How the Boers Drilled.

Manawatu Herald, 7 June 1902, Page 3

How the Boers Drilled.

A strange picture of the way the Boers managed what little drill they attempted before the war is given in Mr D. M. Wilson’s book, ‘ Behind the Scenes in the Transvaal.’ He says: “ When the Staats Artillerie was formed, one of the principal sources of amusement to many of us was to watch the drill. The law required that every private should be a burgher; consequently the members of the corps were the rawest of the raw—youths fresh from the farm* Not only had they no notion of drill, but even their instructors had but hazy ideas as to how to move their men when once they had got them In line. Nor was - the difficulty lessened by the absence of words in the capable of representing the military words of command. The drill instructor, therefore, had to invent his own, and naturally pressed into his service such words and phrases as appealed most directly to the simple-minded son of the soil. The words were largely drawn from the phraseology of the farm. ‘Halt,’ tor example, was expressed by the iTraal equivalent for the ‘Woa’ addresses to a horse; ‘Forward’ Gee-up ’in the vernacular; ‘ Quick march ’ by ‘ Make as if you were plovers,’ the South African plover have a peculiar military strut, with head erect, tnat came nearest to what the drill instructor imagined the real thing must look like a Boer, The order to ‘Present’ required considerable circumlocution. It ran ; ‘ Make as if you were going to shoot, but don’t shoot ! ’ The position assumed by the soldier standing at ease suggested the attitude of a knee-halted horse. . . . Therefore, when the Staats Artillerie man was told to ‘ Stand like a kneehaltered horse,’ he knew that he had to bend one knee, and strike a grotesquely uneasy position.