THE RAISING OF THE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—In your " News of the Week " for the 16th inst. you make some remarks about the raising of Imperial Yeomanry for South Africa. Speaking from personal experience—of which I have a good deal—I think you are wrong in your surmise that no lists were kept of men rejected during the earlier days of enlistment. With regard to the office in which I took a share of the work, complete lists were kept of all men who were considered worth notice; and in addition, lists were kept of those who wrote asking to join, but whom we had never actually seen. These lists, however, were not of the great value that your note would lead one to suppose. A great number of men (and no blame to them) as soon as they were rejected, either for want of room or for any other cause, at once applied to, and were very possibly eventually accepted by, some other corps. So that when we ourselves wrote at a
later date many letters were returned through the Dead Letter Office, the addressees having gone away leaving no trace behind, or else their relatives wrote saying they had joined such-and-such a corps. I should say that between the dates of the first and second raising of Imperial Yeomanry at least two-thirds of the original applicants had left this country. In fact, as far as I can make out, the Adju- tants of Yeomamy regiments were the only people who could not get out to South Africa—every other able-bodied man in the country being accepted—if they so desired. The brigade of Yeomanry which I had the honour to serve in sent out during the war roughly two thousand men, so I think you will admit that I should know the facts of the case, at least with regard to my own brigade, and I believe many others worked on similar lines. I doubt, all the same, whether corps like Sharpshooters, Roughriders, &c., who had no system at all to begin with, did keep lists; but the territorial Yeomanry regiments had many advantages in the shape of officers and a complete permanent staff which these latter regiments had not. The inquiry into the relative value of Imperial Yeomanry, Volunteers, &c., will certainly be of interest. There seems a great diversity of opinion on this subject from officers of Regulars serving in South Africa. Personally, I think no hard-and-fast line can be made. Yeomanry regiments and Service Volunteers varied greatly. Some showed real " grit," and were as useful eventually as any troops could be ; others were not.--I am, Sir, &c., Aw ADJUTANT OP IMPERIAL YEOMANRY.
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