FIGHTING RACES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 234, 29 September 1914, Page 4

FIGHTING RACES.

The Indian Contingent

Their Chance has Come.

More than a century and a-half has passed since Indian troops, under British officers, faced a European enemy in the field, and India lias sen many changes sin o (live drove out the French with an army largely composed of native soldiers (writer " A Soldier " in the Melbourne Age). The Indian forces have undergone rnrny reorganisations as the Empire extended its boundaries, but the last, under Lord Kitchener, when Commander - inChief, dually eliminated the tribes, which had become effete and lost their military qualities, and ensured that the Indian regiments should be recruited only from tl*e " fighting races." Of the Rijputs, the oldest fighting race in India, whoso name means "smsof piinces," and whoso chiefs claim d'v nt from the old gods, will probably not be drawn upon for the present war, as the hot climate in which they live would unfit them for service in the sno.v and wet of a German winter. The same may be said of the Ma r atas, Jats, and Deccanis, and wo may conclude that the expeditionary force will consist mainly of Sikhs, Pathans, aud <uirk; lias. Of these the Pathans and Gurkhas a-.e mountaineers, and used to intense cold, while the Sikhs inhabit '.lie Pun jab, w hero the winters are at least as cold as in France or southern Germany. TIIE GURKHA. The Gurkha differs widely from Sikh or Pathan. He is of mixed Hindu aid Mongol stock, small, dark, and vry muscular. He loves sport, whr-ro sport consist in killing of any wild animal, and looks on fighting as the highest form of sport. He is a fair riHe shot, but as a rule better at game or at an enemy than on the rifle range. Each man carries, iu addition to litle and bayonet, the kukri, or kookree, the national weapon, a curved knife, with a blade about 1 Sin. long, a very heavy back, and a convex cutting edge. This weapon he mutli prefers to tlio rille or bayonet, and a Gurkha < barge driven home is a teirible thing, for the Gurkha fairly revels in a hand-to-hand scrimmage, and the kukri will lop off a head or an arm with the greatest ease. Indeed, armed with his beloved kukri, the Guikha fears nothing, and will cheerfully attack a wounded tiger or a hostile battery, lie is by nature a most bloodthirsty little man, and his great festival, the feast of Durga, goddess of death, is a wild orgy of blood. In a Gurkha regiment all the Biitish officers who can take leave during this festival, and those who are left keep well away from the men's lines while the slaughter is going on. The Indian cavalry are the pick f,f the Indian army, and are p i haps the most aristocratic service iu the world, every trooper being a gentleman of land-owning stock. Each man on joining pays a considerable | sum of money to purchase his horse and arms, and receives more than three times the pay of an infantry soldier, out of which he has to keep his horse. Direct commissions aie often given to men of good family, especially those who can bring a number of their tenants or retainers as recruits. Otherwise, all promotion is through the ranks. The moral effect on the Germans of being faced on the field by such troops as these will be great. In past years various Germans have expressed to me their horror and dismay at the idea of France using her African troops, Algerians and Senegalese, against Germany if war should break out between the two countries. The Indian troops are far better than any Africans, and will without doubt strike terror into the enemy. In the coalition war in China in 1000-1901 the Indian soldiers developed a profound contempt for the Germans, who were then acting as their allies, and now these samo soldiers, led by British officers to whom they are devoted, and whom they love and admire beyond measure, will face with the greatest confidence and an unlimited sense of superiority the best troops of the Kaiser. For years they have been mndly keen to join with their j... .jh comrades iu a great Imperial war, and now their chance lias como.

THE SIKHS. The Sikh', who number about 3,000,000, were originally a religious sect, under strict military discipline, which arose in the loth century, and by the end of the 1 stli had become a powerful nation, under the famous " Lion of Punjab," Ran jit Singh. Tall, powerful men, living chiefly on the land, they are good horsemen and make magnificent infantry. They fought two wars against the British—in I*H"> and IS49—and were finally subdued by Lord Gough after many desperate battles, ftough was much censured at tlio time for Ins love of close-quarter fighting and the bayonet, which led to very heavy losses, but sinco then the Sikhs have always said that we beat them fairly, man to man, with the cold steel, and that they would stick to us while the sun shone in the heavens. The Sikh soldier is one of the finest men to be seen on earth. Fully six feet high, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and with a most stately bearing, he looks the ideal uf a lighting man. nis huge black beard is parted on the chin aid carried back in two rolls, fastened behind his eats, and surmounted by an immense pagri (usually miscalled " puggaree " «r turban, into which is folded a thin, flat, sharp steel ring, the " throwing quoit," an ancient weapon, with which an expert can kill a man at .30 yards. Nowadays it is no longer used for lighting, but is good to ward oil' a cut from the head. The Sikh is an excellent bayonet lighter, aud loves a hand-to-hand combat. Th'>se who saw the Indian contingent which visited Australia in 1900, when the present King came out as Prince of Wales, will not forget the martial bearing of the Sikh soldiers who formed part of it. A DIFFERENT TYPE. The Pathans are of a different type. Tall, spare, and wiry, inured to hard living, cold and fatigue, in a country so poor that it hardly supports its population, they can stand extremes of hardship and privation. They are not, as a rule, fond of hand-to hand fighting, but when worked up to a pitch of excitement they will charge home with the most desperate courage, and will take as much killing as awi d boast. Fanatical Mahometans to a man, their sole thought when lighting against '■ unbelievers" is to kill as many as possible before they go down, secuie iu the belief that this gives them a direct passport to heaven. They live habitually in a state of war, in the SOO miles of rugged mountain rango which foinis the north-west frontier of India. Every tribe i- at war with every other, often village will village, and blool fueds are as common and as bitter as the vendetta in Corsica. Every man carries a r lie, and his reaching the age of manhood is proof that ho can use it. The Pathans are, without doubt, the finest riile shots in the world, and the mau who exposes himself within 100 yards of a Pathan has a small chance of life. Many of them are also born horsemen, and. although the sword is less used than in the days before rifles were known, they make light cavalry second to none. Their eyesight is very keen, and the training of their whole lite has made them perfect in scouting and in every trick and artifice of war, ambushes and night attacks being perhaps their favourite mode of fighting.