LOYALTY OF INDIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16214, 27 April 1916, Page 8

LOYALTY OF INDIA

ADDRESS TO KING GEORGE. UNITY OF THE EMPIRE. King George, accompanied by the Queen, recently received at Buckingham Palace a. loyal address presented by 26 Indian officers from the Convalescent Home at Barton. Subadar Sher Singh, 34th, Sikh, Pioneers, on behalf of the Indian officers, read the address, to which, His Majesty read a reply. The King-Emperor, in his reply to the cidress, said, inter alia:— "I welcome your presence as a symbol of the unity of tho Empire, and as setting a seal upon tho heroic efforts and sacrifices in which my Indian soldiers, yourselves among them, have borne a common part with all my forces from overseas and from the Mother Country. " I am deeply touched by your declaration of loyalty and gratitude to myself; but not lees by tho generous recognition which you pay to the kindliness and brotherly feeling which you have met at the hands of all your fellow subjects, the inhabitants of these islands. They are conscious, as I am, that tho loyal devotion of India to the common heritage for which we are fighting— devotion to which we. have never looked in vainr-has been consecrated afresh by the blood of India's sons, shed far from their homes and in a quarrel which, whilst the might of the Empire protects India's shores, does hot come near to the lives and fortunes of their kith and kin. But the liberties of the Empire were put into the scale, and with them the liberties which India has enjoyed under our rule, and which, please God, she will enjoy in increasing measure as she advances in the path of social improvement and political experience. "I welcome tho expression of your thanks for tho careful and scrupulous regard which all my officers under my directions have paid to the requirements of your religious usages. . . . I recall to mind the words in which my revered predecessor, the Queen-Empress Victoria, declared to her Indian subjects of whatever creed, on assuming sway over their lives, her will that none be in any wise favoured, none molested or disquieted by reason of their religious faith or observances but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us, that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of our highest displeasure. It will ever be the cherished duty of my house and throne to guard the sacred promise then given in the letter and in the spirit." REDSKIN PLATOONS, INDIAN OFFICER'S EFFORTS. A plan to enlist Indians (from the different reserves throughout Ontario for the 114 th Overseas Battalion has been formed by Lieutenant John R, Trace)', of the 109 th Regiment, who is himself one of the Iroquois tribe, living formerly on the Caugnawauga Reserve on the St. Lawrence River. Lieutenant Tracey believes that there are at least 500 Indians who could be secured in the province, and he proposes to visit these and to endeavour to enlist them. Ho hopes to raise a full platoon from among his own tribesmen, and another platoon each from the six nations in Western Ontario and the Ojibways in tho neighbourhood of the Soo. From his knowledge of the Indian dialects, Lieutenant Tracey hopes to be able to reach the Indians where no white man could appeal to them, and he feels that when the facts of the war aro_ explained to them they will readily enlist. The Indians of the various reserves in .Canada are again contributing to the patriotic fund this year, . as they did last. — I