RETURN OF THE CONTINGENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 13 March 1901, Page 4

RETURN OF THE CONTINGENTS

(per press association.)

Wellington, March 12.

Government have made arrangements for the immediate return of the members of the first five contingents now in South Africa as soon as the men of the Sixth and Seventh arc able to take their places. Tho Sixth Contingent may be reported as having arrived at any hour, and tho Seventh will be due at Capetown at the end of April. Though the men signed on for a year or until the termination of the war, the Minister for Defence has arranged that the term of agreement shall expire at the end of a year's service. The Sixth Contingent is now duo at Capetown, and will commenco tho work of relief, and will replace the remnant of the first three and parts of tho Fourth Contingent, while the Seventh now in camp here will relieve the balance of the Fourth and Fifth.

A month ago a careful computation was made of the number of our men then in South Africa, or on the way home, with the following result: —First (officers and men in each case), 17; Second, 177; Third, 201; Fourth, 425; Fifth, 561, total, 1381. This number will be diminished by further drafts invalided homo, so that the total strength of the Sixth and Seventh —say, 1100 men—will probably suffice for all the purposes of relief. .