TAKING THE SALUTE

Evening Star, Issue 18998, 21 July 1925, Page 2

TAKING THE SALUTE

A SURPRISE FOB THE ARASS There are various ways of taking tho salute. Sir Percy Cox, who was High Commissioner in Mesopotamia before tho war, told of ono the other day. It was Sir Percy’s duty to make periodical visits to outlying towns in his province. Romo of his travels look him through tho Persian Gulf, calling at certain ports in Oman, the south-eastern pan, of Arabia. There are days when landing on this ride of the Gulf is a difficult feat to perform. A wind off the son brings a great wash of surf, through which tho skip’s boat cannot ride. Sir Percy was not tho kind of man to he deterred from duly or have bis 'arrangements upsot because the wind had made a usual landing impossible. There were times when, the boat being unable to shoot the surf, the High Commissioner merely undressed and swam ashore with his garments held in one hand above his head. It is not easy to look dignified than under the eyes of the, imperturbable and languid East. Move than once"it fell to the lot of Sir Percy to lake the saluto of Arab guns from tho port as ho was struggling up (ho beach iu the surf. Tho Arabs had probably thought it all out. It was their duty to salute tho British High Commissioner as ho sot foot on tho beach of thoir port, and the man, not, his uniform, was the object of their courtesy. On the other hand, a.s Sir Percy found, it i.s one thing for tho representative of the Empire on which the fain never sets to take a salute in spotless white infill,nn and another thin" to come gasping out of the surf, one hand held high, engaged in keeping this same uniform as dry as possible. Sir Percy came through tho ordeal with becoming gravity, and his Arab hosts merely recorded another instance of the madness of white men.