The Indian _kahars_ or stretcher-bearers attached to the field ambulances are a peculiarity of India. In France they did most excellent work; purely non-fighting men, they are callously brave under fire, going about their duty with a calm air which appears to say, “I am not a fighting but a healing man, therefore they will never shoot me”—for this in fact is what one of them said to me. The _kahar_ of course takes his chance, but I doubt if that man had ever heard of the Huns. On the 18th October two Brigades of the Lahore Division left Orleans and were on the Flanders front by the 21st, and the Meerut Division following them reached St. Omer by the 29th of the month. These were followed by the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade and Jodhpore Lancers, and thus the whole of the Corps that had so far arrived in France was at last facing the Germans. A great surprise to me, once we found ourselves in Flanders, was the ease with which everything worked. The Indian troops, as is well known, have their own peculiar customs. Their religious scruples and their feeding have to be arranged for on lines entirely different to British soldiers. All these details might reasonably have been expected to cause considerable difficulties, but we had been preceded by Staff Officers conversant with all the requirements, and General Headquarters gave such a free hand in these matters and so readily fell in with every suggestion which they felt was necessary, that in a very few days things were working more smoothly than in India itself, where unfortunately red tape, Babus, and Returns clog the wheels to such an extent as to render the machinery frequently almost immovable. India was now to be put to the test. Thirty, and even twenty, years previously it had been looked upon as the best training ground for the army. Indian campaigns had produced many distinguished soldiers. Names like those of Nicholson, Colin Campbell, Havelock, Roberts, had immortalised its army; and only recently Lord Kitchener had reorganised it, but the years of desert warfare in Egypt and the war in South Africa had shorn India of many of its attractions. It was no longer looked on by many good soldiers as the best, or even as a good school. I had known some who had refused high commands; others who felt European war was in the air and had no intention of cutting themselves adrift from home, where lay the best chance of being employed. For me personally there was the ever-present knowledge that but few of those directing the great military machine in France knew anything about the Indians, and yet the very nature and composition of the corps must be thoroughly recognised if the fullest advantage was to be taken of it. We did know, fortunately, that His Majesty the King not only had his Indian soldiers’ welfare at heart, but also that we should always have his earnest support, and this was a tower of strength to us. We knew also that Lord Kitchener would watch our progress and back up our needs.