SCOTSMEN WANTED.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 712, 14 October 1914, Page 6

SCOTSMEN WANTED.

■ ■ I ...» II I FAME OF HIGHLAND REGIMENTS. DOUGHTY DEEDS. Lord Kitchener' appeal for as many Scotsmen as possible to make up the 100,000 men ha wants is a tribute to the bravery of the lads of the land of the "mountain and flood." Why does Lord Kitchener want Scotsmen so eagerly? That question is answered by himself, says the People's Journal. In a letter to Sir Alexander Baird of Urie, Lord Kitchener writes: "I am glad to know that you are going up to Scotland *o do your best to raise recruits for the army in Kincardinshire. I feel certain that Scotsmen have only to know that the country urgently needs thsir services to offer them with the same splendid patriotism as they have always shown in the past. Tell them from me, please, that their • services were never mors needed than they are today, and that I rely confidently on a splendid response to the national appeal." In Egypt and ths Soudan, almost under K. of E.'s own eyes, the Scotsmen led the way over the heights of Tel-le-Kebir, they stemnved the mad rush of the Dervishes at El-Teb and Tamai, and at Atbara thev crashed with reddened bayonets through the hordes of the Mahdi. But long before these fights the Scottish regiments were famous. The Duke of Wellington knew their mettle, and through the Peninsulas War Hill's Brigade of Scotsmen formed man doughty deeds. Garr.pron of Fassifern, with his gallant 92fii:d, could not be stayed, and t'ha other Scottish regiments emulated thsm. At Quatre Bras the Camerons, t'tia 42nd, and the 92nd, Scotsman all, were prominent among other regiments in burling b<»ck charge after charge of French horsemen. "Ninety-second Highlanders," cried ! Wellington at a crisis at Quartre Bi;as "prepare to charge." The Scots men answered nobly. Through the | deadly shower of grape-shot they ! rushed to victory, and the nature of the charge can be best brought home by stating that, in that wild rush, the 92nd lost their gallant colonel 19 officers, and 280 men. j "Scotland for ever," was the cry lof the Scotn Greys as they rode into ! battle at Waterloo with many of the I kilted lads clinging to their stirrups. "You have saved ths day, Highlanders," said Sir Df-nis Pack, "but I you must return to your regiment;' there is more work to be done " "Make me proud of my Highland Brigade," said Sir Colin Campbell at j the Alma, and they did it. j "It \yas a fight of the Highland Brigade," wrote Sir Colin afterwards. : "I never a troops march to battle with greater sang froid and order than my three Highland regiments." "Ninety - third! Ninety - third! D n all that eagerness," shouted Sir Colin fiercely to his famous "Thin Red Line" at Balaclava. All the world knows how that "thin red streak tipped with steel" scattered the Russian horsemen.

Through t&8 blood-sweltering, bul-let-swept streets of Lucknow the eons of Scotland fought their way. Nothing could stop-them. Men went down under the hail of bullets, but on thuy went fighting hand-to-hand battles, and strewing the streets with dead and wounded. "To the Residency!" was the cry, and oil the world knows how they got thfre. They had performed a feat which in his depatch the Commander-in-Chief described as an "action almost unexampled in war." All over India during ths Mutiny Scottish soldiers stamped their namn in blood; no matter the odds in numbers thrown against them they never flinched. "Onward!" was ever the watchword of Scotland's son?, and nothing could dismay them. In an address to the troops whom Lord Roberta led to Kandahar ha said: "Men of the 72nd and 92nd Highlanders and the 6th Ghonrki'.s you may rest assured the very last troops the Afghans ever want to meet in the field are the Scottish Highlanders and Ghoorkas. You will never be forgotten by them, and you will never be forgotten by me." "Don't retire ! Come on, lnd3,' fol - low me!" cried Lieutenant Dirk Cunningham, one of tlie bravf-st of the brave, when the bullets from an Afghan sangar were mowivg th- m down. The answer wob a ringing cheer, and the lads of Scotland raced forward, and their cold steel sent many of the wild hillmen to then' last account.

"The Genesal says this hill must be taken at all custs—the Gordons will take it." So said Colonel Mathiaa at Dargai. Over the fire-swept zone, to the tune of "The Cock o' ths

North," played by the wounded Piper Findlater, raced the Highlanders, and the hill was taken. At Majuba Hill and in the recent Boer War the Scotsmen were conspicuous for their gallantry. The Gordons alone throughout that campaign earned Bix V.C.'s. A volume would be required to mention one-half of the brave deeds done on the battlefield by the sona of Scotland. Every British general knows the value of tho Highland Brigade in the dark hour of danger, and that is whv Lord Kitchener makes his appeal to the men of Scotland. (