PORTUGAL'S FLAG ON THE FIRING-LINE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12064, 20 July 1917, Page 2

PORTUGAL'S FLAG ON THE FIRING-LINE.

RFPIBLIf SENDS ITS .MEN TO THE FRONT IN FRANCE.

(" Munfey's Magazin.-."')

riier.-* is a Portuguese armv j.n France.

One day in January the first, troops of the Portuguese Republic that hare ever fought in Europe marched through rIK- streets ot a. ffrtain French seaport towards iho tranches. There were twenty thousand men in that.- first, contingent, ;i frill division infantry, cavalry. artillery, aviators, auxiliaries, completely equipped. Ry this time the twenty thousand may be forty thousand, tor a s.icond division uas'soon to follow. A hundred thousand more are in training in Portugal, and will probably go to I'ranee before the summer ends. Portugal can send against the Hermans two hundred thousand iirstline troops. TROOPS OF A NEW ARMY.

It is understood (hat. the Portuguese have I'jf'f-n sent to the. trenches in the northern part oi I*ranee, where so much of the hardest lighting of the Avar has liccn waged. J hat shows what, the generals of the Allies think of the men whom the plucky littlr republic has sent to fight beside their own troops, under tho red and green l/ag, against the. Germans.

The men who have been thus honoured ar > troops ol 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 oi the year 191", wearing a. uniform patterned" on that of the French poilus, with the English service cap, and drilled in the use oi the grenade and the t rcneh-mortar. The. new motor-trucks- that carry its food, its ammunition, all its supplies, were made in the United States.' it took only about six months to crt.-te Portugal's new fighting force. That, was mado possible "by the fact that the young republic of only six million people lias what the United States, with jts hundred millions, has not—universal training. It was necessary to recognise tho army to meet presentday conditions, but there was a solid foundation to begin upon, for the Portuguese, wtre A NATION TRAINED IN ARMS. Last August, Great Britain granted President Machado's request that Portugal her ally since 10-ii, should be permitted to send an army to help England and {''ranee on tlic western front. Portugal had been in the great war since March, 19L3, but her troops had fought only in Africa. A mission ot British and French officers arrived at Lisbon late in August. In December thi" first Portuguese fighting men. five Hundred officers and non-commissioned otlicers, went to Franco. Tho twenty thousand followed quickly. Portugal's military training system dates from the year when she became a republic, 1910. One of the first things the peoplo did after they had got rid of their king was to institute such a system, modelled on the, Swiss plan. Every eligible citizen is liable to service for ten years, but in tame of peace he. is called to the. colours lor Jess than a year. His first, instruction lasts three months, if lie is an infantryman; sixmonths if ho is. a cavalryman. After this brief service, he is called out for manoeuvres two or thrco times during tho ten-year period, but for not more than two months altogether. Tho Portuguese soldier, is not unlike his Latin kinsmen of France and Italy, sTTort, dark, agile and hardy.