LAND AND WATEE 
October 23, 1915. 
any serious attcns.-'t can be made for the recovery o. 
Mesopotamia, or a second invasion of Kgypt can be 
undertaken through Syria, Constantinople must be 
largely reinforced from Germany, assisted by the 
Balkan States. 
German Influence. 
German V must establish her right of way tlirougli 
Serbia with no fear of interference from contiguous 
States. It is not impossible that she will accomplish 
this. Whatever line of action the sympathies of 
the Balkan States may dictate to their people, the 
logic of facts will be too strong to resist. With 
nothing but the narrow outlook of local military 
success to guide them they are almost bound to 
estimate the strength of Germany as overpowering. But 
if Germany thus should advance to Constantinople with 
an ultimate view of thereby securing a right of way 
to the liast. what may we expect to be the effect on the 
militarv instincts or' the religious sentiments of the 
Mohammedan population of India? I venture to think 
that the effect would be insignilicant. An official occupa- 
tion by Germany of the capital of her ally would 
inevitably widen the breach and increase the growing 
dislike of tiie Turks for German predominance in Con- 
stantinople, which they already detest. The fact that the 
Sultan (who, as a pAiropean potentate, would have little 
influence out of his capital) was officially under the 
German thumb would not increase his diminishing pres- 
tige, and Turkish detestation of Germany would be 
reflected throughout the Moslem world. Such effect as 
the call to arms of India's Mohammedan troops to fight 
against the " holy " Turk may have had on their 
religious sentiments is already lessening. It has not 
been great, but it has not been by any means negligible. 
The Factor of Religion. 
As might have been expected, it has been greatest 
amongst the most fanatical; and the most fanatical 
Mohammedans in India are ever those who are the latest 
to embrace the Moslem faith and the most under the 
domination of the Mullah — that is to say, the men of 
frontier and transfrontier tribes bordering Afghanistan. 
The Bengali Mohammedan is not a fighting man, whilst 
the educated Punjabi Mohammedan is seldom a religious 
fanatic, and thus it happens that it is only those who 
bring with them from tiie border mountains of India 
the sacred flame of religious intolerance wlio, whilst 
they have no objection to a free fight against their own 
kith and kin, are now and then overcome with scruples 
about the sanctity of the Turk. The occupation of Con- 
stantinople by the German, if it inspired any religious 
sentiment at all, would probably rouse the whole 
Mohammedan population of India (who think any- 
thing at all about the war) with an earnest determination 
to turn him out. It is to guard against this that 
German agents have so carefully represented the 
Kaiser to be a Mohammedan. Nor from the mili- 
tary point of view^ siiould the effect much affect Moham- 
medan sentiment. The Eastern outlook hardly ex- 
tends to the Balkans. It may reach Kgvpt, but hardlv 
beyond. What the Mohammedan soldier in India knows 
about the German is that when he met him in China, 
years ago, he was but an inferior .sort of " sahib," ever 
in difficulties. He knows, too, that the German has now 
been turned out of China, that he has been badlv beaten 
in Africa, that his propaganda in India and in tli'e Straits 
led to nothing useful, and that in Kgypt and in Mesopo- 
tamia he has met (through his ally, the Turk) with 
nothing but disaster, and he further has the testimony 
of those who have returned from the Far W^est. and who 
now live to recount their experiences, that wlien the 
Kritish soldier meets the German the latter usually gets 
t^ie worst of it. It is not to be expected that the Indian 
f/?°>'^ ^"'^ ""'"-■'' ^^"'^y ^° t'i<^ question of sea-power. 
It he did, he would also learn that England already holds 
Uermany by tlie iluoat, no matter what she may do on 
16 
land. In short, it may be taken as probable that the 
British occupation of Bagdad would impress the 
Mohammedan soldier far more than any German 
jugglery with Constantinople. 
When Germany started her propaganda in India, 
making what use she could of the bubbling sedition 
which was fairly widespread in the Punjab and the 
North-West, she imitated the early efforts of her own 
missionaries and got hold of quite the wrong people. 
Her friends were, as a rule, of a disreputable and dis- 
credited class, and the result was that a local insurrection 
which might have been very important was quelled 
without much difficulty. The course of the war has had 
(so I gather from what I believe to be excellent authority) 
its influence on other communities of the Indian public 
than the Mohammedans, but it would be a great mistake 
to attribute anything of the character of a religious senti- 
ment to such influences. The two principal centres of 
perennial sedition are to be found in Bengal in the east 
and amongst the Mahratta Brahmins in the west. On 
both sides it is a trade — a means of subsistence — which 
unfortunately pays. But neither the Bengali nor the 
Mahratta would matter much so long as his miserable 
efforts did not touch the Army. That is the only danger. 
It goes without further saying that in the native Army 
the Sikhs rank high as a fighting class, and it is pre- 
cisely in this class that the danger is greatest, for the 
Sikh, who is a thick-headed though sturdy individual, 
imagines that he has a grievance, and a grievance ia 
always an excellent basis for a wily sedition-monger to 
work on. 
Views of the Sikh. 
Whatever may have been the nature of the 
original Sikh grievance, there is no doubt about two 
things. Firstly, the Sikh had acquired quite an undue 
appreciation of his own military importance as compared 
with the European. There was just this much justifica- 
tion for this attitude, that in our little frontier wars, 
where most of the game is played in difficult mountain 
regions, the native is undoubtedly more at home than is 
the British soldier, and he may be, and often is, called 
upon to help the latter out of a difficult position. This 
accretion of wind in the head was not easy to deal with. 
Another point, amounting, perhaps, to a real grievance, 
was that as a British subject he was not allowed to 
enter a British colony. If a Sikh is asked to fight, liien 
grievances vanish as the mists of the morning. And the 
Sikhs have fouglit. The glorious story of the 14th Sikhs 
will be as imperishable in the records of Gallipoli as that 
of the 36th in Tirah. And now Sikhs are returning 
wounded to their villages about Amritsar, and thev tell 
the tale of their experiences to the village elders and old 
soldiers of past frontier wars. A maimed warrior has 
been heard to say, " I tell you you know nothing about 
it. You cannot conceive what it is to face a European 
enemy in the long, shell-swept trenches. We should 
have no chance against modern European artillery in 
India." This is all very well. It restores the balance of 
military prestige as between European and nativ^ and 
removes indefinitely the remote contingency of India 
being taken from us by Indians. But there" is another 
side to the matter. The limping cavalryman who has 
had his turn at trench work is apt to depress and check 
the youthful aspirations of the voung recruits and to 
foment resentment amongst the old soldiers. This wants 
careful watching. 
T. II. Ik^LDKH. 
Mr.^ Ian C. Hannah, author of Arms and the Ma-p (T. 
Fisher Unwiu, Ss. 6d. net), is cciicjriied mainly with the prin- 
ciple ot' uatioualil.y and the need for definiug national boun- 
daries in such a way as to make Irrodentist campaigns, sui li 
as that of Italy, unnecessary. The presont Govenin.eiital 
boundarioa of Europe, dilreriug so widely froin the racial 
boundaries, have Wen the caus? of much trouble in Europe- 
before-the-war, and this l)cok, outlining the need for defining 
boundaries iu accord with the racial tendencies of people's 
rather than as suits tlie wills of princes, deals with a question 
of international importance. The subject is ably summarised 
in the space at the author's disposal. 
