INDIA'S DEFENCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 9

INDIA'S DEFENCES

MODERNISATION SCHEME

GRANT OF OVER £25,000,000

SEQUEL TO EXPERT INQUIRY

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received September 20, noon.)'

RUGBY, September 19.

The decision of the Imperial Government to make a grant of over £25,000,000, towards the modernisation of India's defence * forces has been received very favourably by all sections of opinion in India. The grant is a sequel to the findings of an expert committee of ■which Lord Chatfield was chairman.

The committee, working on material made available to them in India, estimated the total net capital cost of modernising India's defence forces at something over £34,000,000. The committee, as well as the British Government, realised that the funds required to meet this heavy expenditure could not be found out of the resources available in India. It was therefore decided that three-quarters of the funds needed should be approved as a free gift, while one-quarter would be by way of loan. The interest on the loan portion is entirely remitted for the first five years.

The modernising of India's defence forces has not. of course, been waiting upon this final decision.. The first units selected for conversion last year in the Indian Army, as distinct from the British Army in India, were the cavalry regiments. The Indian cavalry soldier has proved himself wonderfully adaptable to all the new training he has had to undergo, and has showed Ms capacity of becoming without any difficulty a "modern 'soldier'" with all the technical knowledge which that term implies today.

Such ot the cable news on this page as Is so headed has appeared in "The Times" and ' is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission It should be understood that the opinions are not those of "Th# Times" unless' expressly stated to be so.