MILITARY RESOURCES OF INDIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1906, 4 February 1885, Page 2

MILITARY RESOURCES OF INDIA.

Jew Englishmen,; flays the; Times,, realise the existence of vast armed'ifdfe"el : in India, not under direct British'control... Theyknowthat'thelridian EmphVowhtf; a nativo and English army supported- bytaxation of English and Indian BUDjecta of the Queen. That in their miftdi comprisesthe full extent of the defensiveand offensive armaments of the Peninsula?. ■ Aseries of letters which we-' have xeCfeixtly ■published, offers a very different view of .the military apparatus of the country, 'ltjT"" shows a population HjndoJHr andMahomedans, under princes oftheP own, guarded by a formidable array of 349,835 troops, with an artillery; of 4,237 guns. From North to South, from east to west a chain ;of States is -seen to stretch bristling with foot and horße.with forts and artillery. In one ipqwjjrfuj Principality, that of Gwailor, the 15,000 infantry and 6,000 horse do not nearly, represent the total military strength of their sovereign,: 'Scindiah has,; adapted the Prussian tactics .of ; the .period 'after Jena, By passing recruits quioklythrough the ranks, and exahapgjng them for otherj it is computed 1 ' he might' summoq Ip lj|j standard 30,000 trained soldiers wfteruivejj • he pleased. In many native States the ■ disciplino is excellent, and the woapori'j ! and accoutrements are as efficient as' in Europe, Jn a)) a, warlike spirit abound,' Horsemen in the pay qf Spindiah op Hoekar, the fierce retainers qf the If iz'aiij . the 100,000 soldiers qf the Moharajah : pj v Nopaul, would ask nothing better than £9 be led te baft!?, whoever the adversary, The "Human material!', pj which rab force cqnsjts is most admirable, as g, . painfully experienced when oiir nW European trpops were engaged in suppress • ingthe mutiny. Without in anyway interfering with the prestige and inde. pendence qf-- the native princes, several of whom are our staunch allies, ifis to be, hoped that some means will be devised for appropriating for the peneral seryiw .of the Indian Empire the evident capacity of chiefs like Holkar and Scindiali, ' Nothing can be more pernicious thaK a native military system, which it is no 1 paradox to assert is hiore dangerous in 1 proportion to its rise and At the Bame time, the spontaneous expansion of such a system testifies to the presence of energies fa Jfodia.wh.wh would cease to be perilous and unprofitable coiilu a prop field be thrown open for their cultivation, A natiye predilection and barracjj life is4'rtconvertient''to'tKe'peaiiel of tii'dl in its existing form; but there are shapes' in which it might constitute a bulwark for the peace of India, instead of a menace.