2 JUNE 1900, Page 13

FROM ALL THE SEVEN SEAS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—The following extract from the letter of a trooper in the Canadian Mounted Rifles may be of interest in connection with your correspondent's letter from General Buller's head- quarters in the Spectator of May 19th. The letter is dated "Bloemfontein, April 23rd," and describes the march to that place along the main road from Springfontein:—

"Our troop left Springfontein as mounted guard to eight hundred of the City Imperial Volunteers. The third night my horse got kicked in the shoulder and went so lame that she had to be left. The next day I had to walk a fifteen-mile march, and got on the railway track with the C.I.V.'s. At night we stopped near a farmhouse. Being separated from my troop, and so not under command, I asked the Dutchman who came out to see us if he would sell me some bread. He pointed to a section of Bombay Lancers who were in our detaahment, and asked, 'What nation those ?'—` From India,' I said.—' What nation you ?'- 'Canadian.'—' Canadian.'—‘ And where the English ?' he inquired.—' Back there,' I said, pointing to the eight hundred City Imperial Volunteers. His astonishment is not to be wondered at, for the Scotch in their kilts had gone up just the day before, and ahead of them were the Irish. To him they are all separate nations, coming from he knows not where, for Canada and India are places of which he has never heard. Yet he was one of the most intelligent, for he was a section man on the railway."