274 POLO IN THE ARMY. [Chap XII. 



requires twenty-two men and a whole day for its 

 performance. Hunting is as good or perhaps even a 

 better educational amusement for soldiers than polo, 

 because it teaches quickness of eye for a country, 

 decision, and promptness to seize an opportunity ; but 

 hunting is possible only in a few places where soldiers 

 are quartered. Even in England it can, as a rule, be 

 indulged in only when an officer is on leave, and in 

 any case it occupies the entire day. Well managed 

 polo, on the contrary, can be played close to barracks 

 in almost every part of the Empire. Besides, polo has 

 the inestimable advantage, from a military point of 

 view, that it promotes among officers enthusiasm and 

 esprit de corps, which is not done by individual 

 sports, such as hunting, shooting, pigsticking, or by 

 any other game that can be played by the officers 

 of a regiment. I do not think that anyone who 

 has not belonged to a polo playing regiment can 

 exactly understand how keen is this spirit. A polo 

 playing officer looks on a place in his regimental 

 team in the Hurlingham or Indian Inter-Regimental 

 Tournament in the same light as a public school 

 boy regards his colours in the school XI. ; a cricketing 

 university man, his position in the great match at 

 Lord's ; or a university rowing man, his seat in the 

 contest from Putney to Mortlake. Esprit de corps 

 is keener among officers than even among school 

 boys and 'Varsity men ; because the majority of 

 officers look on their regiments as their home for life, 

 whereas a sojourn at school or college seldom lasts 

 more than five years. 



Although the best polo playing regiments may not 

 always be the best fighting regiments, they are 



