'Russia and India in 1903' [‎16r] (31/68)

THE INDIAN CAVALRY.
29
It may be assumed that the pay to discharge all
these obligations is of considerable amount. It com
mences at 31 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. (£2 is. a month, and rises
by good conduct to 4.S. more. The annual cost,
therefore, of a trooper to the State, including his
horse, pay, food, forage, equipment, and quarters, is
under £25 —much less than half that of the British
infantry soldier, and but £5 more than the Imperial
Yeoman costs for his fourteen days’ training.
There is no more vexed subject of communication
between the War Office and the several units of the
British Army than that of accounts. Correspondence
over pennies absorbs pounds. So far as the Indian
Cavalry is concerned, there is nothing which occupies
the authorities less. The colonel of a regiment is held
responsible that the accounts are kept strictly accord
ing to order. All officers in turn are required to take
charge of the accounts, so that all may have a complete
insight into the manner of conducting the business of
a regiment. The Acquittance Roll is signed or sealed
monthly by every man in durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). , and all the heads of
account duly balanced.
The British Officers .—Responsibility is the order of
the day. The colonel engages the men, punishes
them, furloughs them, dismisses them, pensions them ;
he purchases the horses, provides the equipment. As
he is, so is the regiment. The result is nearly always
a man of large and wide ideas. It rarely happens that
more than half of the nine combatant British officers
are present at the same time. Command of a squadron
or a wing frequently falls, therefore, to quite young
men. The tests to which officers volunteering from
the British Army for the Indian Army are subjected,
ensure a very high standard, and the best naturally
go to the cavalry, offering, as it does, great advan
tages. The work is hard, but it is well done, and
no finer body of men exists. They are on the best of
terms with the Native officers.