ood as another
for purposes of war.

In former days, when the Native Army in India was so much stronger in
point of numbers than the British Army, and there existed no means
of rapid communication, it was only prudent to guard against a
predominance of soldiers of any one creed or nationality; but with
British troops nearly doubled and the Native Army reduced by more than
one-third, with all the forts and arsenals protected, and nearly the
whole of the Artillery manned by British soldiers, with railway and
telegraph communication from one end of India to the other, with the
risk of internal trouble greatly diminished, and the possibility of
external complications becoming daily more apparent, circumstances and
our requirements were completely altered, and it had become essential
to have in the ranks of our Native Army men who might confidently be
trusted to take their share of fighting against a European foe.

In the British Army the superiority of one regiment over another is
mainly a matter of training; the same courage and military instinct
are inherent in English, Scotch, and Irish alike, but no comparison
can be made between the martial value of a regiment recruited amongst
the Gurkhas of Nepal or the warlike races of northern India, and of
one recruited from the effeminate peoples of the south.

How little this was understood, even by those who had spent a great
part of their service in India, was a marvel to me; but, then, I
had had peculiar opportunities of judging of the relative fighting
qualities of Natives, and I was in despair at not being able to get
people to see the matter with my eyes, for I knew that nothing was
more sure to lead to disaster than to imagine that the whole Indian
Army, as it was then constituted, could be relied on in time of war.

General Chesney fortunately shared my opinions, and as Lords Dufferin
and Lansdowne trusted us, we were able to do a great deal towards
increasing the efficiency of the Native Army and improving the status
and prospects of the Native soldier. Several companies and regiments
composed of doubtful material were disbanded, and men of well-known
fighting castes entertained instead. Class regiments were formed,
as being more congenial to the men and more conducive to _esprit
de corps_; recruiting was made the business of carefully selected
officers who understood Native character, and whose duty it was to
become acquainted with the various tribes inhabiting the