DERVISH ATROCITIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4457, 26 January 1917, Page 3

DERVISH ATROCITIES.

The story of how theßritish sentinel keeps guard in the outpost of the Empire is an epic of courage and devotion to duty by men—soldiers and administrators alike —who live every minute of their active clays to keep the flag flying, and to uphold its honour, writes*Mr. AY. T. Massey from Burao, Somaliland.

'Take tLe case of Somaliland, where the British officers’ vigil is unceasing •and the administrators’ task never ends. By their capacity for dealing with an awkward situation the staff there have to put a curb on the .Mullah’s activities. The details of a. dervish attack ou the Warsangeli 'have not yet been officially told. A warship was despatched in time to save t"e situation and inflict serious loss on the Dervishes. The Sultan, with his following, was holding out in what has been described as a fort. They were, relieved, but not before the Dervishes committed the most appalling atrocities. Three hundred women and children were massacred, all wounded men, women, and little children were put out of their tints to die a slow death in tne sun, men were found bound and burned alive, and one woman had fourteen spear wounds in her body. It is impossible to recite some of the terrible tortures to which the women had to submit. ... . It is part of the Mullah s creed that anyone not for him is against him. He exerts his power by the weapon of feni Any person in his following against whom he has the slightest suspicion loses his head or meets a more terrible death by torture. The less of an eye, an ear, or a limb are the mildest forms of punishment. Failure to carry out bis orders means decapitation. Men who escaped from the torts oi Slumber Bevris. which they were told to hold, were thrown into a fire and burned alive as an example to oth-ers—-all except a man repriev'd h> ! •cause he had shot a British officer.