36 FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA 



But when they go to India, where the pay is very much 

 better, their dreams become a reality, and we find them 

 racing, chasing, pig-sticking, shooting and playing polo with 

 the best. The Durham Light Infantry, for instance, had one 

 of the strongest polo teams ever known in India. Russian 

 officers have not at present an India in which to develop 

 their sporting tastes. It is evident that if the Russian 

 Government wishes its cavalry officers to be enthusiastic 

 horsemen, it must retain in that branch only those officers 

 who show special aptitude for mounted work, and it must 

 increase their pay. 



What Russian officers need above all things, and what it 

 appears almost impossible to give them, is early training in field 

 sports, and especially in outdoor games of discipline, such as 

 cricket, polo, and football. As they get little or nothing of 

 the kind, the wonder is that they are not softer than they 

 are. In the old days, say, forty years or more ago, the 

 officers of the Russian cavalry were a good deal richer than 

 those at present serving, and consequently had more money 

 to spend on horses. I have often heard it said in England 

 that Russian officers are greatly given to drinking and 

 gambling. Without wanting to hold them up for admiration 

 as saints who are patiently waiting for their respective halos 

 to be placed on their heads, I must say that I have found 

 them to be particularly sedate, and to be in no way inclined 

 to paint town and country red on the slightest provocation. 

 I am afraid that some of their maligners have mistaken 

 generous hospitality for habitual dissipation. 



A considerable number of the officers are Germans or 

 are of German origin, in which case they come chiefly from 

 the Baltic Provinces. I have been told that half the general 

 officers are of Teutonic blood, but think that my informant 

 made an unintentional exaggeration. Probably from 10 to 

 15 per cent, are of that descent. There are certainly more 



