BRITAIN'S INDIAN TROOPS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 171, 17 July 1878, Page 4

BRITAIN'S INDIAN TROOPS

On the Sth May, Colonel W. Wyndham writes to the New Yorl^ Herald upon tho above subject as follows .*— •' Will you allow me a small space in you columns to say a word lor the native soldiers of Her Majesty'a army in India, who I see treated in yesterday's Despatch as half savages, and a doubt expressed whether they can stand a European climate. Their fighting "powers are contemptuously compared by the writer to that of the French Zouaves and the Turcos. Apart from the ignorance of the man, who seems to suppose the Ziuove to be aaything but what he really is, a Frenchman, I cannot allow the remarks on the Indian army to pass me without a protest. I have had the honour to serve Her Majesty as. an officer for many years, eleven of which were served in India, where I was in garrison with Her Majesty's native, troops, and leap Barely; say that a finer body of mea for <JriU,. discipline, and fighting

qualities I huve never eeen. The two regiments of cavalry now on the seas on their way towards Haifa aro ns fine cava!**- as there are in tho wciid. As swordpmen and horpPuien they cannot be surpassed, while they ara mngnificently mounted and well equipped. I f l>e t haro that the j,b!e Genera), Lord Napier of Mftcdrda, who is nominated to command any aimy England may put into the field (should she unhappily have to go to wat) has not only consented to, but has urged the employment of thn native army, with whom he has served for nearly forty years, and on whofre loyally aud courage he kuows he can depend} and who I bslieve will prove, when led ou by their European officer?, as gool troops as any iv the world. There need be little fear on the score of climate. Indian climate alone offers sufficient varieties 0/ temperature «o test the endurance of fha soldiers. In ihe North of she Punjab thb soldiers in tiio winter are clothed iv sheep-skins coats, much the same as they would wear in Europe. The way in which the ill-clothed ship Lascars bravo out the cold when they aro in European ecus, in a sufficient, proof that thu- natives esn stand the winter."