MILITARY LIFE IN INDIA.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18412, 19 June 1925, Page 15

MILITARY LIFE IN INDIA.

", MAJOR-GENERAL MELVILL'S ADDRESS. , f - "Life and Training in India 25 Years • Ago" was the title of an address given ) Wore members of the Canterbury Officers' | * <Hub last night by Major-General Melvill, £ « New Zealand Forces, in the presence bf a large attendance, over whom Colonel \ the Hon. G. J. Smith (president cf the ¥ c l«b) presided. t The lecturer' said that life was very dif■i ( ferent in tbo Central Provinces of India g r irum what it was in the Dominion. The (t* J>«at was trying and the was f h«d, resulting in a high state of efficiency (, being reached. This was why the 29th wiswn, which made such a name for itself at Gallipoli, was so fine, the officers ') and men having spent so long in Indift. One of the peculiarities of military life g there was that, except for ft period of four '■>* > jMtha' strict training, every Thursday and r*» Sunday were holidays, only essential duties , - being carried out on those days. Owing -£ V> the climate being so sultry, it was necesiJ2, ** ar y that great attention should be paid 4 t° sport, and it was. As an instance of l p the sport that was to bo obtained in India, *■ », he stated that a party of seven guns was i-jp one day able to bag over 800 ducks, a quan--v j* l * 7 sufficient to feed the whole battalion. « Speaking of the social life, Major-General ' r ..MelviH eaid that there was nono in an up- "; cenntry garrison station except in reapect ™ of officers and their wives and civilians and >t [„ their wives. Thb men had no social life l-' ( Outside their own barracks. The officers -?'y always took part in the games played by men, and in every regiment there was ?1. * wonderful eßprit de corps.