The Times appears greatly surprised at some statistics sent home
from India showing that young soldiers do not die there so fast as old ones, but that has always been the experience of civil life. Every old Indian knows that men who go out before twenty-three suffer less than those who go out later, getting over their acclima- tization much more easily. A good deal of nonsense is talked upon this subject. The Government sends out a lot of seedy, weedy-looking young roughs in red jackets, and reporters ask in horror what is the use of such recruits. Experienced command- ing officers, however, know well that it is on the young soldier, the boy, that the " Queen's diet " tells, and that in two years a couple of hundred sickly young ruffians are converted into two com- panies of powerful soldiers, splendidly set up and filled out, equal to any work, and as respectable as any soldiers in the ranks. Diet, discipline, and drill soon cure " weediness " with all lads who leave the arrack-bottle alone.
Previous page
