THE BRITISH BURDEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 167, 1 July 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE BRITISH BURDEN.

A GULF POLICEMAN. Thia vivid Daily Mail” sketch of actual life gives a peep behind the scenes of gun-running in the Persian GalL I met him in the newest of new raiment leaving the matinee: long, lean and sallow, with the stamp of the Services on his iaw and the wrinkles of the seas around his eyes. “Homo fcr good?” quoth I. “Five weeks,” he said laconically. “And you’ve been where all this time?” “Playing at policeman in the Persian Gulf for the last couple of years 1 don’t much mind if 1 never see it again eitheihe added. “Makes one thirsty to think of it. “We coimnis-ioned the old tub of a s'oop at Plymouth— ItNX) odd tons, with kennels for cabins and a cage for a mew: no ice machine (all the cold air we made went to freeze the cordite magazine); bo electric lights ’tween decks; and not even an electric fan. 1 tell you we frazzled by the time we reached Aden, and thought of two y<<ars ahead on the worst possible of naval stations. Still, vaguo ideas of prize money and a little war and a little, very little, . xtrn pay kept us going. But wo weren’t lucky, never got a capture off our own bat, and the late Senior Naval Officer of the Gulf had put the- fear of a King’s ship into ’em. “Into whom?”

“Oh, gnd-runners. That’s our job. The Afglm ns buy European rifles from Muscat, the Arab dhows ship them across the Gull’ o! Oman to the Mekran coast, Persia and Baluchistan territory, and then the Afghan caravans come down to meet them. We left 1200 souattirg on the hills under a bulletproof Mullah, all fighting mad to cut telegraph wires and wipe out friendlies because the guns couldn’t get through to then.. But the whole East India Squadron under Slade is up the Gulf and along ill- Oman coast. “You are absolutely and completely outside civilisation, and nine of ten dfys you spend under way, unless you are lucky enough to get stuck on a sand bar, and in some beats you don’t even close land for the night, but drop killick forty miles out and get under way again at dawn as that’s the time the dhows try to land their cargoes. We rarely get a night in. Or you shadow a big dhow for a month, burstinaj with arms, but she flies a foreign friendly flag and you can’t breathe on her. but only pray she’ll dump the rifles somewhere silly and go away and |iaj§ tho rest io you. And she does no*. She zpcs back to Muscat in a teibpor an 1 starts all over again. O’yen nurse the detached cutter up and down the most weird and barrenest (tons* providence ever built, water and provision them, and salve them when ti>3 bottom boards hare burst with ripenew and a shtmal has upended them. And vea’r • on salt grub pretty often.” “What's a ‘shimal’?”

“Northerly squall—blows nil autumn, wi»ter and spring. Open boats have to beach at once and haul up. I did three weeks in our cutter. Lived and dr&ssed ns pirates. Then we were mashed up. Cable parted ; I anchored n i*h my stove and the Maxim mounting, and then we drove into breakers and swam or paddl'd ashore with our rifles. Once our parent ship forgot all ■bon* us, and we lived tor a week on date* and water. You get awfully sick of boarding dhows, and so do their nakhrda —-kirn's. Each cutter has ? native interpreter as part crew, and yonr parent ship his an Afghan interpreter as well. He goes with the boarding partv and insults tho heathen in Pushtu (the Pat han language) to see if there arc any Afghans among them. Sometimes the shoiklts of the villages ar* uncommon civil, sometimes they ar* not. It’s practically active service on the blockade and you’re always under war conditions. They say we’re going to be given a frontier medal for it. I’ve seen medals got easier.” “Do dhows over resist?” Under ccrt.iin conditions they will fir* on you and run. A cutter full of rifles and a Maxim, ton days’ food, and plenty of ammunition isn’t light especially if she’s boon long in the water and has a dirty bottom. If they won’t down sail when you hail you fire ■ shot or two over them, then at ’em.” “Where do these arms come from? “Oh. England (but that’s all over now). France. Belgium. America. Germany anil Russia Tli're was a rumour that the Japanese had shipp'd a big batch to the Somali coast. A Mar.se,riS© yon pay 100 rupees (six guineas) for in Muscat will fetch from 400 to 1200 on tho bonier. Mannliehe-s. 1/oeSmit'is. old Servm • patterns. Martinis and Mauser pistols too: .303 calibre is m.»vt popular, ;>s the Afghans r-v much Service ammunition from the frontier outposts to fit them. The last, big take was six months azo. Burning the dhows afterwards has shaken xhfc rttnners-np a bit And wireless telefuraphv. or ••onr-e. beats them into •fits.* English firms complain that French and Belgian firms collar all the profit-' tnere divs. Ain’t it amusing on top of all tl ; s entente?” “Flo w do vmi know?”

"Oh, overybody knows. And :>sk an v nf the bit banking firms in Bombay or Karachi. We’ve got little deta’ bm.mH of Mahratta Inf intrv with wli-re offii'Crs renttcrel up and down the Gulf. “Wbat extra compensation do yor go* in pay 9 ” “I p«rsonallv? Thr'o shillings a day while on de*nc'’.'-d boat service in mv cotter. And all officers ret the same as trori-al allowe.nre <l"r'ng th- fry worsHb Tror-P’ l * in the Gulf. take it from me. t’s w >rth three noonds a day. what with beri-'-- - ar.d J?->"--h»d loit«~ '"**’« more b.iinr •'• e ai-d 'i ■wav ’ ■ ’ > <•' ; ”■ ■reev ■- .u ' Im. •; - - (‘hr?? t n \ IQ*. _