INDIA’S PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1941, Page 6

INDIA’S PART

■ NOTABLE WAR EFFORT MANY VOLUNTEERS. LAND AND NAVAL FORCES. Freely giving of their services, Indian volunteers are crowding out India’s recruiting depots. Centuries of military renown lie behind them. Including as they do members of valorous races, such as the Punjabi, Mahomedans and Mahrattas, they represent some of the most famous fighting stock in the world. In the last war India enrolled nearly 1,500,000 recruits and sent more than 1,000,000 men of all ranks overseas. Today the peace-time army of 160,000 is already nearing the 500,000 mark, and the stream of volunteers is being accepted for service as fast as training units can equip it with the weapons' and the technical knowledge required for mechanised war.

Indians serving overseas in 1940-41 are adding afresh to their nation’s military renown. They joined in delivering the first hammer blow at Sidi Barrani, which led to the smashing of Grazianis Libyan army. Farther south they held the Italians on the borders of the Sudan through the scorching months of last summer. From there they led the advance which swept into the lowlands of Eritrea. Climbing towards its plateau, they distinguished themselves on the heights of Keren. They were the first troops into Massawa. They are now hastening south to join forces with the South Africans, who forestalled them in the race for Addis Ababa. Elsewhere they are ready to give service. The latest news tells of Indian reinforcements for Singapore and Tobruk and of Indian detachments landing in Iraq. Indian naval co-operation in these exploits included the landing of troops and supplies on a hostile Eritrean coast and the landing of the first troops to leap ashore to recapture Berbera. The Admiralty—no easy critic—reports that the Royal Indian Navy performed these tasks with “conspicuous efficiency.” The strength of the R.l.N.—five vessels only at the outbreak of war—is growing steadily. Two warships were launched in Britain last year and Indian shipyards are busy on minesweepers and patrol boats. Already India possesses the largest naval forces in her history. They arc manned by volunteers from all over India, from the heavily built Punjabis to the slighter types of seafarers by tradition of the Malabar coasts. By the beginning of 1941 the numbers of the R.I.N. and auxiliary ratings in service had increased by 200 per cent since the outbreak of war.

AIR FORCE QUADRUPLED. The Indian Air Force, though still small, is being quadrupled and makes up in keenness what it lacks in size. When vacancies for a further 300 pilots were announced in October, 1940, the authorities received 18,000 applications. The duties so far assigned to the I.A.F. cover home defences only, but Indian pilots have been able to ,get to grips both by being seconded to the R.A.F. and by actual enlistment in the British Air Forces. Given the chance they have acquitted themselves as well as did their fathers in the last war. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. India’s prime contribution, apart from her fighting quality, lies in her commanding geographical position. Twothirds of the British Empire* lies around tfie shores of the Indian Ocejn. With India as its centre, this vast unit is capable of endless mutual self-support in the matter of war supplies. To organise this support was the object of the great Eastern Group Conference, which met at Delhi in October, 1940. Its findings arc now being put into operation by a Provision and Supply 1 Council, the long arm of which stretches out from Delhi as far on the one hand as Tobruk and Cape Town, on the other as far as New Zealand and Hong Kong. Not the least of its achievements is the shipping space. It has already saved the Mother Country by its organisation of local supply. As a producer of the necessities of war, India also plays a leading part. Nature richly endowed her for the purpose. After North America and Russia, she is the richest country in the world in raw materials. Her timber exports were, in the last war, sufficient for all Middle Eastern war needs, and she is confident that she can repeat the performance. India contributes largely to the considerable self-sufficiency of the British Empire as a whole. Of the six basic materials of modern war industry, she is an exporter of four—iron, cotton, coal and rubber. She provides virtually all the world’s jute—another important fibre —and more than half its vegetable oils. She is its second biggest producer of manganese, needed for the hardening of special steels for armaments. Of foodstuffs, too, she is one of the world’s great producers. She and Burma together stand first as regards rice, tea, sugar, and yield 30 per cent of the world’s cattle, 9 per cent of its wheat, and 7 per cent of its fisheries.

GROWTH IN MANUFACTURES. As a manufacturer, India’s growth in the last quarter of a century stands hei in good stead, now that she is called on to make equipment for armies stretched half across the globe. Today her cotton mills and woollen mills, her iron and steel industry, her lailway workshops, and her ordnance and other factories, are computed to be turning out 90 per cent of her own war requirements. In addition, they have met overseas requirements ranging from 100,000,000 rounds of small