 In January 1939, Cole convinced a group of his fellow Sierra Leonean soldiers to join him in sending a letter of protest to their British commanding officer, complaining that their pay was not enough to meet expenses.Cole and his fellow soldiers also demanded to be treated in the same way as British soldiers of the same rank and most of all they demanded boot and other forms of footwear.The British Inspector-General of the West African Frontier Force had recommended boots for the soldiers as early as 1903, but the British officers on the sport preferred the African soldiers to remain barefoot to suggest their inferiority to British troops.