POLITICIAN AND SOLDIER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 17 June 1915, Page 3

POLITICIAN AND SOLDIER.

The war correspondent of the Giornale d'ltalia recently described with some amazement Mr Winston Churchill's coolness under shrapnel .fire during his visit .to Belgium at the siege of Antwerp. Mr Churchill, however, is an old soldier. He served with the Spanish forces in Cuba in 1595; subsequently -with, the Punjab Infantry in India, and later with the 21st Lancers in the Nile Expeditionary Force in 1898. He tock part in the charge of the Lancers of Omdurman, of which he wrote a memorable and arresting account :"':The event seemed to pass in absolute silence. The yells of the enemy, the shout's' of the soldiers, the firing of many shots, the clashing of sword and spear were unnoticed by the senses, unregistered by the brain." Afterwards he displayed signal gallantry when an armored train was surprised.by the Boers near Estcourt in Natal,' and a storm of, shot and shell was poured upon its occupants. He was for a month held by the Boers as a prisoner of war, but made his escape.