ANOTHER YEOMAN WITNESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7637, 21 February 1903, Page 4

ANOTHER YEOMAN WITNESS.

«. —^_ MEJV TAUGHT TO SWEEP, NOT TO SHOOT. A work of the greatest Talue nnd interest, whether to the general reader or the military student, ifc Private Corner's "Story of the 34(h Company (Middlesex) Imperial Yeomanry," though from the modesty of the preface the author seema to be quits unaware of the extent of his literary success. He is to be congratulated upon rcshmns: to take the a-Jvieo of a friend who advised him to "enlarge Upon the fighting; flghting is what the public want to hear about. The public, on the contrary, want, to hear the truth, with nil the details and minutite of the soldier's life from day to day, which is exactly what the author has given the world in his lively book. From the national standpoint the book is important from tho volume cf ovidence which it gives as to the utter .futility of military training as enforced in tho British Army, ami n.-T to the ignorance of the •British officer. The Yeomanry recruits wero taught how to sweep tile barrack yard, 'but not how to use their rifles, before they Ba.ilod. They were put through a drill which had at onco to be unlojiniti when they reached t'h-o field* Mt. Corner comments on the education of tho officers — and tho report of the 'Education Committee shows that ho <loes not exaggerate — in the following terms: — " While in other walks of life a ;man to be useful and successful in Uiis line must learn _ and know his 'business prucfcically, technically, ani thoroughly, it seemed not to be thought necessary for officers of our Army to trouble their 'heads about many essential details, and os long as the ornamental was not neglected, ifc was nowhere recognised that they were- lacking in GUty. What would bo thought of the civil engineer v:ho did not know his theodolite or level from beginning to end, or of the inal.e who "was awkward with his sextant? . . . That is about tho kind of inefficiency that obtained among a large body of the. ofllcnrs of our Army; tfhey did nob" know their 'business." For enncret-e . examples of the consequences of th's ignorance, almost nny page may 'be opened. Yet tho Army frtill goes ott as before, and the l»flB(in of the thideOus waste of blood and money in South Africa has nob even now been leamt by those in power. Eloquent and of great human interest »i.9 the roll-calls of the company, with their stesdily dwindling nUmbci's, telling pathetically of tho ■waste of ivar. Of 147 men originally enrolled, twenty-five were killed in action or dSed of disease, and nineteen wca'e wounded ; while of those who escaped unhurt a large number never went to tho front. (N'ob the ler.st, tragical pari; of the book is the Fa.d Story of Tweefontein, with- its terrible corollat.y. The unavenged murder of tho Kaffirs in British service )>y thab General De Wot who?-a humanity the London mob have just acclaimed. "I hive icad a letter," says the nuthor, " in whicjh ifc was stated thab the Kaffirs were tied to waggon wheels and burnt." Tho book is illustrated by excellent photographs, and has a good map.