Khaki Came From India

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 301, 20 December 1941, Page 14

Khaki Came From India

pOR a "plain" colour, fulfilling a simple, utilitarian purpose, the khaki of army uniforms offers a complex technical problem. As many as eight distinct shades of dye, some of them as vivid as orange, canary and Alice blue, must be blended to produce the exact colour the army specifies.

The name khaki comes from the Urdu word khak, meaning dust, and its application to soldiers' uniforms is said to have originated in India about a century ago when English soldiers found that their white uniforms afforded too visible a target against the dun-coloured earth and resorted to dipping their clothes in muddy pools to give them protective colouration. The practice led to the official adoption of khaki-coloured uniforms by the British Army for the Egyptian campaign of 1882.

Khaki is generally accepted as being the most effective of all colours in blending with natural backgrounds, although the French have used horizon blue and the Germans field grey. Use of khaki to camouflage equipment as well as uniforms was inaugurated by Lord Roberts in South Africa in 1885. Field guns, mountain batteries and even rifles were painted in khaki and the success of the practice signalised the end of the famous "thin red line."

The problem of matching the regulation army shade of khaki does not end with supplying new cloth of accepted hue. The dyes must be able to withstand the effects of air, dust, torrid sun, acidity, humidity and washing m caustic soda. In the last war it was a common occurrence to see troops whose uniforms had variously weathered several months of wearing and washing emerging in, shades ranging from dirty white to almost an olive green.