Dreary Work of Protecting Lines.

Manawatu Herald, 22 May 1900, Page 3

Dreary Work of Protecting Lines.

What a dismal fate it is, that of protecting lines writes the war correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. The camp is pitched close by a railway station and all that has to be done is to send out parties of men to walk up and down the railway, or to stand sentinel all through the long, weary day on some rocky hill, gazing down on the same dull expanse of plain where no foe ever appears. All the life and movement of the war flow past them on the railway. Long trains of six-and-thirty waggons of supplies go clinking past, taking goods up to the" front ; open trucks full of cheering Tommies go flying by to an accompaniment of " Soldiers of the Queen ;" hospital trains full of wounded come down from the front, the large red crosses showing on the outside, and the pallid faces of the wounded looking out of the windows ; or a few officers coming down from the front to see about regimental matters at the base, get out of the train for a few minutes and say, " Whatever are you fellows doing at this place ?" They rely on the supply trains for their news, or on casual passers-by, such as veterinary officers who get out of the train for a day or two to inspect the horses. They make a bold pretence that they are really doing some work. A stray Kaffir comes along and says that there are plenty of Boers on the neighboring hills, and at once a party is sent out, hoping against hope that the news may prove to have 'some grain of truth in it. It never has. No Boers have ever yet been discovered on Kaffir information, and the party returns despondent to its old haunts by the railway line. They make as much of these little excursions as possible, and are careful to impress upon passers by that they are having quite a lively time of it, constantly on the move repelling Boer attacks.