HELLO!  SKY-PILOT!

At the outset of the war there was much speculation as to the response the Lion’s cubs would make to the call for help.  Britain, herself, never doubted that her children, now fully grown and very strong, would rally to the old flag as in the earlier days of their greater dependency.  But Britain, England, is of the Brer Rabbit type—­she sits still and says nuffin’.

The neutrals speculated on the attitude of Canada.  German propaganda had been busy, and certain sections of the Canadian public had been heard to say that they had no part with England—­but that was before the war.  The speculative neutral had a shock and a disappointment.  Not a Canadian, man or woman, but remembered that England was “home,” and home was threatened.  As one man they answered the short sharp cry.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa provided food for conversation among the nations then not engaged in the fight.  South Africa had a rising, fostered by German money and German lies, but it fizzled out before the determined attitude, not of England, but of the men who counted in South Africa itself.  All of these countries, which used to be colonies, came without question when the need arose.  They may have had minor disagreements with the Old Country, they may have resented the last lingering parental attitude of the Motherland, but let any one touch as an enemy that Motherland and that enemy had well have cried, “Peccavi!” on the moment.

Above all, the neutrals wondered about India.  That vast Far Eastern Empire with her millions of men—­what would India do?

What did India do?  The maharajahs threw into the coffers of the homeland millions of money, they threw in jewels in quantity to be judged by weight of hundreds, in value to be judged in millions of pounds.  They offered their men and their lahks of rupees without reservation.  The regular troops of the Eastern Empire, the Ghurkas, the Pathans, the Sikhs, a half dozen others, clamored to be taken over to Europe to fight at the front for the great White Chief.

The Indian troops came to Europe, landed in France, and took up their stand on the western front.  To them I must make special reference.  Some idea may be abroad that because the Hindu troops are not still in France that they proved poor fighters.  This is very far from the truth.  The Indian regiments were among our best, but they could not stand the rigors of the European climate.  They had been used to the warmth and brightness and dryness of their homeland; they came to cold and rain and mud and unknown discomforts.  It was too much.  Again, the Indian is made for open, hand-to-hand warfare.  Give him a hill to climb and hold, give him a forest to crawl through and gain his point, give him open land to pass over without being seen, he can not be beaten.  But the strain, mental and physical, of trench life was too much.