AN IMPERIAL LEGION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14060, 15 May 1906, Page 6

AN IMPERIAL LEGION.

The Legion of Frontiersmen, recently formed in London, bide fair

to become an organisation of Imperial importance. . The Legion admits to membership only men who have “ mad© good,” as the Americans say, but already some six thousand men resident in various parts of the Empire have applied for membership, and the list includes many men whose names have been made famous by their deeds. The official definition of the term “Frontiersmen” states that it “includes men trained and qualified by previous completed military service, or by working, hunting or fighting in wild countries, or at sea, who, for various reasons, do not or cannot serve in the existing military forces of tljo Empire, and who are not prepared, by reason of temperament or vocation, to submit themselves to the ordinary routine of military discipline, except in time of war.” The President is the Earl of Lonsdale, who has distinguished himself by exploration work in North America. The chairman of th© executive is Sir Henry Seton-Karr, the famous hig-gamo hunter. Amongst th© members are Captain W. Kirton, the ofiicor who received the surrender of Johannesburg on behalf of Lord Heberts, and Mr M. H. d© Horn, the man who surrendered the city. One of Mr do Horn’s exploits was the capture of the battleship Huascar from Peru, and h© has taken an active part in several wars and revolutions in South America. Th© two greatest journeys of recent times were those made i by Captain Harry do Windt and Capj tain E. S. Grogan, both of whom are |in the Legion. The former journeyed | overland from Paris to New York, via | the Behring Straits, and Captain Grogan made a trip from the Cape to. Cairo. Mr Bowman Ballantyno, another member, is an old cowboy and South American adventurer. Ho took part in the battle of Quiemedcs, in Brazil, where fifteen thousand men fought like tigers over a domestic dispute that had arisen at a ranch. Yet another member is Colonel S; B. f->teele, C. 8., a hero of the Canadian NorthWest Mounted Police. A body composed of such men could not fail to he of immense service in time of war.