RATIONS OF DIFFERENT ARMIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4605, 23 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

RATIONS OF DIFFERENT ARMIES.

The Turkish soldiery now engaged in quelling the insurrection in Herzegovina seem about as inexpensive a body of troops as any to be found in Europe. Irrespective of the homely, not to say defective, nature of their clothing, in which the item of boots is sometimes wanting altogether, their keep is calculated to fall in with the simplest of commissariat arrangements. A few handsful of meal, it seems, constitute for the most part their rations from dav to day, more simple fare than the black bread and garlic of the Cossack, or the renowned Erbsiourst or pea-sausage of the German, soldiery. Our own soldiers, who require, among other things, a daily ration of threequarters of a pound of meat and a pound of bread, would, we fear, be incapable of much work if fed upon Turkish fare; and even our French neighbors, who are famous for doing great things in cookery with limited means at command, would grumble a bit at such a meagre meal. Of the Western Powers there is no doubt that the soldiers of Germany are the least fastidious, and during the last war that staple article of diet, the pea-sausage, could scarcely be supplied fastenough for military consumption. So great was the demand, that artificial skins had to be made for the reception of this mixture of pea-flour and fat, which was simply cooked and sent to the troops, who turned it into soup or stew, or at a pinch ate it cold as it was served out to them. The French soldier is something of a gourmand, and takes a special pride in preparing his pot-au-feu, even when there is but little to go into it. Before a soldier is promoted from the ranks in France, he must satisfy his commanding officer that he possesses a good knowledge of cookery ; and thus a French corporal comes to take an interest in preparing a soup or ragoAt. The British soldier expects far more than either his French neighbor or Saxon cousin ; and, as we have said, expects meat or its equivalent every day. In times of peace he gets his bread and meat ration free, and has to provide groceries and tea and coffee out of his ordinary pay ; but in the field there are no stoppages whatever to pay for the extra food he receives. Both in Abyssinia and in Ashantee, great care was taken to supply our soldiers with a hot cup of cocoa every morning before the day's march ; and although beer and spirits were, the latter especially, suppressed, our men received rations of tea and coffee in lieu thereof.