"GUNGA DINS."

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1915, Page 10

"GUNGA DINS."

AN ESTIMATE OF THE INDIANS. It seems a thousand pities that s< littlo should be heard in Britain of tin heroism of the Indians in Gallipoli. These men are simply magnificent, jj My simple tribute of praise to them ! j which tiie Secretary of State for Indii | published, states a writer in the Weeklj ; | Dispatch, was merely -what every Aus il tralian I know would have paid. "Then f is not a man jack of them," said one o i our fellows, "but might have been tin j living original of Kipling's imniorta j TEA, OR GUNS, FOR THE SAHIBS. i We met the bulk of them at Malta, ! and were rather surprised at the way | Lord Methuen would go from our camp ! to theirs and chat with them in just as 1 friendly a spirit. Some of us commented ; 011 this, but one of those who had seen tliem at peace and at war said, "Wait till you see those fellows on the battlefield, and I bet there's not one of yoli as wouldn't take of! his hat to them." He was right, too! From the very first they showed their (friendliness. We could not get tea served i on our boat, and as soon as the Indians ■ heard this—knowing wnat his dai'y tea 1 1, is to the sahib—their cooks, after their f own meals were over, hurried to help us. I I don't know what would have hap- \ pened to us without those Indians when we made our landing 011 the peninsula. Jt looked "touch and go" for the Australian and New Zealand troops when Ithe Indian mountain batteries came ashore with their guns all in pieces. No sooner had they brought these pieces together, however, than whole guns seemed | to spring up in the twinkling of un eye, (as you' Would see it 011 the kinema film. ■lt was wonderful. We had never seen 1 anything like it, and I'm jolly well sure ' the Turks hadn't. They would scramble up the hills all higgledy-piggledy and then suddenly come together round a gun that seemed to be already firing, and from there keep Up a most terrific and accurate fire upon the enemy. That, in my opinion, with, of conrse j the help of the Fleet's big guns, saved the day. AFTER THAT WE WERE PALS. It was a privilege to fight with the Indians —there's 110 other word for it. If ever I felt proud of the Empire, it was that day, when I saw the pluck of the men which the old flag had been able to arouse in spite of color, caste and creed. After that we felt a sort of link between us, and hoth sides began to pal up. On the whole, they were bigger chaps than we were—they were all over lift., and we averaged sft. lOin. Great, strong, broad-shouldered fellows, who could carry twice our loads, and did not seem to know the meaning of pain or death or "slacking." Their reverence for us all the while was quite quaint. It had something of the old English retainer in it. They were proud to fight for us. and they would tell 11s so in Lhe few words of English they had been able to master. "Salaam, sar. Australia very good," was their morning salutation. A BIT "ON THEIR OWN," They were not afraid of gunfire or shrapnel: in fact, they would often wall; through showers of falling lead when we would duck and take cover. What they liked was a bit of hand-to-hand fighting. And, though they have such a wonderful sense of discipline that you only have to point to a thing to get an order carried out, what they love is to "do a bit on their own." Sometimes, for instance, yon will see them crouching like tiger= in the short grass and waiting hours upon hour? for their chance, and then they will swoop down 011 their prey with their deadly knives and—it's "kingdom come" for the poor old Turk. They are simply marvellous on snipers. These latter have a wonderful method of biscuits and a pot of water to live upon for days, with nothing but their head and shoulders above the ground, and these covered with branches so as to look like trees. They don't deceive the Indians, though, and every night there's one or two the less. "NEVER A CRY, NEVER A GROAN." The comradeship among the Indians also struck us. Like us. they never set out without a sufficient number of Red Cross men, but I should say these will compare with any in the world for sacrifice. I know of a case in which an Indian crawled out several hundred yards and dressed the wound of one of our Australians with his own emergency dressing. which, as every soldier knows, no ta.an is allowed to part with, under severe penalties. No, you can't teach the Indian nnyJ thing iik the heroism line, I can tell/ you. 1 Then there is tbeir power of eiv.liusance ; it is maiveilous—never a yfy, never a groan, though sometimes ,'they are undergoing excruciating suffering. I remember a man in hospital ]yin£ with a face as placid as that of an ebony figure. He had had the left bi)ttock shot away by shell fire and the .right foot crushed to pulp, but not a line in his features moved. Very oftsijj too, their wounds were almost entirely due to voluntarily coming to our help. \That is the thing that used to move ii,s. 'jit in no exaggeration to say that the Empire spirit has bound us so close since! that the Indian is to the Australian almost the same as the New Zealander. / Some of us felt in' our heart*/ that they were better men than we W\>re—these Gunga Dins! j