Show BRABANTS HORSE Jn thc recent dispatches Cronj South Africa there Is considerable mention ot thc work of Brabants division of colonial co-lonial troops They were the first lo enter Ladysmith and they have ron I ducted various operations with dlstln gulshed success At Dordrecht on Sunday after a nights march they attacked at-tacked the Boers In a strong position and seized and held ground close up to thc Boer works We learn from a Canadian paper Hint Brabants Horse as this division is I familiarly called is entirely made up of colonial volunteers with colonial of llccrs and a colonial BrigadierGeneral Gen Brabant has been through every native war In South Africa for the last thirty years He i3 said to be unl vorsally popular and his name com mantis high respect and confidence among the residents of the country Since Gen Roberts has been on lha ground the military authorities seem to have recognized the value of the J colonlul troops and to have accepted them on their own t rms something that was not done at the beginning the war The colonists from thc start showed a disinclination to serve under imperial oflicers The English settler in South Africa Is loyal but ho dislikes i the drill and strict discipline that the British soldier Is compelled to submit to Socially lie belongs to a very dif ferent class than the average Tommy Atkins with moro intelligence and more Independence lie Is much hotter able to look after himself and does not expect his ollicers to do all his think lag for him Ho admires thc British ofllcers for their bravery but distrusts I their methods of lighting Thc colouist u 2 Js brave does not care to bo led up to frontal attacks on strong positions when those positions might be In most cases outmaneuvered and above all ho hates to be surprised both of which as he shrewdly observed appeared to bo the regular thing In Bullers first operations Tho good effect of accepting the colonials co-lonials as an organized body and giving I I1m fl In1snrinn i nIrt f lions is already apparent By doing this the British have gained a highly mobile force which ran meet thc Boera on their own ground and often outwit or outplay thorn at their own peculiar tactics The Brabant Horse have been given some of ihe hardest work to do and have acquitted themselves satisfactorily satisfac-torily A British paper remarks that 1C this policy had been adopted at the beginning it would have saved not only a great deal of heartburning but some very serious losses The colcdal troops arc often I ve because be-cause they approximate In their or ganl atlor rind method to the model upon which American troop arc formed Thc Individuality of the soldier sol-dier Is brought out and he ceases lo be a mere machine In all our American wars lie battles and campaigns have been won as much by the acumen of the privatco as of tic Generals In modern warfare when men no longer preserve the touch of elbows in advancing ad-vancing but deploy at five paces interval inter-val or more the advantage of Intelligence Intel-ligence and Independence on the part of the Individual soldier is more pronounced pro-nounced If the British have leurned the Important lesson of utilizing colonial colo-nial troops in this war the knowledge will bo of incalculable advantage to the empire In future struggles Not alone Natal and Cape Colony but Canada and Australia are capable of furnishing furnish-ing large bodies ai effective troops cither cavalry or Infantry to th < mother moth-er country in her hour of danger and distress Minneapolis Tribune |