DESTITUTE INVALIDED SOLDIERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3297, 25 June 1900, Page 3

DESTITUTE INVALIDED SOLDIERS.

BITTER COMPLAINTS.

Received 1.10 a.m., June 25. MELBOURNE, June 23. The invalided Australian soldiers who arrived by the Australasian are practically destitute, and are unable to muster Is amongst them. They are very scantily clad, and complain bitterly of the inefficient arrangements of the British commis- * sariat and medical departments. They had not been paid wages for months, and had been unsupplied with boots or clothing. They also Btate that the British non-com-missioned officers favoured the Imperial troops. Just before the Australasian left Cape-town-a prominent Victorian resident m Capetown wrote to Sir Alfred Milner calling his attention to the destitute and ragged '' condition, the harsh treatment and suffering, through the delays m sending home a large number of sick and wounded Australians and New Zealanders at Maitland camp. He said that if the condition of the «J men were known m Australasia it would £ bring about a big reaction against volun- ( teering for future campaigns'. Sir Alfred r Milner took immediate steps to remedy the k svils complained of. Thousands of men [ are down with fever m the various camps. c ■ . £ Albrecht.theßoer artillery captain with 1 Cronjp, is supposed to have surr marised 1 she aunts of our various troops about 1 as follows. He said that the Mouuted 1 Infantry had "all they could do to hold 1 Uieir hats on. "He didn't, re* an Colonial 1 Mounted Infantry but the bulk of the Imperial Mounted Infantry, who have c-nly recently been put on horseback and , ride very badly. The cavalry he called the | "Oh, Lor" regiments, beoanre they rode up to a kopje, staring about them until ( they were fired at, wheji they said " Oh Lor," and galloped off. He was e?pec- j tally severe on Lancers. He said the Boers were alwayß pleased to see Lan- ( e'evs approaching, because they were so , hampered by lance, swoid, and carbine, } that they couldn't use any weapon effectively, and the amount of gear they carred prevented them getting off their horses to shoot. Whenever they saw . the Lancers coming they boldly left their trenches and went out into the open to get a more effective shot, or possibly entrap the Lancers into an \ ambuscade. The guns, he said, were ! excellently worked, but obsolete; while ] he bad the greatest respect for the foot soldiers— the Highlanders m particular. "Anglo-Colonial," writing from Cape Colony to a newspaper cays :— At a time like this, when Imperial and colonial troops are standing shoulder to shoulder m the face of peril, privation, wounds and death, it seems a thousand pities that the good feeling which is drawing together all parts of the Empire should be marred by any want of understapding between the home-born and the colonial Englishman. Yet it is unfortunately true that such is the case. A colonial officer, who first joined as an ordinary trooper— a farmer by profession, bnt a thorough gentleman m every sense of the word— told me not long ago that all the privations and hardships which he had undergone, which were not a few, had been easier for him to bear than the insolent and overbearing demeanour of the younger officers of the regular troops. It was not ftom the senior officers that he had experienced this ungentlemanly behaviour, but from young lieutenants and ensigns, the majority of whom were boys many years younger than himself, tie did not for a moment impeach the bravery of these young officere, or their strict attention to duty; nor did he object to obey their orders, if only they had been given m a civil manner. Unfortunately, there is still a class of home-born Englishmen who seem to think that the colonist is of necessity their inferior, and treat him accordingly— an attitude which thecolonifcts quickly perceive and deeply resent. " Tommy Atkins" also resents insolence from his superior?, i hough he Hare not show it. But is not this a very sad state of things m an army of whose individual courage and endurance we are all bo jußtly proud?