‘WAR DIARY. ARMY HEADQUARTERS, INDIA. […] I.E.F. “D”. Volume 43. PART I. (From 1st to 14th November 1917.)’ [‎130r] (264/500)

While at Basrah there were three cases of men falling into hysterical
fits.
Another case of the same sort occurred here, but since the cooler weather,
this particular form of visitation appears to have left them.
The men have been regularly worked, and, as far as possible, with the
view to gradually bringing them up to the physical standard necessary for an
infantry soldier, and yet, when early in December I took them for a
9-mile march, in . marching order, but with only 100 rounds of ammunition
instead of 150 and in the cool of the day, cn a hard road, out of about 300
on parade, before the end of the.march three had fallen out in a dead faint,
twelve had fallen out and the remainder with very few exceptions had had
quite enough.
Apart from all the above, however, the men, owing to their exceedingly
low average physique and constitution, have since arriving in Baghdad, been
most prone to the numerous infectious diseases rampant in the city, including
several cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis.
To such an extent, indeed, have they been attacked that it has now been
decided by the Army Commander to move them to some station apart from
towns or villages, where they will have more chance of escaping the numerous
^epidemics that plague the country.
If the 49th Bengal Infantry were an ordinary regiment there would be
no more to be said.
As a matter of fact, however, this particular unit was raised under very
peculiar circumstances and for very mixed reasons.
For many years now the political leaders of Bengal have been complaining
that they got no commissions in the Army. The answer was very obvious,
namely that as there were no Bengal regiments they had no claims. In
reply, the Bengalis stated that it was no fault of theirs that there were no
regiments recruiting from their nationality: they called attention to what
diey referred to as their ancient military history and, when the present war
broke out, brought all possible arguments before the Government to induce
fbem to raise a class regiment of Bengalis.
Afl er a considerable time, Government complied .with their request and
Parted the Bengali double eompany and pointed out publicly that this was
done with a view to meeting the wishes of Bengal and to give them a chance of
shewing what they could do. Later on, as shewn above, the double company
was organised into a battalion.
Now the most noticeable point is that the battalion so formed is the first
choice by the recruiting officer of all the Bengalis who are willing to serve—•
that is, they are the picked voluntary fighting men out of a population of sixty
million.
And what is the result ?
They are of miserable physique and constitution.
Many of them are under age.
Thirty-seven of them have already been returned to India from hospital.
Live have died of disease.
163 are in hospital.
The question now arises: how is it that the answer to the permission given
by Government for the formation of this battalion has been so miserably in
adequate and, this being the result, what was the meaning of the original outcry
on the part of the politicians ?
The answer I think lies in the fact that the agitation was political and
nothing else, and that it was deliberately fostered with a purpose that is
pregnant with danger for the future of the Indian Army.
Bor some years now, discussions, not only in the vernacular and English
papers, but also in the United Services of India Inistitution magazine, have
shown very clearly that the time was coming when, under certain limitations,
regular commissions in the Indian Army would he thrown open to selected
individuals, the scions of the best Indian families, and presumably, of course,
themselves born of fighting clans with a national martial spirit.
The Bengal politician, who is a very wide awake gentleman, indeed, must
have clearly seen that under circumstances, as they existed, whoever was chosen
for these commissious, there was little chance of any representatives of Bengal
being among them, and a proposition more repugnant to the Bengali and more
fatal to his hopes of being ultimately the predominant factor in Indian national
life, can hardly be conceived.
I am of opinion that it was for this reason, and this reason only, that the
outcry for a Bengal battalion arose, and it is a striking commentary on their
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