LORD ROBERTS ON COLONIAL TROOPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10900, 6 September 1897, Page 4

LORD ROBERTS ON COLONIAL TROOPS.

The correspondent of. the Argas in London interviewed Lord Eoberts to ascertain his impressions of the Australasian troops who went Home to the Jubilee. Lord Roberts was most complimantary. The following is an interesting extract from the report: —

Do you contemplate that Australians' could render nuy help iv the event of trouble on the Indian frontier ?

" Moot certainly. I have had that eventuality in my mind for some tims. The wall-matured, nealthy-lookiug fellows you have sent over here would be juat the mcD for service in India. They are neither too yoang nor too old—l should say the average age was about 25 yeaw,— and thoy are well set-up fellows who .could take very good care of themselves—the sort of men one could depeod upou in a stiff bit of work. For fighting on the frontier we should want infantry maiuly, both foot aad mounted, becnnse infantry are more likaly to bn used than cavalry. Xhe couutry is better adapted to mounted infantry than to any other mounted arm, aud we shall not requiro -any artiilery. We have splendid artillery fchore — field, mountsd, and hsavy siege. England may aofcte ablo to spare men at thn very time they would be most required, and that is why 1 look to Auitrr.lia as likely to afford valuable assistance. You see we aru beginniog to feel that wo may r*ly upon you, and we are cot aßhacaed to admit ic. We may some day have a very big job to get through, and it is just as well to realise that wheuaver we may have to ongsga ourselves we shall ba fighting for the Empire. Every part of the Empire will be concerned, and it is in the highest degree satisfactory and comforting to feel that every part of the Empire may if necessity arises bo drawn upon either to withstand aggression or to enable us to work out our Imperial dcßfciny. No one who knows, as I do, what resources the distant dependencies can boast of, or who has seen, as I h&va, the splendid fellows who have come to fcbi* country in connection with the Jubilee, can doubt that in the hour of trial they will acquit ihemsolves honourably. It waß only the other

day that a friend sent me a copy of ' Temple Bar,' in which was a graphic account of the deparfure from Sydney of the Soudan contiageat ia 1885, and I. was again struck, as I was on (he occasion, with the wonderfnl loyalty displayed by all colonists in cennsctioa with that moveniKnt." In yonr " Forty-oae Yeara in India " you spoke with emphasis ou tho necessity for slinging the rifle to the man instead of the saddle. You no doubt observed that that is done by the Victorians ? " Yes, I attach the utmost importance to this. I saw many instances of men who were unhorsed bftiujr at the mercy of the enemy because they hadn't their rifles. I introduced the practice in India of slinging the rifle over the shoulder, and I have strongly advocated it here. I belieTa it is in contemplation to make the change in this country, I did not notice whether or not tho Australian mounted men had the sword sluug to tha saddle or man. If the mat), I would strongly advise that it be altered, so that whea exiled upon to act as dismounted men they would not be impeded by having scabbards dangling betwetn their legs."