ANOTHER FLAG.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1066, 12 July 1917, Page 6

ANOTHER FLAG.

PORTUGAL LINKS UP MAY SEND TEN DIVISIONS. [According to roctnt reports, the Portuguese Army not only holds a portion of the Western line, but, being close to Armentierca, must be a near neighbour of (he New Zealand Division. The following account is taken from “Munsey’s Magazine.”] Whether any American troops shall or shall not reach the liringline before the end of 1917, the Germans have already had to face a new enemy on the Western front this year. There is a Portuguese tinny in France. One day in January the first troops of the Portuguese Republic that have ever fought in Europe inarched through the streets of a certain French seaport toward the trenches. Before these words arc read, will probably have had their baptise of fire. There were 20.0(10 mep in that first contingent, a full division—infantry, cavalry, artillery, aviators, auxiliaries, completely equipped. By this time the 20,000 may be 40,000, for a second division was soon to follow. A hundred thousand more are in training in Portugal, and will probably go to France before the summer ends. Portugal can send against the Germans 200,000 firstline troops. Allied Confidence. It is understood that the Portuguese have been sent to the trenches in the northern part of France, where so much of the hardest lighting of the war has been waged. That shows what the generals of the Allies think of the men whom the plucky little republic has sent to fight beside their own troops, under the red and green flag, against the Germans. The men who have been thus honoured are troops of a new army, not at all the Portuguese Army of a few years ago, with its red caps and bright blue tunics. It is an army of the year 1917. wearing a uniform patterned on that of the French poi- , lus, with the English service cap, and drilled in the use of the grenade and the trench mortar. The new motor trucks Bud carry its food, its ammunition, all its supplies, were made in the United States. It took only about six months io create Portugal’s new fighting force. That was made possible by the fact that the young republic 'of only (i,(lfl(!,0()0 people has what the United States, with its 100,000,000, has not —universal military training. It was necessary to reorganise the army to meet present-day conditions, hut there was a solid foundation to begin upon., for the Portuguese were a nation trained in arms. Last August, Great Britain granted President Machado’s rennesl that Portugal, her ally since 1337, should he permitted to send an army to help England and France on the Western front. Portugal had been in the great war since March, 1915, but her troops had fought only in Africa. A mission of British and French officers arrived at Lisbon laic in August. In December (he first Portuguese fighting men, 500 officers and non-commissioned officers, went-to France. The 20,000 followed quickly. Following the Swiss. Portugal’s military training system dates from the year when she became a republic, 1910. One of the first things the people did after they had got rid of their king was to institute such a system, modelled on the Swiss plan, which has so often been held up as a model for the United Stales. Every eligible citizen is liable to service for 10 years, but “in time of peace he is called to the colours for less than a year. His first instruction lasts three months, if he is an infantryman; six months, if he is a cavalryman. After this brief service, he is called out for manoeuvres two or throe times during the 10-year period, hut for not more than two months altogether. The Portuguese soldier is, not unlike his Latin kinsman of France and Italy, short, dark, agile, and hardy. The infantry is armed with the Manser rifle, the artillery with the Schneider-Canet rapid-fire field gun, a piece similar to the French 75. The first division that went to France is called in Portugal the division of Tancos, for it was trained at an instruction camp near the til lie town of Tancos. on the Tagus, not far from Lisbon. It is commanded by Genera] Tamagnani d’Abreu.