COLONIAL REINFORCEMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12696, 30 December 1901, Page 4

COLONIAL REINFORCEMENTS.

The Premier's offer, to the War Office to send men with the Eighth Contingent to fill up vacancies in the Sixth and Seventh seems to imply that the New Zealand troops now in South Africa are not to be relieved at the end of their year's service. By the time the Eighth Contingent reaches Cape Town, or wherever it may he ordered to disembark, the Sixth will have been in the field for a full twelve moinths, and the Seventh will be approaching the' completion of its stipulated term of service. Probably most of the men will be anxious enough to remain with the- forced for another term, or untiL the end of the war, but they should all have the option that was given to the members of other contingents, of returning at the end of their first year. Lord Roberts 1 himself has said that twelve months' active service in South Africa is quite enough for Volunteers, and that after that time they are liable to become stale and dissatisfied. The members of the Sixth and Seventh, according to the reports of their commanding officers, have

shown no sign of weariness or dissatisfaction, and considering the immense amount of trying work they have done this is greatly to their credit; but with hundreds of fresh men desirous of filling their places there is no reason why they should b-a denied the opportunity to return to the colony. The exact wording of their agreement provides, we believe, that they shall serve for one year, or until the conclusion of the war; but this has all along been interpreted to mean twelve months service, and the friends of the men, if not the men themselves, would be disappointed: by any variation. The men, assuming that they are fit and well, ought to be allowed to remain in the field as long as they please, but tftey ought not to be kept there against their will a minute longer than is absolutely necessary. It would be easy to ascertain by cable how many members of the Sixth and Seventh Contingents wish to return at the end of their term of service, and to fill their places from the scores of thoroughJy qualified young men who are now being excluded from the Eighth.