command of that garrison as soon as the depôts can be formed. Thus,
about the time that we write, the whole of Sir Evelyn Wood’s force ready
to take the field will be available for service elsewhere. From the
all-important point of view of facilities for embarkation and provision
of shipping, this has been a decided gain. Enormous as are the
mercantile resources of England, and patriotic as has been the readiness
of all our great companies to place their vessels at the disposal of
Government, it has always been assumed that we could not reasonably
calculate on moving off from our ports at one moment more than about
35,000 troops, or the force of one _corps d’armée_. To move such a
force, with all the carriages, horses, and stores necessary to make the
army available for the field, will require 135 large steamers. Warning
and provisional arrangements had, we understand, been made, for as many
as this, by the transport department of the Admiralty, when the
Government first began to apprehend the possibility of our having to
employ them, nearly a month ago. But the facilities of the Port of
Antwerp have enormously increased our means of transport. By far the
larger portion of the shipping of that great port is in the hands of
English firms, and the commercial relations between these firms and
Germany have enabled the Government to charter, in addition to a large
mass of Antwerp shipping, many German ships which have been laid up by
the high war rates now ruling for insurance. Thus, virtually without
touching our own shipping or the facilities for embarking at our ports,
Sir Evelyn Wood’s troops, forming about half of the 2d Corps which he is
destined to command at the Seat of War, will be embarked probably before
these words see the light.
Meantime the troops of the 1st Army Corps have already left our shores.
On May 8th the Duke of Connaught, who is to command the 1st Army Corps,
sailed with the Headquarter Staff of that Corps and the 2d Battalion
Scots Guards from the Royal Albert Docks, North Woolwich, in his old
ship, the _Orient_, which had been recently docked. His Royal Highness
had asked that, if it were equally convenient, he might travel with the
captain and in the ship in which he had sailed for Egypt in 1882. It was
a point of _punctilio_ with the captain to clear out at exactly the same
hour as in 1882; and accordingly, at twelve o’clock on May 8th, amid the
cheers of a vast crowd, the _Orient_ sailed from Woolwich as in 1882,
just five days after the issue of the order calling in the Reserve men.
The other portions of the Corps have sailed within the last week.
So far all speaks well for the efficient working of our system, but from
our different correspondents at the points where mobilisation has been
taking place, we hear of not a few blots which mar the harmony of the
picture.
In the first place, an undoubted and severe strain has been put upon our
resources. It is not usual for more than three battalions of the Guards
to leave England at the same time for active service. The zeal and
patriotism of the London Scottish, the Inns of Court Volunteers, the
20th Middlesex, the Artists’ Corps, induced them to volunteer to take up
several of the day guards in London; special arrangements having been
worked out to make the duties as little irksome as possible, and to
arrange for a free interchange of the men. With the exception of the
Bank Guard, all-night duties have been handed over to the police, and it
is hoped that this arrangement may become a permanent one. Thus
relieved, the single battalion of the Grenadiers left in London will, it
is believed, be sufficient for the indispensable remainder of the day
duties, though we have seen solemn old heads gravely shaken from the
windows of ‘The Rag,’ as they looked across the way at the policeman
who, even for day duty, has assumed the protection of the War Office and
Horse Guards.
Thus, in addition to the brigade of Guards which moved with Sir Evelyn
Wood to Antwerp, a second Guard Brigade has been formed for the corps
which His Royal Highness is to command.
According to the method intended to be the normal one for our
mobilisation, as soon as the 1st Corps has moved off to the ports of
embarkation, their places are to be taken at the stations they have
vacated by the regiments of the 2d Army Corps, who will then be
mobilised, and will subsequently be embarked from the same ports as the
others. This arrangement has been disturbed by the fact that Sir Evelyn
Wood’s troops, forming about a division and a half of the 1st Army
Corps, as originally intended, were prepared for movement in ample time,
it having been known for nearly a year that such a movement might be
required at any moment. When it was subsequently known that it would be
necessary to send two Army Corps to the seat of war, as the troops from
England would necessarily precede those from Antwerp, the places vacated
at Aldershot were taken up by regiments of the proper 2d Army Corps, and
their Reserve men sent to them there.
[Illustration:
RESERVE MEN SERVED WITH THE NEW MAGAZINE-RIFLE, AND OFF TO THE FRONT
TO-MORROW.
