NEGRO ARMIES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEGRO ARMIES.

Tho suggestion of Mr. Winston, Churchill that wo should raise a great armv of Mack troops in Nigeria ready, for 'the campaign of VJI?, and tho statement that the French are already | employing nearly 100,000 men from Africa in.tho lines in France, calls attention to* the use which has been made| in the past of the fighting qualities >)i the negio. The French have always recognised | tho splendid fighting qualities of the blacks. The number of Senegalese in the French army had risen to 22,000 as far back as 1911. It was in that year that the raising of 300,000 blacks was strongly advocated by French military authorities, who suggested that they should bo used ii the coining European struggle, to; redress the balance which the greater papulation of Grmany gave to the Kaiser's army. Of course, says the 'Star, the Zouaves, Turcos, and Spahis hare all been employed in the French wars ficm the time of the Crimea; but! these natives of Tunis and Algeria are' ( not really blatks. They are Arabs, and are not open lo the reproach of colour! If which the negro is subject. | During the American Civil "War many negro regfments were raised, and when tho war ended in 1865 there were still 123.000 negro soldiers in the Fed- 1 , eial Armies, though after the war their i numbers were greatly reduced. There, arc still several negro cavalry regiments in the United States army. !

Lord Wolseley had a great opinion o? the military value of the negroes •is soldiers. The black regiments in tho Egyptian army, he once said, were tlie !>est portion of it, and the West Indian regiments of the British Army, wihon they were recruited from tlhe newly-liberated slaves, men fresh from the AVest African forests, were splendid fighting material.