The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-06-14

negroes make very smart, teachaofe soldiers. In addition to the fighting units several hundred thousand port CTS and carriers are used to build rail- roads and transport supplies through terrain inaccessible to motors and pack animals.
 The mobilization of these natives is affecting the whole life of Central and Eastern Africa. Each one believed that his tribe was the most powerful one in the world, and he now learns of the existence of many races pre- viously unknown to him. For the first time he sees motors, ships, aero planes. His horizon is wider life be- comes bigger. and his plastic nature yields rapidly to the impressions of civilization.
 No Climate for Whites.
 During 1916 the British found out that white men could not stand the hardships of such climate. Ex- cepting the South African fighting units, some regiments of Indian Se- poys, and the white personnel of de- partmental services, the forces engag- ed are drawn from the negro tribes. Thirty battalions of the Kings Afri- can Rifles have been raised in East Africa. Regiments from Nigeria, Zan- zibar, the Gold Coast, Somaliland, and other parts are bearing the brunt of the fighting. The Germans, driven from the railroads and out of the i'm portant towns by Gen. Shuts, have led their pursuers into a jungle country, where more deaths result from mala- ria, dysentery, black water fever, and other such diseases than from casual ties in action.
 Since they are of the same race, these colored Y. M. c. A. secretaries, all of them graduates of American colleges for Negroes are able to get 1 into closer touch with the simple Ar rican troopers than are white workers. Naturally their sympathy is closer and 1 their understanding of them greater. Yergan learned Swaheli within six months and so was able to talk to the men in their own tongue. Others among the workers have developed a remarkable aptitude for service in that field. Boss Boys Learn to Write. | The huts are provided with port able cinemas, lantern slides grama- phones, and games. The educational feature of them is perhaps even more l important. To see the patience with which a native porter after a hard days work will try to study English with slate and pencil is almost pa thetic. Talks with lantern slides or sanitation, hygiene, and the proven tion of disease are given to the head men of the villages. Boss boys" are shown how to keep accounts and write letters to officers. One of the colored secretaries conducted a class for na- tive commissioned and non-commis' stoned officers to make clear to then the ideals for which the war is being fought. Everywhere there is an i'm. pulse toward larger life for the na' tives. They are corning into toucI
 with world thought. They turn ca
 gerly to men of their own color to lead them into the light.
 With the simple faith of childreT
 they come to these "Y' secretaries fol all sorts of service, for instruction ir
 a hundred phases of our complex life
 They are given religious instruction They are taught the fundamentals O.
 civilization. When they are i'll the! are comforted, when wounded the! are cheered.
 The loyalty of the African Negro to the colors is touching. As soon al
 the morale of the service grips him, a! soon as he finds himself part of tht great machine moving forward to fret