A poem was written some years ago in eulogy of the idol of the British Army, the late Lord Roberts, in which it was asserted B's little, but 'e's wise, °R's a terror for is size.
The name of the poet cannot be recalled, but it was probably Kipling, for the bargee language, which most certainly is not typical of that splendid gentleman, the British private soldier, is his style. However, the sentiment is all right, and what the poet said of Lord. Roberts could, without too lavish! of teaching the trick to his own men. However, the experiment failed, for generations of the goose-step had ingrained such a stiffness into the joints of the German legs when encased in their military panoply that the Bersaglieri could not keep himself within drilling distance of them.
Capt. Chien came out here with the Italian troops during the Boxer rising in 1900. After the relief of Peking he went back to Italy, but he is a child of the open country and China had so impressed. him Fee Oy ae gV'O. "Tu secured an appointment in the Chin. lied the that, when he left the Army. he numbers it is little, but, with its: ese Customs service and has been deadly Fiat machine-guns, it! out here ever since, mostly in the certainly is a terror and it could be: interior, which he loves dearly. depended upon to.. render a} iL Lieut. Cavazza is particularly particularly good account of itself} voluble to the unit. for he was a machine-gun officer in the Italian in a@ tight corner.
Army, and so is able to impart ex-The unit is another of the newer pert instruction to the men. He ones which came into being at a time when the Corps was badly in has 2-splendid record of war service to his credit. He was repeatedly need of men and, though there' in charge of machine-gun units dur-has been all too little to encourage; it, the Italian Company has, nevering the fighting, was twice wounded in action and was mentioned in theless, stuck loyally to its task desnatches.\ Although the Italian and will continue to do so. The Italian community in Shanghai never has been very large, but the members of it saw their way in 1914 to render some assistance to the S.V.C. and so a meeting was held at the Italian Consulate on November 16, at which the formation of a national Company was decided upon. Within a week the Company was on parade, 42 strong, with two officers.
A man of experience was selected for the post of the first Company Commander, Com. M.D. Varalda, of the Italian Navy, being made Captain, with Lieut. _M. Comencini as his subaltern. A year later, the O.C. had to resign on_ being transferred to the Peking Legation Guard and Lieut. Comencini carried on with the command until July, 1918, when he handed the Company over to Lieut. V. Chien, who has been. in charge ever since and received promotion to Captain on January 8, 1920. The present subaltern is Lieut. C. Cavagza, who joined the Company as a private and was commissioned in November, 1920.
A Memory oF THE BERSAGLIERI.
Apart from what they are doing in the 8.V.C., these latter officers have a fine record with their country's own forces. Capt. Chien was an officer in the Bersaglieri, that world famous regiment whose men look so picturesque with the big drooping plume on their headgear and whose energy is such that they cannot conceive of any movement being executed even in quick time and have to do it all at the double, which is- their regulation pace. Like all those of his regiment, Capt. Chien tells with great glee the story of how the ex-Kaiser once was so greatly impressed with; the quick-moving Bersaglieri that he borrowed one of their non-commissioned officers for the purpose subjects in China were exempted by the government from service, yet two members of the Company volunteered for the front and served with great credit.
Maxine up ror Samat, Numsers.
When the Company was started, the Italian community in general did their best to give it a good start, in the hope that the numbers would be maintained. There were in the ranks young men of 20 and[ ancients up to even 70 years old. OF course, it was not to be ernest ed that such patriotic old soldiers could continue for ever and not many months had gone by before some of them had to resign. The numbers gradually dwindled until outsiders would not have been at all surprised had the unit been disbanded. That, however, was not the Italian idea and those who were left made up their minds that, if they could not get man power, they would make up the deficiency with machine-guns. So two Fiat regulation Italian Army machine-guns were obtained towards the end of 1919. The acanisition of these guns was due to the keen personal interest of the Italian Consul-General, Chev. G. de' Rossi, who approached the Italian Government, recommending the loan of equipment. for the Company.
Even then the man-power problem was not entirely solved, for the Fiat in the ordinary way is not a wheeled gun. being worked from a tripod, which, together with the fun, is carried on men's shoulders. That is all right in the Italian Army, in which there are plenty of strong young men for the job, but the score or so of middle-aged commercial men upholding the honour of Ttaly in the S.V.C. could scarcely bet expected to unhold at the same time 50 Ib. dead weight each. Some smart gun-carriages were therefore procured and the Italians, dragging their' two little spitfires, have ever since taken place in the line next to the other two machine-gun units.
The Fiat machine-gun is in many ways a remarkable weapon, highly effective, but very simple in mechanism and it fires at a tremendous rate. It can be easily operated by two men, but three are usually engaged, one firing, one feeding in the new chargers and one attending to the cooling apparatus. The cartridges, packed in severa] rows, are held in box-chargers containing 250 rounds.' A charger is fed in and, the gun being-sighted, a touch on the trigger sends the bullets tearing away in the next thing to a continuous stream. The loader watches, ready with a new charger, which he slides into the breech as the old one is emptied and, if he is a capable man, the process loses nothing in comparison with a belt, whilst there is the advantage that it is practically impossible for the gun to become med—the curse of all machine-"" gunners. 7 The gun is cooled through. the medium of a water jacket round the barrel, connected by two tubes to a reservoir, so that it is possible to continue burnning fresh water in and prevent the gun' cotting overheated. however long it may be in use. The Italian Company here think nothing of letting off a stream of 5,000 rounds on the Rifle Range without a check and it is said the ann is quite cool after it. whilst. being light, it is easily manipulated and can he kent on the target with very little effort. Snare parts are carried and are quickly interchangeable. whilst there is aleo an—in-genions device itor use during night anerations, The avickly repeating flashes from the muzzle of a machine-run soon give away its position, but there is a funnel-shaned contrivance. spreading outwards, which can clipped to the muzzle of a Fiat in a second. not interfering with the ciehting. or the course of the bullets, but, nroiecting efficiently to prevent the lashes being seen save immediately in front.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.