Re: [sg] More on the Gurkhas

G'day,

 >I thought that due to defence cutbacks,
 >several regiments had been amalgamated
 >and one of these was the gurkhas (could
 >be wrong though). Could you see any
 >government getting rid of a group of
 >soilders that cost less in pay than any
 >other regiment they have? (just being cynical here).

IF I remember the doco correctly (and it was last year some time so this

could be a little dodgy), it wasn't just the Gurkhas themselves but
their 
families (who after x years of service could join them in the UK/Hong
Kong 
etc). When they handed back Hong Kong and amalgamated the army they
could 
no longer justify having such a large force with all their families 
(especially if they all ended up in the UK). Thus they chopped back and 
sent them back to Nepal. However, some of this could be doco
sensationalism 
as at that point of the doco they went through a phase of strongly 
stressing these people were going from one of the richest nations in the

world to the poorest in a very short period of time with no compensation
or 
manner of redress, regardless of how long they'd been serving.

Now if this is a fair representation of their treatment and if
bureaucracy 
remains the one constant of human civilisation then I serious doubt the
NAC 
would support a resettlement of the Nepalese to another planet, though
it 
is a nice sentiment and as plausible as many other minor nations created

for the GZGverse ;)

Cheers

Beth