CHAPTER VIII

INDIA

time was now come for us to embark for the East. THEWe sailed from Southampton in a trooper carrying about 1,200 men, and after a voyage of twenty-three days cast anchor in Bombay Harbour and pulled up the curtain on what might well have been a different planet. It may be imagined how our whole shipful of officers and men were delighted after being cooped up for nearly a month to see the palms and palaces of Bombay lying about us in a wide crescent. We gazed at them over the bulwarks across the shining and surf-ribbed waters. Every one wanted to go on shore at once and see what India was like. The de and formalities of disembarkation which oppress the or lays AngloBoerWar.com dinary traveller are multiplied for those who travel at the royal expense. However, at about three o'clock in the after noon orders were issued that we were to land at eight o'clock it in a of when would be cool 5 and the meantime proportion officers might go ashore independently. A shoal of tiny boats had been lying around us all day long, rising and falling with the swell. We eagerly summoned some of these. It took about a quarter of an hour to reach the quays of the Sassoon I the motion of the Dock. Glad was to be there j for lively skiff to which I and two friends had committed ourselves was fast becoming our main preoccupation. We came along side of a great stone wall with dripping steps and iron rings for hand-holds. The boat rose and fell four or five feet with the surges. I put out my hand and grasped at a ring; but be fore I could get my feet on the steps the boat swung away, giving my right shoulder a sharp and peculiar wrench. I scrambled up all right, made a few remarks of a general character, mostly beginning with the earlier letters of the 101 A ROVING COMMISSION

alphabet, hugged my shoulder and soon thought no more about it. Let me counsel my younger readers to beware of dislo cated shoulders. In this, as in so many other things, it is the first step that counts. Quite an exceptional strain is required to tear the which holds the shoulder capsule joint together $ but once the deed is done, a terrible liability remains. Al though my shoulder did not actually go out, I had sustained an which was to last me life which was to injury my 5 cripple me at polo, to prevent me from ever playing tennis, and to be a grave embarrassment in moments of peril, violence and effort. Since then, at irregular intervals my shoulder has dislocated on the most unexpected pretexts: sleeping with my arm under the pillow, taking a book from the library shelves, slipping on a staircase, swimming, etc. Once it very nearly went out through a too expansive gesture in the House of Commons, and I thought how astonished the members would have been to see the to whom AngloBoerWar.comspeaker they were listening, suddenly for no reason throw himself upon the floor in an instinctive effort to take the strain and lever age off the displaced arm bone. This accident was a serious piece of bad luck. However, you never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck. Perhaps if in the charge of Omdurman I had been able to a use sword, instead of having to adopt a modern like weapon a Mauser pistol, my story might not so far have got as the telling. One must never forget when misfortunes come that it is quite possible they are saving one from much worse or that something 5 when you make some it great mistake, may very easily serve you better than the best-advised decision. Life is a whole, and luck is a whole, and no part of them can be separated from the rest. Let us resume our journey into what Brabazon in his farewell had speech called 'India, that famous appanage of the Bwitish Cwown.' We were sent into a rest camp at and Poona, arriving late in the evening passed our second 102 I NDIA night after landing in large double-fly tents upon a spacious plain. Daylight brought suave, ceremonious, turbanned ap plicants for the offices of butler, dressing boy, and head groom, which in those days formed the foundation of the subaltern's household. All bore trustworthy testi with them from the monials home-going $ and after brief formalities and salaams laid hold of one's worldly possessions and assumed absolute responsibility for one's whole domestic life. If you liked to be waited on and re lieved of home worries, India thirty years ago was perfec tion. All you had to do was to hand over all your uniform and clothes to the dressing boy, your ponies to the syce, and your money to the butler, and you need never trouble any each of these ministers more. Your Cabinet was complete 5 entered upon his department with knowledge, experience and fidelity. They would devote their lives to their task. For a humble wage, justice, and a few kind words, there was noth they would not do. Their world became bounded by the ing AngloBoerWar.com commonplace articles of your wardrobe and other small possessions. No toil was too hard, no hours were too long, no dangers too great for their unruffled calm or their unfail ing care. Princes could live no better than we. Among the group of suitors at our tent appeared two or three syces leading polo ponies and bearing notes from their masters} and then arrived with some commotion a splendid man in a red and gold frock-coat bearing an envelope with a puissant crest. He was a messenger from the Governor, Lord Sandhurst, inviting me and my companion, Hugo Baring, to dine that night at Government House. Thither, after a long day occupied mainly in scolding the troopers for forgetting to wear their pith-helmets and thus risking their lives, we repaired, and enjoyed a banquet of glitter, pomp and iced champagne. His Excellency, after the health of the Queen-Empress had been drunk and dinner was over, was good enough to ask my opinion upon several matters, and considering the magnificent character of his hospitality, I 103 A ROVING COMMISSION

