CORPS OF STALWARTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 106, 6 May 1915, Page 11

CORPS OF STALWARTS

AUSTRALASIA'S TROOPS THEIR WORK IN EGYPT. Under the above heading, W. T. Maesoy, the Cairo correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, wrote to his paper on 7th March : — The Australians and Now Zealand-ers are a -wonderful illustration of the resources of the British Empire. It is doubtful whether any army corps in Europe could match them in physique. Tall, broad, deep-chested, heavy -limbed men they are, for the most part accustomed to hard living out of doore, with the keen eyesight of the countryman and the alertness of the townsman. Long hours in the sun do not fatigue them, and the wide variations of temperature during an Egyptian winter have had slighter effects on the general health than could have been anticipated. Possessed of ideal constitutions for roughing it, the men will be a powerful reinforcement for the Allied armies, and, ac they have proved capable of readily learning their work on the parade ground and in the field, no one aoubte that a short period of active service will give them the polish to fit them, for the honour (as they hold it to be) of standing side by side with the regular soldiers , of His Ma jesty's Regular Army. They are desperately anxious to follow Tommy Atkins's good example. Some of our Australian comrades did not take so readily to discipline as to drill. I do not mean to suggest they were disobedient •or anything approaching it, but coining from a. democratic stock they were somewhat slower to appreciate the virtues of discipline, of instant and unquestioned action on the receipt of orders, than they were to learn their drill. They were always admirable (I nearly said perfect) material in the instructors' hands, keen to become proficient in every branch of the soldier's work, and determined to use their intelligence to the best advantage. And, as they progressed in their instructional work, so their discipline improved. You saw the difference in every stage, from platoon to company, from company to battalion, battalion to brigade, and brigade to divisional training, and now the independent spirit so marked in a democratic people is identified with military smartness. The majority of the Australians_ were disciplined before they had been in camp a week, but tha,t the small minority have also learned the lesson is regarded by military men as one of the most significant achievements of the training. SOUND MARCHERS'. They will take the field seasoned troops, vigorous, robust, courageous, equal to any in the world with, the same period of training. A colonial officer, in conversation with mo yesterday, said the men only' wanted a good, stiff action, with well-led troops, to complete their training He was obviously right. I ha,ve had the advantage of seeing the colonials since they arrived in Egypt four months ago, and I am confident no men have been made into soldiers with ' greater care, or with a, stronger desire to make the most of the good material at hand. The staff has worked haxd, and the training ha 6 been carried on systematically and progressively with a view to teaching officers, quite as much as men The result has been most satisfactory. Yesterday forenoon I watched the New Zealand infantry bi'igade return to the desert camp at Zeitun, after having been out all night on divisional operations on the Suez-road. It was inspiriting to sec the swinging stride of the battalions,, Which the exertions of fourteen foodless 1 hours had not shortened. The height of the dust columns surrounding the marching men,- though not *so high, of course, as the sand-screen raised by cavalry and artillery, told of pace and energy, and long before the battalions from Otago and Wellington, from " Auckland and Canterbury, had reached the confines of the camp you knew they were coming home as strongly as they went out before the moon was up the night before. They had covered eighteen miles in ankle-deep sand, and had cut and filled -in miles of trenches. Carrying their full packs, with entrenching tools, which they had used to cut long, deep pits before they were attacked at ' dawn, with yellow sand masking their bronzed faces, they swung along, nappy and contented that they were another step towards the goal of efficiency: And that is the direction towards which their minds are always set. They are a pattern on which all colonial" troops could model themselves, and if the whole' of the colonial Army Corps at present in and near Egypt are as physically fit' as these fine sons of New Zealand the overseas Britons will go a very long way towards proving themselves men of a strong and patriotic race. WELL-TRAINED DIVISIONS. Into the course of training to which the colonial troops have been put it is not necessary to go in detail. The men. being of the right stamp, the staff never hesitated to give them long hours in tie field. Physical drill was not required to get them into condition, nor did they need many route marches to prepare them for covering long distances in the desert. The men simply had ta learn the active service side of soldiering. They were lucky in not having to furnish any details for the duties of the army of occupation in Egypt. AH that was done by the East Lancashire Territorials. The Australian and New Zealand Infantry have had a gradual preparation, on the lines adopted by the Home commands in times of peace. Not quite the same, perhaps, because time pressed, and it was important to cram into a week more field work than the average Regulnr battalion did in a month. Brigade and divisional training has been very thorough, and if the men thought they were ready before they really were — well, confidence in one's powers is not a bad thing. The brigade of Australian Light Horse and the New Zealand Mounted Infantry have worked very hard, and the excellent field artillery from both colonies have Jiad ample training under conditions admirably suited to make them efficient. The Australian and New Zealand Engineers had their training in assisting to put the Suez Canal in a complete state of defence. Royal Engineers were proud to be associated with them, and no higher praise than theirs could be earned.