GENERAL MACDONALD BACK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11686, 22 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL MACDONALD BACK.

MAGERSFONTEIX, TIE RAYS, WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. Majok-Gi-:.\kral Km Hi:cjou Macdo.vaij-s hero of a hundred fights, ami one of the rumi romantic figures of Lite war, lauded -,i Southampton on May 15 from the Carlobrooke Castle. •' 1 inn glad, in a way, to get back," he said, "but 1 am oft to India immediately." The general is going to India to lake no a district command, to which lie lias been appointed, and he came to England, he explained, with a laugh, merely because it was tin: best way of getting to India from Capetown. There Mas no fanfare of trumpets and no crowd, for very few people were aware that Sir Hector Macdonald was arriving. The general just got into the boat train and went off to London. Clad in a suit of tweeds, light overcoat, and a cap, he stepped out upon the Waterloo platform into the centre of a little circle of friends and brother officers. "Are you going North before you leave for India '!" he was asked. ''No,"' was the rep]; : "I'm for the War Office first, and then off for India as soon as possible. Yes, it was quick work. I received a wire notifying me of my new appointment and next day was on my wav down country "What do I think of Africa? Well, I've been there before, yon know." "But i\ a dilferent capacity, sir." " i'es," was the reply, with a little laugh and a- twitch of the short moustache, as a recollection of his right with fists at Majuba very likely came to his mind, " it was different." "And what of the Highland Brigade?" There was a tinge of sadness in Fighting Mac's reply: ".Aye, poor lads, they've had a hard time of it, a hard time!" "They have not forgotten Magersfontein and deneral WauehopeV" '• No." with a sad little shake of the head, "'they haven't. It was a sad business, that. and it will take the Highland Brigade fifty * vears to forget it—it thtv forcet it then."