Note 47 — Chapter III

General Pollock to General Sale: March 27th, 1842. MS. Correspondence. Pollock did not exaggerate the backwardness of the native regiments, or the importance of associating with them a larger body of Europeans. Even the new corps which were moving up from the provinces, and which the General believed to be “without a taint,” were openly expressing their disinclination to advance. Shere Singh mentioned this to Mr. Clerk. “Yesterday, early,” wrote the latter, “the Maharajah, Rajah Dhyan Singh, and myself, being together for a short time, quite unattended, they told me that Commandant Cheyt Singh, who had come into Lahore for a day from Colonel Bolton’s camp, to escort which from Ferozepore to Peshawur the Durbar had appointed him, had mentioned that our Sepoys in that brigade did not like going to the westward, and were sometimes grouped eight or ten together, expressing their dissatisfaction; but that on the other hand the Europeans (her Majesty’s 31st and artillery) were much delighted at the prospect of fighting with the Afghans. The Maharajah added, ‘If you could send two or three more European corps, they would penetrate the Khybur or anywhere else so successfully against the Afghans, that the Hindoos, who are now alarmed, would, after one action, all take heart again.’”—[Mr. Clerk to Government: Lahore, March 19th, 1842. MS. Records.]