Why regular soldiers accompanied a food-loading mission

Why send soldiers to load the rice instead of hiring local stevedores?

Local labour could not be trusted or guaranteed, while the soldiers were available to load quickly and provide security.

A viewer asks why Britain sent regular troops rather than hiring stevedores who already knew the work. Local labour was being drawn into revolutionary forces and could not be assumed reliable. The soldiers were already available, could load the rice, and could protect the operation if opposition developed. Using them reduced the expedition’s dependence on the contested port it was trying to use.