THE JAPANESE ARMY IN COREA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 6070, 2 October 1894, Page 4

THE JAPANESE ARMY IN COREA.

A corre»pondent who B'gni himself 1 W.A.I.' writes to the London Times i— ' The Chinese have tent an urmy to tbe Oorea. . . • But it would be as reasonable to match brave men armed with pitoh* forka Bgsiaat brave men Armed with rifles as to pit, man for man, the Obineie in their present condition against the Japanese The Japanese are armed with the Murat magazine rifle, and there is no better r.fle in Murope. It it manufactured at the arsenal at Tokio ; 1200 men are employed, and 120 rifles tamed oat a day in times of peace. Its bore is '303, the same as our Lse- Met ford ; it is sighted to 1200 metre*, it carries ten rounds in the magazine on the Beminglon principle : the ballot is lead coated with copper, that metal being plentiful in Japan ; the Geneva Convention has no jurisdiction here, so the copper bullet is not tabooed. The Japanese cavalry are well equipped, though, to our ideas, badly mounted but they are thoroughly aware of their shortoominge, and are taking steps to remedy them by degrees. The horee they are mounted on is, after all, the horse of the country, and bo animal could be better adapted for servioa iu Japan or Oorea. 2he same applies to the artillery horses, which are simply 14-band ponies, bat strong and hardy to a marvellous degree. Their field guna are 7 pounders, made at Osaoa on a pattern of their own, I forget its name, but its action is simple and rapid, and resembles Krupp's ; they have also 12-pounder Krupps, and hesvy Armstrong guns for the defenoe of forts Their drill is that of tho 'German army 20 years ago. They are preoise and steady, and the officers know thoir work and bow to teach it. In the cavalry swords ware carried on the saddle until the Bmporor one day remarked it, and said that only gentlemen wore swords and the horse ib not a gentleman, so swords are worn on the body. One great feature in all (he barracks is the gymnaeium. The mm are thoroughly trained in this department, and some of the feata I saw performed by cavalry reoruitß of tbe guard at their annual general impecticn last year would have done credit to any circus, Their wonderful neatneti, completeness and regularity is what struck me most. Every ihipg *at tidy, everything was ready, everything wan there. I heir only trouble was the wearing of European boots. Men, who had all , their lives been accustomed to straw sandals, having to thrust their feet into hard leather boxet, so to speak, very soon went leine A movement w«s on foot a few months buck to shoo them with leather sandals which obviate the evil. Whether this has been done or not I cannot toll. But this is the only thing I noticed that required alteration after a v«ry carefal inspection of the three arms* both guards and line. The troops they remind me most of are our Indian Goorkhas. and of all native and colonial troops that I have seen — and I have seen mo»t of ih m— l wou'd, next to Goorkhas, prefer a regiment of Japanese. They are brave, temperate, patient, and energetic, and though the Chinese might be made, under .European officer*, as floe soldiers as they are, at this moment they are about 200 years behind them ; and, although the viotorj is not always to the strong, as we have found out in the Boer oompaign, from every data that a soldier oan judge by, the Japanese should beat the Chinese in Corea with the greatest ease." — — ■