]
As regards the equipment of Sir Evelyn’s force, there was nothing to
find fault with,—the material for the necessary transport and stores was
actually at Aldershot, and, for the Guards, in London. The troops
embarked complete in every respect, except for the unavoidable absence
of their Reserve men, which has now been supplied. On the whole, the
Reserve men have come in very well, and the deficiency in the calculated
numbers is very slight. The contrast in their age and physique to the
boys of the battalions as we have known them, is very marked. On the
other hand, it is reported that those who have left the colours for some
years show sadly the defects of their not having been called out
regularly for training. Many of them have certainly seen and handled the
magazine-rifle. Others have not even done that. A certain falling off
also in military habits and discipline is perhaps better indicated in a
description which has been given by one of the correspondents of a trip
he took in a railway carriage, with five men going to join their depôt
from certain quarries in the north. We shall abridge his graphic sketch
of the men in order to record the conversation he details.
One of them, a big man with sandy whiskers and indifferently shaved, but
evidently a good-natured fellow, clapped him familiarly on the knee
after certain gifts of baccy and a little nip from his flask, which
latter was, however, refused by two out of the five, had made them all
disposed to be communicative. ‘Look ye here, sir, I doesn’t mind a bit
going back for a little soldiering, but it seems strange like. Why, a
few months ago, one of the officers of my old regiment came down to see
us at the quarries where we was. He was a very nice young officer, had
been adjutant, and if I’d seen him by myself on the road, I’d have liked
nothing better than to touch my hat to him, and get a bit of a chat
about old times. But, lor’ bless yer, if I’d saluted him down in the
quarries I shouldn’t have heard the last of it this side of Christmas.
He seemed rather worried like at the way we treated him, though we was
all glad to see him, and he asked me about it. “Well,” says I, “the
reason the chaps don’t salute you, is just that they darn’t for fear of
the chaff.” “What do yer salute him for? yer needn’t, yer know,” that’s
what all the other men in the quarries would want to know. Well, yer
know, sir, ’tain’t that. It’s a kind of way of saying as you belong to
the same body like as he does. He’s got his dooty and you’ve got yours.
But, lor’ bless you, you never could make the quarry chaps see that.
“See what John Morley says,” they’d say, “he tells yer it’s rank
slavery, and that’s just what it is. You make believe to like it, cos
you’ve lost yer tail and ’ud like to see other chaps lose theirs.” Well,
yer know, sir, when you’ve been five or six years among that sort o’
thing, and all the time you haven’t had the chance of so much as seeing
a regiment, and feel that you don’t know nothing about this here
blooming new drill, and about these yer magazine rifles and smokeless
powder as they talks about, well, it seems strange like. You feel as if
your blood had got changed since you was with the regiment. However,
when we went off with a chance of going away to the war, and even when
the Proclamation was fastened upon the village inn, and the women was
howling fit to split, one old quarryman claps me on the back, and says
he, “I’d like to be going with you, my lad; good luck for old England,”
for their blood got up pretty quick when they heard of the row, and they
like fighting as well as any one.’
[Illustration:
READING THE MOBILISATION ORDER.
]
We must reserve for next week the reports we have heard from the Militia
and the state of the proper 2d Army Corps, half of which will now become
the 1st Army Corps under the Duke of Connaught, and the other half will,
with Sir Evelyn’s troops, form the 2d Army Corps under him.
At the last moment we hear that the titles of the Corps which Sir Evelyn
and the Duke of Connaught are to command are changed. It has been
naturally assumed that the Duke of Connaught would command the 1st
Corps, and Sir Evelyn the 2d. All the correspondents during the week
have so reported it, and we understand that, as a matter of courtesy,
this would have been arranged if possible. But, as Sir Evelyn’s troops
all belong to the 1st Army Corps in the mobilisation scheme, and the
waggons and stores were all marked for the ‘1st Army Corps,’ it was
found that to have changed this order would have introduced endless
confusion. On the matter being explained to the Prince, he is reported
to have said that ‘he was a soldier, and could only wish that what was
best for the Service should be considered. He was proud to serve as
brother Corps-commander with so distinguished a soldier as Sir Evelyn
Wood.’
RUSSIA DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND.
SIR GEORGE TRYON EVACUATES THE BLACK SEA.
LONDON, _May 21_.