in me not to thought it would be unbecoming reply fully. of British and Indian I have forgotten the particular points he counsel all I can remem affairs upon which sought my 5 indeed ber is that I responded generously. There were mo his views but ments when he seemed willing to impart own j I thought it would be ungracious to put him to so much he subsided. He sent his trouble j and very readily kindly aide-de-camp with us to make sure we found our way back hours to camp all right. On the whole, after forty-eight of intensive study, I formed a highly favourable opinion about India. Sometimes, thought I, one sees these things more c completely at first sight. As Kinglake says, a scrutiny so minute as to bring an object under an untrue angle of vision, is a poorer guide to a man's judgment than a sweeping glance which sees things in their true proportion.' We cer tainly felt as we dropped off to sleep the keenest realization of the great work which England was doing in India and of her mission to rule these but races high AngloBoerWar.comprimitive agreeable for their welfare and our own. But almost immediately, it seemed, the trumpets sounded reveille and we had to catch the 5.10 train for our thirty-six-hour journey to Bangalore. The great triangular plateau of Southern India comprises the domains of the Nizam and the Maharajah of Mysore. The tranquility of these regions, together about the size of France, is assured in the ultimate resort by two British gar risons of two or three thousand troops apiece at Bangalore and Secunderabad. In each case there is added about double the number of Indian so that sufficient forces of all troops 5 arms are permanently available for every purpose of train 1 ing and manoeuvre. The British lines or cantonments are in accordance with invariable practice placed five or six miles from the cities which the populous they guard j and in inter vening space lie the lines of the Indian . The Brit ish troops are housed in large, cool, colonnaded barracks. Here forethought and order have been denied neither time

Pronounced ccantoonments.' IO4 INDIA nor space in the laying out of their plans. Splendid roads, endless double avenues of shady trees, abundant supplies of water and pure j imposing offices, hospitals institutions} ample parade-grounds and riding schools characterize these centres of the collective life of considerable white communi ties. The climate of Bangalore, at more than 3,000 feet above sea level, is excellent. Although the sun strikes with torrid power, the nights except in the hottest months are cool and fresh. The roses of Europe in innumerable large pots at tain the highest perfection of fragrance and colour. Flowers, flowering shrubs and creepers blossom in glorious profusion. Snipe (and snakes) abound in the marshes, brilliant butter flies dance in the sunshine, and nautch-girls by the light of the moon. No quarters are provided for the officers. They draw in stead a lodging allowance which together with their pay and other incidentals fills each month with silver a AngloBoerWar.com rupees string net bag as big as a prize turnip. All around the cavalry mess lies a suburb of roomy one-storeyed bungalows standing in their own walled grounds and gardens. The subaltern re ceives his bag of silver at the end of each month of duty, canters home with it to his bungalow, throws it to his beam ing butler, and then in theory has no further material cares. It was however better in a cavalry regiment in those days to supplement the generous rewards of the Queen-Empress by an allowance from home three or four times as great. Alto gether we received for our services about fourteen shillings a day with about 3 a month on which to keep two horses. This, together with 500 a year paid quarterly, was my sole means of support: all the rest had to be borrowed at usurious rates of interest from the all-too-accommodating native bankers. Every officer was warned against these gentlemen. most I always found them agreeable 5 very, fat, very urbane, quite honest and mercilessly rapacious. All you had to do was to sign little bits of paper, and produce a polo pony as if 105 A ROVING COMMISSION

