FOR SERVICE AND SAFETY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 December 1939, Page 3

FOR SERVICE AND SAFETY

HAKI, which in Hindustani means mud or dust, will again be the military colour for all occasions during the present war period. Peace-time full-dress and mess-dress uniforms, those bright scarlet and blue notes of colour so attractive at official functions, will be packed away in mothballs until hostilities cease. It is interesting to recall that India gave us khaki. During the Indian Mutiny a body of volunteer cavalry was formed by the Government and called " Khaki Risala," because of the colour of the uniforms they wore. Until then the white uniform had been worn, but it was too conspicuous, so someone thought of dipping it in an ochreous substance, rather like the colour of the Indian

landscape. Constant washing resulted in a most unsoldierly patchy garment, but later a permanent dye was used and produced the colour so familiar to-day. The Duke of Connaught, god-son of the Duke of Wellington, who is 89 years of age, introduced khaki into the British Army. When he was serving with the British Forces in Egypt in 1882 he was so impressed with the appearance of the Indian contingent that he wrote to the War Office suggesting that the colour be adopted for field service by all ranks. Queen Victoria did not agree with her son, and compared the uniform unfavourably with the traditional red which was worn by the soldiers of the line at that time. But the Duke won, and when the Guards went back to Egypt in 1884 for

the Gordon Relief Expedition they wore khaki and have done so ever since. Colour Protection The question of colour has always exercised the minds of European military authorities. It was thought that khaki might be specially suitable for barren countries and sandy wastes, but not for the verdant and tree-covered countryside of Europe, where a drab uniform might make too much of a contrast. Dull bluish-green was thought to be more suitable. However, khaki has proved satisfactory for all conditions-the green fields of Europe; the mud of Flanders; the hillsides of India; and the desert wastes of Egypt. It has stood all the tests, including invisibility. Against an emerald green hill khaki uniforms merge with the ground, men on the move being less conspicuous than those dressed in the German field grey or French bleu qd’ horizon,

The British War Office has recently placed orders worth £1,000,000 for khaki cloth, and mills are working overtime in England, as they are in New Zealand. The first khaki serge made in England came from Wellington, in Yorkshire, the town from which the Duke of Wellington took his title. Khaki is also the basic colour for camouflage-that cunning method of disguising as much as possible field artillery, transport lorries, and other impedimenta of an army. During the last war camouflage reached a high pitch of perfection. a zig-zag design in khaki and dark fern, painted on the guns and vehicles made them resemble as nearly as possible the country in which they were situated. Huge areas of scrim were similarly painted and used in France during the last war for screening roads, gun emplacements, dumps and sections of trenches, and even that flimsy disguise gave the soldiers a nice sense of security on more than one occasion.