SHANGHAI VOLUNTEERS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 81, 14 March 1931, Page 2

SHANGHAI VOLUNTEERS

composition of; force mixed nationalities The Shanghai Volunteer Corps, of which Lieutenant-Colonel N. B. W. Thorns, formerly of the New Zealand Staff Corps, has just taken command, is a heterogeneous conglomeration of nationalities under a British commandant. It is a line, well-trained lighting force, consisting of cavalry, artillery, machine-gun, Infantry, medical maritime and transport contingents, all working in complete unison and liaison. The Light Horse", mounted on hardy Manchurlan ponies, and armed with carbines and sabres, forms the cavalry unit, and draws its troops mostly from British subjects. As an auxiliary to the squadron a motor transport section with machine-guns mounted on lorries and motor-cars has been formed since the war, and consists chiefly of former oilicers and soldiers too badly maimed to undergo the greater physical exertions demanded from their luckier comrades. I "* 4i

The artillery, with their 18-pound-ers, and the machine-gunners are also recruited mostly from Britontf. The infantry is the more interesting unit of the corps in regard to nationalities. "A' Company, "B" Company, and the Shanghai Scottish (in the Royal Stuart tartan) are British, co-operating with separate companies of American, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese infantrymen, each company with its distinctive uniform, and the Chinese Maritime Customs Company consisting, as does the service to which its members belong, of mixed nationalities. The Medical Company carries on its roll most of the Shanghai doctors. Last, but not least, comes the Maritime Company, a compact little force composed of land-living sailormen whose duty it is •in case of trouble to patrol the river and creeks in launches armed with machineguns, and convey to waiting liners, tugs and lighters full of civilians in case of evacuation, as well as performing the duties of inland water transport.

As the name of the corps suggests it is a volunteer organisation, comImanded previously always by a British regular officer of field rank, who with a few regular non-commissioned officers was seconded from the Imperial Army. Colonel Thorn's appointment is the first departure from the rule.,