Events have ripened fast since last week. Russia, on May 16, on hearing
of the dispatch of our troops to the East, declared war against us. The
excitement against us in France has reached boiling point. There can be
no doubt that our great fleet of convoys would not have been allowed to
leave England had there, at the time of their departure, seemed to be
any prospect of France declaring war against us, because from Algeria
and her southern ports, she so threatens our movement through the
Mediterranean that that opportunity is in itself an additional incentive
to her to declare war. For a long time, however, it appeared as if the
Ministry, prudently anxious not to add further to the enemies France
already has on her hands, would temporise with us. Public feeling will,
however, it is to be feared, prove too strong for the Ministry, and for
some time the gravest anxiety was felt at home as to the fate of the
expedition in the event of the fleet being attacked whilst escorting so
great a convoy of ships, while Sir George Tryon was known to be fully
occupied in the Black Sea. On the 18th, however, a telegraphic message
arrived announcing that Sir George Tryon had withdrawn the entire fleet
from the Black Sea immediately after the retreat of the Russian Fleet to
Sebastopol; that his flag-ship had arrived at Malta, that the Duke of
Connaught, in the _Orient_, had reached Cyprus after a very rapid and
successful voyage; and that all the transports sailing direct from
England had either arrived at or passed Malta. It is understood that the
greater part of the troops of the 1st Army Corps will for the present
rendezvous at Cyprus, where extensive preparations have for a long time
past been made for their reception. Alarm was at first excited in some
quarters lest the troops should suffer as they had done at the time of
the first occupation of Cyprus. But according to the reports from the
island it appears that a great improvement has taken place in its
sanitary condition—thanks to the British occupation; that the chief
cause of the ill-health of the troops at the former time was the want of
proper hutting arrangements, provided for them beforehand. Large
quantities of roofing felt have been sent out, and labourers have
constructed, under the direction of the engineers, large huts admirably
roofed, and now practically ready for about 30,000 men. In case the
necessary huts should not be ready for the whole of the troops, it is
understood that the remainder of the force will land in Egypt. It is
obvious that no expedition can be carried into the Black Sea until the
great Naval action, which will almost certainly follow the French
Declaration of War,—which is expected whilst we write,—has decided which
flag is to be supreme in the Mediterranean.
Meantime, Sir Evelyn Wood’s troops, which sailed from Antwerp on May
13th and 14th, have temporarily put into Gibraltar and Cadiz, where they
have been received in the most friendly manner by our present allies the
Spaniards.
The departure from England of the second half of the 2d Corps has been
postponed. The ships are ready, but it is obviously inadvisable to
accumulate more troops on the long line to the East till the question of
the supremacy of the Alliance in the Mediterranean has been settled. The
detachment of troops which was landed at Trebizonde has necessarily been
withdrawn. They would have been exposed to attack by indefinitely
superior force as soon as the command of the Black Sea passed into the
hands of the Russians. It appears that the detachment never consisted of
more than half a battalion, and a few sappers from the garrison of
Cyprus, which had been reinforced with a view to such a movement.
DECLARATION OF WAR IN LONDON.
MOVEMENT BY THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
London has had the excitement of a pageant unseen since 1854, and
therefore unknown to most of our generation. On May 18th the
Sergeant-at-Arms, attended by the whole of the city functionaries,
declared war against Russia from the steps of the Royal Exchange.
[Illustration:
DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST RUSSIA FROM THE STEPS OF THE ROYAL
EXCHANGE.
]
It is obvious that we may have before long to expect some aggression of
Russia upon Afghanistan. But Russia has already involved herself in such
a number of campaigns, against Germany, against Austria, against
Bulgaria and Turkey, and also against Turkey in Asia, that it seems in
the last degree improbable that, with her resources impoverished and
weakened by the effects of the great famine, she can employ great force
in Afghanistan also. On our part, however, it is indispensable that we
should in India not expect to carry on a great aggressive campaign
against Russia. For, whereas for a forward campaign large
reinforcements, both of men and officers, would be required, we cannot
at present afford to send any large number of men from home, and even
the possible supply of officers will be very limited.
We understand, however, that arrangements have been made with the
Canadian Pacific Railway for the immediate dispatch to India by that
line of about 200 retired officers who have volunteered their services,
and who having large Indian experience will be invaluable for many of
the appointments that will become indispensable. One of our ablest and
best known artists has made arrangements to accompany this party. We
hope in a future issue to give a number of graphic illustrations of the
new route, which, now that the Suez Canal is no longer available, from
the risks attending it, fully shows its importance to the safety of the
Empire. We understand that, also by the Canadian Pacific line, enormous
stores of magazine rifles were, none too soon, dispatched to India about
a month ago. Furthermore, about 500 million cartridges of smokeless
powder for the rifles were dispatched about a fortnight ago by the same
route. It was found impossible to obtain these from the Government
factories, which up to the eve of the war were still experimenting on
the form of powder. The ‘Smokeless Powder Company,’ however, undertook
to provide 1000 million cartridges as a first instalment. Five hundred
million of them have been assigned as the first provision for home and
the Eastern expedition, and the second instalment was sent off in hot
haste to the East, _viâ_ the West, special arrangements for its security
having been undertaken by the Canadian Pacific.
MOBILISATION OF THE SECOND CORPS.
Meantime it is certainly not to be regretted that we have been compelled
to delay the dispatch from England of the second half of the 2d Corps.
