WAR ITEMS

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3389, 8 October 1900, Page 4

WAR ITEMS.

THE WASTE OF HORSEFLBSH. It is evident from letters which reach ua (" Army ar.d Navy Gazette ") from South Africa that the frightful mortality, espeaially amongst the horses of the British f orces> has been mainly responsible for the prolongation of the war. The mobility of the Boer forces has enabled them to keep the field because the British troops have b»en always inferior to them m this respect. Our colonial troops, although even their mobility has not be<pn equal to that of the Boeis, have yet been able to maua-uvre at high pressure far more successfully than their comrades of the Regular Army. Several causes have combined, we are assured, to bring about this state of affairs, but the chief of them is, we are told, bad in&iiagoment. Had there been none of the contributory evils, then perhaps all might have gone fairly well ; but certainly there could have been so such collapse as has actually occurred had not the effects of bard work and scanty rations, etc., been i»creased hy a lack of eominon sense m the treatrnont of their horses by our responsible officers The strategical value of mounted troops lies m their mobility, aad, as this becomes reduced, thoir value descends m the scale more and more nearly to that of infantry ; indeed, efficient infantry that can really march their own pace and stick to it are entirely preferable to w»rn out cavalry, who cannot be depended upon to execute the msnceuvres set them to ac complish. Time after time, as we all know, the Boers have got away safely with guns aad convoys — from Poplar Grove ouwards — simply becaupe the cavalry who were intended to cut them off were too late. Bad management of the horses, it is te be feared, is at the root of nearly ail the failures. . . . "Colonial troops on the 1 march," we are told, " will b« seen loading their horses for miles, and at every halt scattering for grazing purposes ; whilst m the case of British cavalry the men are not ordered m many instances even to dismount until it is almost time to move on again, and as for any attempt to giro the horse a chance of grazing, such a thing is rarely to be observed. Nor, generally speaking, are the horses turned out to graze round the camp, and even when this is done they are constantly being 'rounded up' and get no peace." What our officers fail to realise is that the performance of evolutions at a rapid pace is practised at drill, partly perhaps to produce a pretty effect, but chiefly m order that when there is need for haste on service rapidity can be achieved without confusion. Whoever gallops hit horse without reason is a bad horse-master and a worse cavalry leader. It is because of so much thoughtless absurdity that sickness and death have decimated the ranks of ftur mounted troops.