"BLENDING OF THE IMPERIAL "WHOLE."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11925, 25 December 1900, Page 5

"BLENDING OF THE IMPERIAL "WHOLE."

I The Qnpon nml taxpayers of England have i done Australia groat honour by sending out j her crack cavalry and the. best infantry in ' Europe to add dignity, greatness, and importance to our natal day—jreat alike for her Majesty's person, throne, kingdom, and majesty nf dominion oil land and sea. The in suits of France and the threats of Russia seem to make us stronger and pirun'.'.o.r, cfand ready and attentive, " dreamin' o'er the time o' Plymouth Ho," and of shocking "the three corners of tin world in anus." The troops that will assemble in Sydney to be " joyous in our joy " will bo the pick of the British and Indian arming, drawn from regiments whose deeds of valour upon a hundred bloody fields have built 115 the Empire; of those returned heroes of South Africa, some " broke in tlie war" and others sound in wind and limb: and of intercolonial troops, when Sydney holiday is also that of Melbourne, Auckland, Brisbane. "Wellington. Perth, Dunedin, Hobart, Christehurch, Adelaide, or Fiji. Nay, more, the intercolonial holiday keeps time with all the Canatlas, anil the struggling yet great future colonies of the Cape. The dark cloud is lifting from over South Africa, with the ray of hopp thr.t will slum? over the Cape Commonwealth by the time that Laurier, Seddon, and Turner will shake hands with Lord Hopi?toun on the shore of " our beautiful harbour "on New Year's Day. It was a sight that a. distinguished soldier should sail with and command the thousand of England ior Australia. The command was offered to ami accepted by no less a hero that that gallant Rupert who led a wing of the P.lst Lancers in the famous charge over the donga at t!ij battle of Omdurman—Colonel W. G CroKv Wyndham. He will bring a troop of those gallant Lancers with him, and in Sydney the/ will again salute the other wing major that led ihpm that day. under the cool and prompt.headed Colonel. Martin, no less a personngo than Colonel Finn, now Commandant of ihi Queensland Defence Force. AYith L'roltAVynclham will come the heroic soldier—ion jf a late Australian squatter, Sir Samuel Wilson—Major Wilson, who married the si.itor of Lord "Randy" Churchill, the aunt of that all-round hero of tho pen and sword, Winston Churchill, and who rides at the head of tlie Life Guards. Hn was all through the siege of Mafeking with his wife. Lady Sarah, End ! tr.o indomitable Baden-Powell. Other sons of j Australia will be scon in the Imperial ranks, who have or will yet. keep the flag flying upon pome hard-fought field. Colonel Croie-Wyncl-ham was horn in 1C57. Tie foueht in South Africa in 1879, in the Geika and Zulu wars, in the Soudan campaign of 1884-85, and in Lord Kitchener's march upon Khartoum, for which campaign he has all the medals, clasps, stars, and the C.B. . He is very popular in the army and at the Horse Guards. No better choice could bo made for such a special command.

THE HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. The Household Brigade, with its Horse and Foot (-Juards. take precedence at the head of Shi to processions, and of rank in the army. The Ist and 2ml Life Guard? and Koyal Horse Guards- will eacli land selected sections of ti'Mpprs, all over 6ft 2in, and I may safely say they belong to " the Long Division." Captain Amos, of the 2nd Life Guards, stands 6ft 7in, and made a towering appearancs on .Jubilee Day, as he was the son of Anak, and the tallest cavalry officer in the British rimy.

The Horso and Life Guards were raised j abroad in the time of Charles 11, and from 1 those squadrons the Royal Horso Guards were organised in 1661. The first regiment ! of Guards raised wore the Coldstrcams, in 1650; then the Grenadiers and Scots Fusiliers, j in 1660. The Grenadiers were famous in 1677. stood first on the list of Royal Foot Guards, but they were only termed the Grenadier Guards for defeating the French Grenadiers at Waterloo. Tb.o Ist and 2r.d Life Guards have fought at Dettingcn, in France, Spain, Waterloo, at Rassassin and Tel-el-Kebir, and a composite regiment in ilie Soudan and in the Boer war. The battle honours of the Royal Horse Guards are the same. In all thenwars under Wellington, Sir Gerald Graham, , Wolseley, and Roberts, they carried everything in the charge before them. At Waterloo and Kassassin their heroism was the theme of admiration. As cavalry they are j oOieered by the wealthiest of military families; whilst their discipline1 and smartness on parade far excel the noted Guards of Napo- ; Icon, Potsdam Guards of Germany, or tho St. Petersburg Guards of Russia. The :