A meeting over which the Mayor will preside will be held in the Town Hall in a few days with a view to setting up a provisional committee to establish a force in this district.
Those who followed closely the recent affairs in China will remember the thrilling story of how a little band of the members of the legion, led by a young man named Sowerby, a former Canadian trapper and explorer, entered a city full of Chinese who were mad with blood-lust, and how this little band, eight all told, rescued European women and children, gathered up others from other parts of the disturbed district, and led them to safety.
The legion enlists men who have seen frontier service in the sense that the gold-seeker, the rancher, the lumberman, the explorer, the guide, the trapper, the boundary rider, the timber rafter, etc., has seen it.
Pioneers are the men who DO things, the men whose habits of observation have been quickened, and whose work and life inculcates ready resource.
These men are to be an adjunct of the regular military force, placing themselves at the disposal of the military authorities in time of war for such services as guides, scouts, transport workers, telegraphists, bridge-makers, etc.
The lesson of the necessity for such a force was brought home by the Boer war when, says Captain Mahoney, many lives might have been saved had the British forces included a band of men who could have played the Boers at their own game.
The Boers were pioneers. They appeared and disappeared, and seemed to possess charmed lives, but with a force of such men as are joining the ranks of the legion in all countries where Britishers gather together, whether British soil or not, the Boers would have found their plans often set at nought by men who knew the game.
Time-expired soldiers or sailors are welcomed to the ranks. Each man's qualifications are known, so that whatever service is required in an emergency the legion will be able to supply it.
• The contractor of the steamer s.s. Earnslaw is making slow but steady progress towards completion of the steamer.
Both the promenade and 'tween decks are completed; the anchor capstans, steering gear and winches are in position, and the shipwrights are busy with the saloon and holds in order to prepare them for the joiners.
The machinery is nearly all in order, and no doubt will shortly be given a trial.
- ODT. 19.4.1912.
