THE BRITISH WAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 20

THE BRITISH WAY

Quelling. -War

(Copyright.)

Abyssinian, tribes on the Kenya, 'border aro on the warpath, Baiding par-: ties cross the frontier into British territory, rustle cattle, set native villages on fire, and massacre the inhabitants. Blood feuds are started that way, and murder, and counter-murder would have no end if the.British.; drari't go ii there to restore order. Of course, that's no easy matter. The tribes aro inflamed to the boiling point. Their medicine men and witch doctors work them .up into a frenzy of fanaticism anS blood lust. The first stranger encountered is bound to be slaughtered without much ado. One would expbet that only a considerable armed f orco would be capable of .restoring somo. semblance of order and compel the excited hordes of ■warriors to return to their villages and go back to pasturing and corn raising. Instead, the British have the peculiar method of sending an officer in. there with ten or a dozen men to parley with the boys. The dozen men ai-c, of course, hopelessly inadequate to, cope with the situation in a direct manner, and they accompany the officer merely as an escort and for purposes of prestige. Somehow or other the officer succeeds in his mission, and persuades the tribes to cease their little war. How ho does it is a miracle. .. Ho doesn't parley much> you may be sure, the English not being given to . excessive talk. Still he does it. Mostly by the simple fact of his appearance. The natives know that they can easily kill him and his' soldiers. But they also know that another officer with more soldiers will take the place .of the first. They may even overpower tho second batch, and it may take long months bofore a third expedition appears. But appear at will, and punish it will, too. Tho natives know, just as Napoleon remarked, that the English always lose every battle <sxcet)fc the last: ori»- . ,1