.
The withdrawals of the regular
British troops from Indian service
were made by sending territorial
army units there, some of which
remained for the duration of the
war and served later in the third
Afghan War of 1919.
Indian Army Imperial Reserve.
Today there already is evident a
decided tendency to call upon the
Indian army, as before, for the du-
ties of great imperial reserve.
Indian troops are serving in Egypt
in considerable numbers, probably
also in the Sudan. The writer saw
men of Indian regiments at Mena,
near Cairo, in August. A consid-
cradle British concentration in Iraq
Is reported, to which India has made
contributions.
This whole Middle East area, the
command of Gen. Sir Archibald
Wavell, including Egypt, Palestine,
1raq and the Sudan, is being REIN
forced and strengthened to cover
the crossroads of the empire, the
Suez Canal region, and to provide a
reserve of striking power which from
this central position can be used to
deal with any emergency which may
arise in the Mediterranean, to cut
of German access to Russian oil in
the Caucasus, to support a possible
pro-allied coalition in the Balkans,
to reassure and bolster Turkey in
her adherence to the Anglo-French-
Turkish pact.
But in another sense, it is an out
post for the defense of India, for
its presence, aided by the heavy
French concentration in Syria, must
assuredly give pause to Russian ad-
ventures against Turkey, Iraq or
Persia; must check any tendency on
the part of the Iranian Shah to
vent his anti-British leanings in
joining any possible Russian moves
in this area. Further east, where
rumors of Russian troop concentra-
tions on the Afghan border are oc-
casionally heard, the presence of
Sir Archibald Wavell's army also
will be felt, for it is a menace to
the communications of any Russian
activity in this direction also.
Military Anxieties in India.
But in India itself Britain has
unquestionably certain military
anxieties. First of all, so great a
proportion of the Indian Army, both
British and native, has been with
drawn from India proper as to seri-
ously weaken the normal defensive
arrangements. The Indian Army
has two main functions in the de-
fense of India-one, the defense OF
the northwest frontier; two, the
maintenance of internal order.
After the great mutiny of 1857
the proportion of British to Indian
troops was fixed as one to two,
which was maintained over long
period; but since the World War
there has been a gradual falling off
of the British proportion. In 1887
1t had sunk to one to three. and
had fallen still lower at the time
of the outbreak of the present war
The creation of Indian reserve and
territorial units and the building
up of the forces of the native states
was hardly offset by the existence
of a proportion of British volunteer
units; the disproportion will now
have been very largely increased by
the mobilization of the Indian re-
serves and territorials, bringing
them to war strength and enlisting
new men for training.
Whether, as last time. British
troops of the territorial army from
the British Isles have been sent
to India, we are not informed. There
is reason to believe that at least
some forces of this character have