[English] THE HONGKONG SCOUTS.

THE HONGKONG SCOUTS.

Those who have been perhaps a little too ready to excuse their own supineness by casting upon the employers of labour, the taipans, the responsibility for the shortcomings of the Volunteer Corps of Hongkong, should read two interesting documents. The first is the appeal made by H. E. Sir Henry May, published in our issue of the 7th instant, and the second is the conclusive reply to it made by Mr. C. H. Ross and Hon. Mr. Henry Keswick. The latter gentleman's views are shared by eight of the principal great business firms whose names are household words throughout the East. Not only will no obstacle be placed in the way of those young men who are able and willing to give their services as auxiliaries to His Majesty's Forces in this Colony, but their employers actually offer their encouragement and approval. It is almost unnecessary to refer to the qualifications of Mr. C. H. Ross as a leader of such a force as is now about to be enlisted. No better man could be imagined for the conduct of this particular undertaking. His well-known ability and experience are a guarantee of the success of his "endeavour to recruit the desired 52 men and get the Unit into working order before Xmas 1910." This new "Unit" is to consist of three officers, six sergeants, and seven corporals, fifteen mounted troopers and twenty-four "dismounted troopers." The latter phrase must be understood in connection with the explicit statement made by Mr. Ross that these men are all to be armed and dressed exactly alike, taught identical drill, and as far as possible made interchangeable. Every man therefore will be able to ride. Those who belong to the dismounted troop will be able, when circumstances require it, to do duty as mounted troopers. In fact, they are to be trained to be ready for either kind of work, on horseback or on foot. We may state, on the authority of a military officer of long experience and high rank, that such a force, armed and trained in the manner suggested by Mr. C. H. Ross, would be invaluable in time of war. Much has been said in disparagement of "untrained men" who can only ride hard and shoot straight and are otherwise mere "amateur soldiers." It ought surely to be obvious that men who can ride and shoot do not need any extraordinarily long period of discipline to be made into useful soldiers. They will come from a class that has been taught many kinds of self-control under severe discipline, from their boyhood; and obedience to orders, strict implicit obedience, is with them a point of honour. To talk of such men as being likely to be dangerous to the regular forces with which they might be ordered to serve in time of war, is therefore to exhibit a complete want of understanding of the nature of the force to which they belong, of the nature of the training which they undergo, of the nature of the work they will be called upon to do, and of the nature and character of the men themselves. If we quote the meritorious services of "irregular corps" in the past, some one gifted with that power of inaccurate reasoning which is said to distinguish man from the lower animals, will probably show how "up to date" he is by solemnly declaring that the conditions of war have so changed not merely within the last forty years but actually within the last ten years, as to make analogy between the fighting usefulness of a certain class of men in those days with their serviceableness in war now-a-days, a mere academic question, a subject for an essay in an examination of cadets at a Military College. We have no doubt that at present and for as long as war remains possible in this imperfect world, as long as there are in it soldiers and Military Academies, this subject will continue to exercise the ingenuity of young students of military history and the patience, or impatience, of examiners. In the meantime, while refraining from wasting our patience, our time, and the space at our command, by emulating the literary efforts of any subaltern, whether from St. Cyr or a Prussian "Cadetten-Schule" or from Sandhurst, we must, with diffidence, refer to such well-known practical soldiers as Major-General Baden Powell, or Colonel Pollock, who in six months made the "Spectator Experimental Company" of one hundred young Englishmen into as workable a little fighting force as the heart of even Kitchener could wish for. These and many other men know a great deal more about war than we do, and infinitely more than superficial thinkers who having never seen "the appearance of war" imagine that an extra cartridge in the clip of a new magazine rifle, or a new system of recoil carriage in a field gun, or airships, whether "Zeppelins" or "Voisins" still in futuro, have changed the ever-changing yet ever similar conditions that govern the work, the effort, the danger, the success or the failure, of armed men associated together in the duty of repelling other armed men associated together in an attack upon their Country and their Flag. The business men of Hongkong have not shown themselves in the past in any way neglectful of their own interests. They are at least as prosperous and successful as other men of their class in other parts of the world, however "smart" and "go-ahead" and even republican those others may be. But to the honour of the merchants of Hongkong be it said, that they never yet failed to respond to a really sincere appeal, made by a really responsible authority, on behalf of the public interest, the interest not only of British safety, of that security that freedom and that justice which the very word "British" ought to imply, and may be summed up in the two words "Pax Britannica." Any work that may be done and any services rendered in assisting the accomplishment of the heavy task of our Army and Navy, by the able-bodied young men of this Colony, will, we rejoice to know it, be cheerfully and efficiently accomplished, in response to the appeal of His Excellency Sir Henry May, K.C.M.G., the Officer Administering the Government of His Majesty the King in Hongkong, under the able and unselfish guidance and leadership of Mr. C. H. Ross.

Source:

1. Page 4, "Hongkong Telegraph", 15th Day, 6th Month, 2nd Year of Xuan-tong

   • 15th Day, 6th Lunar Month, Geng-xu Year

   • Thursday, 21st July, 1910 Common Era