COLONEL WARREN'S YOLINTEER TROOPERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 3

COLONEL WARREN'S YOLINTEER TROOPERS.

AROHiBAf/D' Forbes wrote as follows in the "Adelaide Advertiser " :— Concerning the volunteer troopers ' going out to Sou'fti Africa under Colonel Sir Charles Warren, to drive the filibusters out of Bechuanaland, " They are not a squad of reckless * ne'er-do-weels/ and not the sort of iellows, who, having "tried everything at home and failed because of incurably dissipated habits, used to receive an outfit and get sent off to Australia, and whose destination of late has chiefly been Manitoba. Every man had to prove his character before he was taken on. That there are some strange characters in the ranks is true ; as, for instance, the Marquis of Queensbery, who is quite mad, although a very clever fellow ; but the majority are either men legitimately anxious for adventure, because this ' workaday ' world is too conventional and prosaic for them, or fellows whose gifts are not those which carry men to the front in the state of society where the head counts for more than the hands. A good many are ex-officers of the regular army, whose want of means has forced them out of service. There are stalwart young fellows who have been cadets, but who failed to pass examinations which would have entitled them to commissions, younger sons of country gentlemen, militia officers, volunteers bitten with a keenness for real soldiering, and so on."