The trooping season to India being now over, nearly all the drafts had
been sent out before the risk of war appeared imminent. A certain number
were, however, kept back towards the end of the season. Nevertheless,
the Reserve men have barely sufficed to make up the Corps and a half
which have already sailed. It would have been impossible to make up the
remaining half Corps at all, but for the fact that, specially for the
war, a large number of Militiamen and of ‘efficient volunteers’ have
offered their services. The ‘efficient volunteers’ have enlisted under a
special clause which expressly limits their services to the period of
the war, and, as a maximum, to a period of two years. Furthermore, the
strength of the Artillery is deplorably deficient.
A short time ago there was fear lest the miscellaneous collection of
weapons with which the Artillery was armed would produce confusion. This
was remedied by activity in the Arsenal, and by giving out contracts to
private firms. The result was the production of numbers of the so-called
12–pounder gun both for the Indian and home batteries. Unfortunately
this gun has been condemned by the unanimous report of our ablest
artillerymen. It is too heavy for the Horse Artillery, which loses
mobility. On the other hand, the Field Artillery will have to meet the
guns of Foreign Powers, no one of which throws a shell of less than 15
pounds. Most of the foreign field guns are even more powerful. The
ammunition is most unsatisfactory. Everything has been sacrificed to
securing an excessive muzzle velocity, which commends itself very much
to mere experimentalists, but is regarded as useless by practical
soldiers.
There has been a dangerous tendency to leave these questions altogether
in the hands of an Ordnance Committee of men without experience of the
requirements of an army. For a sporting rifle, the sportsman says what
he wants, and the manufacturer applies his skill to furnishing what is
asked for. For our Artillery the shopman decides. The men who have to
handle the gun in war, or who have studied the experience of others who
have handled it in war, are simply ignored.
EMBODIMENT OF THE MILITIA.
The general embodiment of the militia has shown serious defects in our
system. These are glaring enough among the English and Scotch militia
regiments, but among the Irish they are appalling. Many of the Irish
militia battalions are now in the neighbourhood of Aldershot in a
special camp. Some of them, like those of Antrim, Tipperary, Tyrone, are
a splendid body of men. The great deficiency in some of the battalions
is in the correspondence between their numbers and the muster rolls. One
correspondent reports having ascertained that there are not a few Irish
militiamen who have been in the habit of belonging to as many as five
different corps at one time. ‘The way the thing has been done is this:
It has never been the practice to call out simultaneously the militia
battalions for training; it would interfere inconveniently with the
labour market. Certain men, taking advantage of this fact, have made a
regular trade of getting the money allowed for one battalion after
another as it has been called out. Indeed, so well has the fact been
known that it is reported that not infrequently the Sergeant-Major has
requested the adjutant of certain battalions to beg that the time of
muster might be postponed till after the end of the training of another
battalion, in order to ensure a full attendance. Now, however, that the
battalions are gathered together the effects are visible enough. I am
told that in some battalions nearly half the proper strength is wanting.
Some steps are certainly required to cure this evil. The men, it must be
observed, don’t “desert” their proper battalion because they attend all
their drills. Perhaps now that the militia is embodied it might be
possible, legally, to try these men as deserters from the corps with
which they do not appear. That, however, is a question for the military
powers, not for your humble correspondent. What I am quite certain of is
that they will not be tried. Our already slender numbers would be most
formidably reduced if all these men were treated as criminals. Moreover,
they are not at bottom bad fellows many of them. The idea that it is a
crime to get a little more pay out of the public in return for doing a
little more drill never entered their minds. The general effect of their
action, of course, does not affect them at all. “Why, yer honour, didn’t
I put in me toime honest for me pay?” one of them with whom I was
expostulating said to me the other day. They are, of course, the best
drilled men we have. They have had so much of it. For this war, at all
events, it is too late to devise a remedy for this sham.’
Just at present the headquarters of the militia are in the Staff
College, that institution having been broken up for the war, and the
sixty officers usually there have been sent to rejoin their regiments,
or to fill up billets where they are badly wanted. The tents of the
militia battalions cover the ground in the neighbourhood. Aldershot is
occupied with the brigades that are being formed in hot haste to
complete the force in the field. The stores for the 2d Army Corps were
by no means in the same state of readiness as those for the 1st. But in
Aldershot, at least, many of the waggons were actually ready, and,
thanks to the delay which has taken place, and the costly and feverish
purchases all over the country of stores, probably this portion of the
two corps will be ready when it is required to move.
We hear from all parts of the world of enormous purchases of transport
material of all kinds which will be hurried into the Levant as soon as
it is safe to send them there. Mules especially are being everywhere
purchased.
The horses that have been of late years registered with the Government
for purchase for war have proved invaluable. Indeed, without them we
could not possibly have equipped the troops. Many of them are splendid
animals, and will greatly assist in making up our deficiencies in
draught horses for the artillery and train.
CALLING OUT THE VOLUNTEERS.