'Russia and India in 1903' [‎9v] (18/68)

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RUSSIA AND INDIA IN 1903.
but twenty-five years too late, and by blood and
disaster, instead of by observation and power to
grasp new ideas. Sir Edward Hutton, the Com
mandant of the Australian Forces, stood, before the
South African War, almost alone in the British Army,
all of whose wars are mounted infantry campaigns, in
urging their indispensable utility.
A warning let me give. If the Russians ever invade
India, they will do so with 200,000 mounted infantry,
and we must have better and more numerous marks
men, on horses, 1 to oppose and circumvent them, if they
chance to come alive through the passes.
The Russian Cavalry is organised in 19 cavalry
divisions of 2 brigades each, or, in other words, in 8 5
regiments, with in war 503 squadrons, and 7 squadrons
of mounted police. There are two divisions of Cavalry
of the Guard, with 10 regiments—4 cuirassiers (the
Chevalier Garde, the Garde a Cheval, the Curassiers
of the Emperor and of the Empress), 2 of dragoons,
2 of hussars, and 2 of lancers—the heavy regiments
with 4 squadrons, the light regiments with 6 each.
The horse provision for such an enormous mounted
force—each regiment of 6 squadrons requiring 1,000
horses—necessarily entails the most elaborate arrange
ments. Practically every cavalry division has its
remount establishment in one or other of the great
horse-breeding provinces of the South-East. There
are also remount commissions, each buying from 800
to 1,000 horses. But the system of selection and
distribution is not a little complicated and difficult of
explanation.
The Artillery ,—Every infantry division has a field
artillery brigade, of from 6 to 9 batteries of 8 guns
each, attached to it, and every cavalry division has in
like manner a horse artillery brigade, with 6 guns per
See page 26, speech of Sir Power Palmer to the General
officers at Delhi.