THE NEGRO SOLDIER.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 14095, 2 January 1919, Page 2

THE NEGRO SOLDIER.

FINE FIGHTING MEN. AFRAID OF NOTHING EXCEPT DARKNESS. American negro troopers are regarded by their officers as exceptionally good at patrol work, as raiders and scouts. They seem to have some quality lacking *in the white man which enables them to slink and crawl across No Man's Land in a way that defies detection. But the negroes never lose their latent superstition and fear of the dark. Without white officers to support them morally their value is said to deteriorate quickly. They "see things" with ease. The negro troopers' timidity at night is best illustrated by the experience of a captain, who found one of his men at work after dark. The negro was talking violently to himself: "Niggah, pick up that wheelbarrow and push, it over there!" "Now put that barrow down! ** "Tip it over and empty it!" "Now wheel it back and fill it up again!" To all of which the negro answered "Yes, sab!" and suited the action to the word. He explained to the astonishod ca/ptain that lie felt less lonely and scared in the dark if he pretended a white office* was there to give him orders. Let the average negro soldier halt and be forced to lie down for a while, and he goes to sleep almost immediately, unless he is forcibly kept awake. The leaders of at least one regiment have had to adopt a plan whereby all the members of a patrol when they lie down join hands, with the white officer at one end. He keeps the squad awake then by pressing the hand of the man next to him, who repeats the pressure of his right or left, and receives an answering pressure as evidence that hia companions are awake. Nevertheless the negroes are always ready for a fight. One regiment had begged its way into a portion of the line where action was assured in the

last German offensive, and that action suddenly began. Five of the officers of that regiment alone were in hospital, but heard a few hours in advance of what was coming. Tho colonel left the hospital on crutches, two other officers were carried to the trenches on litters and two more hobbled in—so as to be with their men and bo assured they gave a good acconnt of themselves. They did. The negro troops are deeply attached to their white officers, and will go through fire and flood for them—or with them. In the main also the officers are attached to the men, take pride in them and father them. The negroes are punctilious in such details as saluting and deference to officers and superiors, though lax in other matters of discipline which they do not understand.