At the French Manoeuvres.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 7

At the French Manoeuvres.

Being colonials ourselves, we are naturally interested to hear by means of Robert Blatchford—incomparably the finest newspaper descriptive writer of the day—(that at the French military manoeuvres. the Colonial Brigade of Infantry was the one thing that ‘’struck him,” so to phrase it, “between the eyes”:—“The colonials are men of good 1 physique and of good stature. They appear to be first-class fighting material. Strong, swarthy men they were, who had evidently come far, for* they were hot and very dusty, though they inarched stoutly with a resolute swing. And as they marched, and when the bugles were not blowing, they sang. This was not like the marching song we heard in the square. It was scornful, with a sting of mockery in it. It may have been a harmless song in itself, but as it was rendered and as it was accentuated by those warlike French colonials, it seemed as full of diablerie and bitter humour as Berlioz’s Mephistophelean serenade. Undoubtedly the men of the Colonial Brigade are the fiercest soldiers I have seen. The effect of their eyes as they turned them upon us in inarching was remarkable. Most of the eyes were dark, though a

good many were grey pnd some blue; but they all had the same look of untamed fierceness, and ithe swarthy faces were lit with an expression of satirical defiance. It must have been men like these who stormed the Bastille and poured like a resistless sea across the French frontier to rout the enemies of France. No wonder the enemy ran like hens. If the men look as warlike and dangerous on the march, what must they look in the red hour of battle? As the colonial regiments strode past they had all the appearance of men marching to bnittle. If they ever do march to battle somebody will get hurt. Later in the day we mot a mule battery of the Red artillery, and I had a good laugh. The mules were the largest mules I have ever seen. They were as big as horses. They were also by a very long way -the most mulish animals I have seen. They were simply sizzling with sin. I do not believe there was an animal in the battery which would not have kicked the tricolour or the commander-in-chief and gloried in ithe deed. But they fetched their guns along. With their hands full of business I thought I detected a similar expression on the faces ol the colonial officers.”

Does not 'this visualise tilings for us 13,000 miles off?