THE MILITARY OF INDIA. American Officers Invited to the Winter Mancevres.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 143, 27 February 1886, Page 6

THE MILITARY OF INDIA. American Officers Invited to the Winter Mancevres.

No incident of the month has created more interest than the invitation which the Earl of Dufferin, Governor- General of India, sent to our Government, inviting three officers of the United States Army to come to India as speedily as possible, oeensibly to be present at the winter's manoeuvres of the 1 hird, Fourth and Fifth divisions massed into an army corps. It is understood, however, that something more is intended than this, and that the real object is to allow American officers to be present at the capture of the Burman capital by the troops under General Prendergast. The American officers will be the gueßts of the GovernorGeneral, and no pains will be spared in showing them everything worth seeing in the military establishment of the Indian Empire. Tho interest in this mattor is caused^ by the unusual character of the invitation. What is behind all this is a question that no one seems able to answer. Such an invitation was never tendered before, and the assumption that there is more than a desire to be civil to the great Anglo-Saxon nation beyond the seas is not without some foundation. If these officers are to go through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan and see for themselves what England is doing to maintain the in* grity of her Indian possessions there may be a farreaching diplomatic in'ention in it all that will be apparent. The friendship of this country for Russia has long been a source of uneasiness to England, and it is thought by the clearost-heaaed officers in our army that the report which the visitors will make may have something to do with modifying American sentiment in relation to Russia, which now favours that power. That some such idea induced this unusual courtesy is the opinion of all those whose views would be of value. The future 'will explain it ; but until we learn about it, it must be the merest conjecture. Colonel Lazelle, Captain Mills, and the other officer who may be detailed to accompany them to India, are in exceptionally good luck. They will have such an opportunity as has never been afforded Americans of seeing {how those veteran Mahrattas and Sikh horsemen and tough little Goorka infantrymen will fight. The column charged with the reduction 'of Burmah is made up very largely of native troops (the artillery alone being entirely English), and sturdier and better plucked soldiers never marched under the red flag of St Geoi'ge and the dragon. The occasion is unusual, and will be interesting to the officers detailed in more ways than one.