The Return of the Australian Contingent.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 103, 23 May 1885, Page 6

The Return of the Australian Contingent.

The immediate return of the Australian contingent to New South Wales, and the rapid reduction of the garrisons at Suakim, mark the close of the Soudan war. The de parture of the Australians is mcde the occasion of pleasant interchanges of good feeling between the Home Government and the colonial troops. The former has presented to New South Wales the ninepounder battery of artillery which they were allotted on arrival a Suakim, and the colony leaves to the Imperial forces th« horses the Australians took with them. The transport charges back to Sydney will be borne by England. So terminates most appropriately one o' the happiest incidents in the history of England's Colonial Empire. That it would, as the Marquis of Hartington stated in the House of Commons, "neither be convenient nor satisfactory" to take the Australians to England can be readily understood. This does not arise from the expense of conveyance, for that would gladly be defrayed by patriotic Anglo-Australians, if necessary. But consideration has to be given to the brave English troops who have borne the heat and burden of this Soudan war. It is not wise to make invidious distinctions between the brave men who have been imperilling their lives in v common cause, and the lionising of the Australians must be attended with such distinctions. On the part of the colony, it was a most patriotic thing to undertake the coat of this hearty and spontaneous measure of asMistance to the <>ld Land ; but as {or the men composing the contingent, they were recruited very much as England's troops are recruited, among the adventurous spirits of the population. The triumphal parade of these troops in Great Britain would be an honour conferred, not upon the colony, but upon the m*-n, and could not fail to exoite fee)itign of discontent; and jealousy among the other regiments in Her Majesty's service who have been engaged in this war The War Office have recognised their services in awarding them a medal for the campaign, and that, with the extraordinary acclamations that attended their departure from the colony, and which will greet them on their return, ought to give them a surfeit of popular applause. We heartily credit them with all the willingness of their fellow soldiers of Her Majesty's regular forces to perform prodigies of valour; but, ac things have turned out, it has not fallen to their lot to show how they could pass thrpugh an ordeal like that which wan nobly borne by the English troops in the desert at Abu Klea and Mfitamnaeh. In the praise* bestowed upon the Australians, we must not forget tho other British heroes who .have vindicated British honour and British pluck in tho thick of the light.