by magic. The smiling financier rose to his feet, covered his face with his hands, replaced his slippers, and trotted off con tentedly till that day three months. They only charged two cent, a month and made a $er quite good living out of it, considering they hardly ever had a bad debt. We three, Reginald Barnes, Hugo Baring and I, pooling all our resources, took a palatial bungalow, all pink and white, with heavy tiled roof and deep verandahs sustained by white plaster columns, wreathed in purple bougainvillea. It stood in a compound or grounds of perhaps two acres. We took over from the late occupant about a hundred and fifty splendid standard roses: Marechal Niel, La France, Gloire de etc. a Dijon, We built large tiled barn with mud walls, containing stabling for thirty horses and ponies. Our three butlers formed a triumvirate in which no internal dissensions ever appeared. We paid an equal contribution into the pot; and thus freed from mundane cares, devoted ourselves to the serious of life. purpose AngloBoerWar.com This was in one word Polo. It expressed was upon this, apart from duty, that all our interest was concentrated. But before could you play polo, you must have ponies. We had formed on the voyage a regimental polo club, which in re turn for moderate but regular subscriptions from all the officers (polo-players and non-polo-players alike) offered substantial credit facilities for the procuring of these indis pensable allies. A regiment coming from home was never to count in the expected Indian polo world for a couple of It took that time to years. get a proper stud of ponies to gether. However, the president of our polo club and the Senior after and anxious Officers, prolonged discussions, determined a bold upon and novel stroke. The Bycullah stables at form Bombay the main emporium through which Arab houses and ponies are imported to India. The Poona Light a native Horse, regiment strongly officered by British, had in virtue of its permanent station an obvious advantage in the of Arabian purchase ponies. On our way through 1 06 AngloBoerWar.com INDIA

Poona we had tried their ponies, and had entered into deep ly important negotiations with them. Finally it was decided that the regimental polo club should purchase the entire polo stud of twenty-five ponies possessed by the Poona Light so that these Horse 5 ponies should form the nucleus around which we could gather the means of future victory in the Inter-Regimental Tournament. I can hardly describe the sustained intensity of purpose with which we threw our selves into this audacious and colossal undertaking. Never in the history of Indian polo had a cavalry regiment from Southern India won the Inter-Regimental cup. We knew it would take two or three years of sacrifice, contrivance and effort. But if all other diversions were put aside, we did not believe that success was beyond our compass. To this task then we settled down with complete absorption. I must not forget to say that there were of course also a great many military duties. Just before dawn, every morn one was awakened a with a hand ing, AngloBoerWar.comby dusky figure clammy adroitly lifting one's chin and applying a gleaming razor to a lathered and defenceless throat. By six o'clock the regiment was on parade, and we rode to a wide plain and there drilled and manoeuvred for an hour and a half. We then returned to baths at the bungalow and breakfast in the mess. Then at nine stables and orderly room till about half-past ten; then home to the bungalow before the sun attained its fiercest ray. All the distances in the spread-out cantonment were so great that walking was impossible. We cantered on hacks from one place to another. But the noonday sun asserted his tyrannical authority, and long before eleven o'clock all white men were in shelter. We nipped across to luncheon at half-past one in blistering heat and then returned to sleep till five o'clock. Now the station begins to live again. It is the hour of Polo. It is the hour for which we have been living all day long. I was accustomed in those days to play every chukka I could get into. The whole system was elaborately organized the and a smart little for the garrison during morning 3 peon 107 A ROVING COMMISSION

all the officers with the collected the names of together These were aver number of chukkas they wished to play. 'the of the greatest aged out so as to secure greatest good less than and more number.' I very rarely played eight often ten or twelve. we As the shadows lengthened over the polo ground, and exhausted to hot ambled back perspiring baths, rest, of the band and and at 8.30 dinner, to the strains regimental Thereafter those the clinking of ice in well-filled glasses. who were not so unlucky as to be caught by the Senior then in called Officers to play a tiresome game vogue 'Whist,' ten or eleven sat smoking in the moonlight, till half-past Such was 'the at the latest signalled the 'And so to bed.' long, it for three and not such long Indian day' as I knew years } a bad day either.

AngloBoerWar.com

108