A QUESTION OF UNIFORM IN WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 23, 27 January 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

A QUESTION OF UNIFORM IN WAR.

I The customs of war are based on custom, and are to a great extent formulated by Vattel and other writers on International law, by the American regulations issued in 18G3, the | French military regulations, the Brussels Conference and the Geneva Convention. ... The first question, and one which may become very : important in the later stages of the | war, is that of uniform. During the Franco-Prussian war there were I several'cases in which civilians were ' summarily shot by the Prussians for waging* unauthorised war. It seems hard to treat as noxious wild beasts civilians who, actuated by patriotism, wage war upon the invaders of their country. A little reflection will show, however, that it would be unfair to the troops of the invading forces to spare such . irregular enemies. A man might otherwise lurk about the camp of bivouac, pick off a soldier, and the next moment hiding his gun. play the part of a peaceful peasant working in his garden. Hence the rule is generally admitted and acted upon as laid down in Tovey in the following words: —"Every combatant shall be clearly recognisable by the enemy at a reasonable distance, and the distinctive mark by which he is so known shall be fixed, and not capable of removal at short notice." For example, a mere special hat or sash would not suffice, as cither might be? got rid of in a moment. Now few of the Boers have any uniform whatever, and a militant Boer cannot be distinguished from a peaceful noncombatant Boer, save by his actions and the possession of arms. Should the present operations wind up, as it is not unlikely they .will, with a guerilla warfare, how are we to deal with detached Boers found tinder suspicious circumstances? It seems to us that considering the special conditions of hostilities they should be treated as ordinary prisoners of war, unless it was evident that they had assumed a peaceful attitude—had feined, in fact, to be non-combatants —in order to obtain information, carry messages, or approach us with a view to firing on us to better advantage. In such cases as these it would be perfectly legitimate to shoot them as soon as their guilt was proved.—"Broad Arrow."

OCCUPYING THE CRESTS OF

HILLS

"La France Militaire" condemns the craze that officers have nowadays for occupying the crests of hills. In fact, whenever infantry has to defend a position, or is obliged to interrupt its forward movement in attack in order to recur to lire action, it simply lines the crests of the nearest heigiits and opens fire from behind the shelter afforded by the brows of the hills. Yet the disadvantages of positions such as these become obvious on examination. In the first place, the lire of troops in open ground at a range of. say, 600 metres, sweeps a surface,of about 300 metres in depth in the neighbourhood of the objective, the breadth of this fire swept zone naturally varying with that of the attacking line. Further,' the trajectory of the projectiles being very flat, a man of medium height would be practically within the dangerous zone throughout the whole range. If, however, instead of a plain we imagine ground sloping downwards from a crest on the reverse side of a hill, it is evident that the extent of the dangerous zone will increase in proportion to the extent of the slope, whilst it. is exactly the opposite if the mark fired at be placed on the slope which falls toward the firing line. These considerations, it is argued, demonstrate the danger of occupying crests as defensive positions or during halts, the effect oh the troops doing so being simply to place them in the very middle of the dangerous zone, and. above all, to expose their supports and reserves to serious'loss before they really come into action at all. TRAINING CARRIER PIGEONS. Presumably the pigeons that are serving as post boys in the Transvaal just now arrived out on the warship Powerful. A naval pigeon post has been for some time established, and lofts have been built at Devonport, Go-sport, and Sheerness at a cost of about £1000. A couple of years ago the Admiralty bought a large number of one-month-old birds and placed them in the Royal Navy loft at Gosport, intending to tise them for the conveyance of messages from warships to shore, with a view of rendering* them serviceable in time of war. A good pigeon will fly over GO miles an hour, over short distances. These times are kept with great care in Germany, and the apparatus for noting* the time is most ingenious. The pigeon is taught to announce its arrival at its loft by knocking with its beak at the closed trap-door of the dovecote. This action sets in motion machinery which flings open the door, admits the bird and at the same time rings a bell that hangs in the attendant's room. The greatest care and patience are necessary while training the birds. The message, if it be a long one, is reduced from the original by photographic process, by which eight octavo pages of writing* or printing* may be reduced to a. mere nothing*. The little photograph is then rolled and placed within a quill, which is introduced among the tail feathers, of I the bird and carefully bound there. I The officer at the receiving station re- | moves the despatch, and with the aid of the powerful oxyli3'drogen micro- | scope magnifies the writing* to more ] than its first dimensions. To Italy [belongs the credit of having first re- ■ cognised the utility of training pigeons as messeng-ers in war time, while now, nearly every European nai tion has its regiment of homers. I Commander Tuffnell is the great English authority on pigeons, and the training of the birds is his hobby. The loft at Devonport is built so high that' i the birds can see it when a long way lout at sea. The cotes, which were 'planned by Commander Tuffnell, are cleverly constructed. The birds have general living and sleeping quarters, with "cells" provided where birds of a doubtful character and he!u over till their special sins are found out. Each cote has its hospital where the sick post-boys are carefully attended to. The officers at the various stations are very earnest in their efforts to train the birds to long-distance flying, and they apparently have met with great success. As long ago as 1896 racing

birds who were flown at Thurrso in Scotland reached their English homes, a distance of GOO miles, in a single day, the fastest bird travelling at the speed of 1400 yards a minute. German military pigeons have the following records to their credit: — Eighty-three miles in 1 hour 32 minutes 30 seconds. Four hundred and forty miles in 7 hours 43 minutes. Three hundred and fifty miles in G hours and 13 minutes.

THE FLAG THAT WILL FLOAT OVER PRETORIA.

The career of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in South Africa will attract especial attention, in view of a story recently told by Mr Lyde, of Bolton. Mr Lyde is a son-in-law of the late Colonel Gildea, who commanded the Pretoria garrison in 1881; and he gives an entirely new interest to the incident of the burying of the British flag at Pretoria after Majuba.

The flag that was buried, he says, on the restoration of independence to the Transvaal was not that borne by Colley's force, but was. the Union Jack carried by the 94th Regiment, which was almost annihilated on going to strengthen Colonel Gildea's position. A woman with the ill-fated regiment wrapped the flag round her body under her dress, and took it to Pretoria, where it was buried by British residents. Colonel Gildea, however, had it dug up, and brought it home with him on going- to the command at Dover.

Though the belief prevails that the flag still lies interred in African soil, it was in the possession of Colonel Gildea up to the time of his death, about a year ago, and was till recently retained by the family and kept hanging over the mantelpiece.

Colonel Gildea often declared that it would again float over Pretoria, and Mr Campbell Gildea, of Glasgow, one of his sons, has given it to the Colonel's regiment, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, who have it with them in Natal, and are bent on carrying it to the Transvaal capital.