MORE RATIONS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 27 June 1901, Page 4

MORE RATIONS.

(By W, Anderson, in the London Daily Mail)

When the War Office introduced tho present ration biscuit, it did not take the precaution of seeing that the men had something with which to masticate it.

A biscuit which has been reduced to pap by soaking in water is not disagreeable, but it is not good solid food. Many of the Uoops had such disgraceful teeth last year that they fouud it impossible to eat a biscuit before it had been soaked.

The War Office does not permit a man to enlist whose teeth are carious. Once he enlists it does not matter what becomes of his teeth and so numbers of men have been dumped down on the veldt without the wherewithal to masticate their rations.

Dentals applied to go out in the early part of 1900. They were told that their services were not required. Accordingly

several young dentists went so far as to enlist as troopers in tbe Yeomanry, and their services were greatly appreciated. Net only has it been difficult in this war to convey the rations to the front, but it has apparently been more difficult still to prevent bribery and corruption in the snug little supply column. It ought not to be possible, when the men are on a twopound pot of jam among eight once a month, for the quartermaster or his juniors to soil the jam to individuals who have the necessary funds to pay from two to five shillings a pot. "When, for weeks at at a time, the transport people could only just manage to convey half rations to the front, how was it that the supply non-coms, were allowed to sell part of those rations ? No soldier objects to supply departments living sumptuously, but he does object to his rations being stolen and sold indiscriminately.

Again, it is no great hardship for the troops to go without sugar; but it is more than galling, when rationed on it, to see the convoy niggers with their black muzzles buried in double handfuls of the soldiers' ration, especially when the black is receiving four pounds a month and the fighting man only gets two. It would be interesting to know if the troops are still forbidden to take what comes in their way; whether the cock's shrill clarion still calls out to the Boer, as he sits safe on the kopje, to come down and wring its neck. The Boer commandos have an admirable method of provisioning their men, which tbe British would do well to inti» mate. On arrival in camp several beasts are killed, and each burgher is allowed to go and slice oft' what he requires. This he takes away to his fire and fries in a tin. Sometimes he just throws the steak in the ashes. Then he prepares some mealie porridge. When he runs out of meal there is always the little hand-mill owned by the mess, which will turn out a plentiful supply at a rapid rate. The mealies !»re obtained from the farms that our men are forbidden to loot.

Why cannot the troops have a more liberal supply of meat, and why is it ndt cooked more frequently on the Boer principal, instead of being dished up as veldt skilly ?

The Kaffirs live entirely on mealies, and the Boers make this variety of corn almost their staplo diet. Tommy Atkins, too, has a craving for mealie porridge, and would throw his skilly away if there was a chance of commandeering a little meal.

In spite of this, crop after crop of mealies has been left to the Boers and thousands of sacks stored away in the farms have been passed by. The British Government prefers to send its columns trailing over the veldt with biscuits. Thousands of bags of mealies were burnt by our columns last year. I was one of those detailed to do the work.

Although there '.were tons of mealies right at the front yet valuable time and lives were wasted in bringing up boxes of biscuits 1500 miles on a single line from Capetown. The biscuit advocate will rely that the mealies would soon have been used up. Would they, indeed I The stock alone along the march would have lasted some considerable time ; but what does the line of march include ? Certainly not more than three miles of country on either side of the trek. Yes, three miles 1 What knowledge of the country beyond that does the Government possess ? What of the hundreds of miles unknown to our troops, and studded at this day with farms that are stored with stacks of corn.

The British army has marched along hand-in-hand like a girl's school out for exercise. If a Yeoman got outside the three mile limit, he was warned not to get out of touch in future, and on occasions has been punished by having to hand over his mount and march on foot for days at a time with the convoy. And all because he was interested in the country beyond the three mile limit and wished to obtain some particulars of the food supply there.

The hardships were acute; the men expected them to be. What they did not expect was to be treated worse than convicts, to be pooled, to be made the butt for the jeers of the Boer women. Why did the correspondent not describe the camp life and the feelings of the troops ? Why did they not depict the condition of the Manchesters when they marched on a memorable night into Standerton ? The Manchester men won't say anything about the affair. It would be a terrible tale to relate. No, the Turk is no longer the best soldier in the world. They make better ones up in the smoky manufacturing centres of Lancashire ; but they feed and clothe them worse in war time, and the Government does the rest. It keeps them wandering about in a land of plenty, but forbids them to touch the Boer property for fear of offending a few hysterical folks at home. And so he treks on and on, all the time on foot, striving to catch a man on horseback. Call him what you like. Call him one of the Starving Eight, one of Bundle's greyhounds, poor little Barnby Budge of the veldt, or whatever you will, but don't forget that he is the best soldier in the world, and that he is only human. He does not mind hardships, but don't make a fool of him. Treat the Boer on equal terms wi'h Tommy, if you will, but don't treat them better.