AFRICAN NATIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1935, Page 5

AFRICAN NATIVES.

ADAPTABLE SOLDIERS. EFFECTS OF ETHIOPIAN WAR. "STIRRING A HORNET'S NEST" (By CAPTAIN H. L. WILLIS, M.C.,late King's African Rifles.) Now that the attention of the world is focused on the struggle between Italy and Ethiopia some remarks on the fighting qualities of the natives in Central Africa may assist the reader to understand more clearly the undeveloped strength of the native, both as an ally and as an enemy. Man is a creature of environment; and this is nowhere more clearly to bo seen than when one is living amongst the nomadic tribes whose whole existence depends on their ability to fight. In 1014 my regiment "kept the peace" from the Abyssinia border in the north to Nyasaland in the south. Humorously enough our force on the former frontier consisted of only 2 officers and 100 native troops. But Britain holds her outposts by tact, not bombastic strength. W r hen the war broke out, the British, Belgians, Germans and Portuguese all began increasing their armed strength by training native troops. And we found that the warlike tribes were the best material from which to make soldiers. My men were Mohammedans, soTfie pagan, sonfff Christianised, with the latter well behind as fighters. To march 20 miles a day in a temperature of over 110 degrees and carry 31b of boiled rice in a bag on the back—such ration to last four days, with the probability of there bein" nothing to eat at all on the fifth and keep cheerful requires courage and faith above the average. Yet I have

seen it done often. It Is all a matter of treating the men fairly and understanding their mentality. General Von Littow Vorbeck's troops followed him thousands of * miles without hope of reward—just proud to serve under such a fine soldier. The Belgian native troops were mostly Baluba from the Congo. They were out and out cannibals? but under British or German training would have been invincible. They certainly did not know what fear was. I will not mention the Portuguese native troops, except to say that the Angurn, a particularly wild and turbulent tribe in Portuguese East, assured us that if wo would take their country over they would kill all the Germans and Portuguese free, gratis and for nothing. Effect Of Aerial Bombing. As for aerail bombing, the moral effect soon wears off if the country is wooded and the natives see the bombs explode harmlessly. Italy's advantage will soon disappear as the fighting works inland and the defenders get under cover. Another great asset 01 the native troops is their immunity from the ordinary fevers, etc., which sap the energy of white troops, notice jocular but ignorant remaiks about the barefootedness of the soldiers. When a race of men have gone barefoot for a thousand years they do not miss the absence of footwear. The native of Africa, especially Central Africa, can be moulded into a wonderful soldier, but from my experience of 22 years among them, not by Latin instructors. There is something unfair and cruel in the Latin character which irritates the native mind. When Britain gave Zululand to Italy, as part payment for services rendered, 07,000 natives left that country and moved into British Somaliland and Kenya. They refused to live under Italian rule. Naturally I consider that Britain produces the best officers for the natives, but in all fairness I have met equally good Germans. The news of the tragedy being enacted in Ethiopia will be known all over Africa within a remarkably short time I of its occurrence.