5 
around the green table, and longs for the refreshing sleep after the bodily, but 
enjoyable, fatigue of sport. Whoever has not felt this does not know what healthy 
sport is. Sport has nothing in common with gambling, it is the enemy of gam¬ 
bling. For that reason don’t abolish sport or sporting games, don’t prevent 
your children from going in for them, but give every facility for them in Germany, 
in order that the nation can go in for them, as far as time permits. This is the 
best way to prevent gambling, this is the best way to stop all the pernicious 
results in every direction which arise from a costly way of living and the many 
luxuries of present life. 
“ It is true we have gymnasiums ” is asserted. Yes, that’s all very well, but 
not enough. To begin with, gymnastics are compulsory for the school-boy, and, 
therefore, become monotonous for many a boy who feels he can not excel in 
them. But the prospect of victory, and the endeavour to win always spurs on 
and incites the individual or party, as the case may be. 
Why not copy any good thing from other nations if it is good for us as well ? 
We have ample proof in our German towns of how the Englishman goes in for 
sport of every description, and how he thereby hardens his body against cold and 
heat. The lightly-clad Englishman in Germany during our winter months is 
wonderful to our eyes, but the cause of this is a healthy and important one. 
The small English nation, with its population of 35 millions, rules over a world 
of 840 millions. This the English manage, first by means of their all-powerful 
money, but last, and not least, by means of their excellent soldiers quartered 
abroad (service abroad makes the English far better soldiers than service at home). 
This degree of perfection is acquired by the troops, not by means of the laborious 
and almost painful disciplinary training in every military branch on account of 
which the German Army is held up as an example to all nations, but by sport 
and games which give the individual the most perfect training. Sport prevents 
the soldier fiom getting into an easy way of living, and specially keeps him away 
from drinking spirits, so dangerous in hot countries, also from gambling and so 
on; it trains the body to perform long marches in spite of the exceptional Indian 
heat, namely, marches of between 60 to 80 kilometres in case of cavalry, and 
from 20 to 25 kilometres in case of infantry, which are carried out day by day in 
marching order. And this excellent performance is not done by a few picked 
men or horses, but by whole regiments during the annual change of stations, 
which takes place on purpose to accustom the troops to route marching. 
In conclusion, I would once more impress upon us Germans :—Don’t abolish 
sport, and in order to protect the German Army against gambling and demorali¬ 
sation give as many opportunities as possible for it, in order that the soldier and 
officer may give body and mind to it keenly, fondly, and passionately. 
CiFE TOWI, 
On New Year’s Day the married officers of the Royal Artillery and their wives 
were entertained at dinner in the R.A. Mess by the bachelors ; a very pleasant 
evening was spent, and the fife and drum band of 8 Company Southern Division 
played an enjoyable selection of music during dinner. 
The R.A. here suffer greatly from want of proper Mess accommodation. There 
has been no increase in it since the days when only a part of a battery were 
quartered in the Castle. Now there are 13 officers of the Regiment belonging to 
it, and a host of honorary members using it, and the Mess consists only of a 
dining-room that can seat 14, and an anteroom that will barely hold a dozen ; there 
is neither billiard-room nor lavatory. Nearly all the foreign men-of-war that 
touch at the Cape call in the R.A. Mess, and it is a very difficult matter to enter¬ 
tain them or anybody else in such quarters. 
