India's services in the war (Volume 1): General (Lucknow, 1922)

CHAPTER VIII.

INDIAN PRINCES AND CHIEFS ON ACTIVE SERVICE.
I.
Shortly after the war began, as I was riding on top of a
motor-omnibus going from the heart of London to Hampton Court,
a man sitting in the seat immediately behind me tapped me on the
shoulder and called my attention to a number of portraits decorating
the exterior of a cinema-house—or “picture palace,” as it is often
called.
“ Ye see thatasked the man. Looking in the direction in
which he was pointing I saw a portrait which was meant to be a
likeness of that gallant soldier, Lieut.-General Maharaja Sir Partab
Singh.
“Fine soldier that!” exclaimed my new-found friend. “ He let
no grass grow under his feet ! Not he ! The Hun had hardly set
foot in Belgium when Sir Partab rushed to our aid!'
The Englishman is so reserved by nature that he sits beside you
for hours in a railway carriage without taking any notice of you.
You may travel for miles on top of a bus without so much as a
“ good morning'’ from the fellow whose shoulder jostles against yours
everytime the vehicle goes over a rough bit of road. Duly when
that trait in the Englishman’s character is borne in mind, is it
possible to realize how powerfully the emotions of Britons must have
been stirred by the rally of the Indian Princes and peoples to the
British flag, to make the man sitting behind me on top of the
omnibus start a conversation with me. Once the ice was broken.