INDIA’S DEFENCES

Evening Star, Issue 23376, 20 September 1939, Page 10

INDIA’S DEFENCES

FORCES TO BE MODERNISED HUGE GRANT FROM BRITAIN (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, September 19. (Received September 20, at 11.5 a.m.) The decision of the Imperial Government to make a grant of over £25,000,000 towards the modernisation of India’s defence forces has been received very favourably by all sections of opinion in India. The grant is tho sequel to the findings of the expert committee, of which Lord Chatfield was the chairman. The committee, working on material made available to in India, estimated • the total net capital cost of modernising India’s defence forces at something over £34,000,000. The committee, as well as the British Government, realised that the funds required to meet this heavy expenditure could not be found out of the resources available in India. It was therefore decided that three-quarters of the fund needed to be approved as a free gift, while one-quarter would be by way of loan. Interest on the loan portion is entirely remitted for the first five years. The modernising of India’s defence forces has not, of course, been waiting upon this final decision. The first units selected for conversion last year in the Indian army, as distinct from the British Army in India, were cavalry regiments. The Indian cavalry soldier has proved himself wonderfully adaptable to all the new training ho has had to undergo, and has shown his capacity of beebming without any difficulty a “ modern soldier,” with all the technical knowledge which that term implies to-day