A BROAD HINT.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXVI, Issue 3454, 5 November 1915, Page 1

A BROAD HINT.

Familiarity with modern weapons has not bred contempt in the minds of a certain cruiser on the African 1 ," coast a few years ago, the follow- „ ing incident occurred, which went fat *• in impressing the. natives concerned with a sense of the might of th« British navy. A hill tribe of' Arabs had been continually .molesting "friendlies" of the coast villages, so it was deemed advisable to teach the troublesome liillmen a lesson., } After several .skirmishes ashore, a ,'Jnumber of chiefs- of the " . jrarauding tribe fell into the hande % ,oi the bluejackets, and were taken on " ,* board the cruiser. \ . ,* What their expectations were fe- <£ the fate awaiting' them is [ not known, but, as is generally the , n case with such captives, they were .\ treated with every consideration, the ! authorities probably thinking to attain more influence amongst the ..tribe by friendly demonstration to its chiefs than by harsh methods. So the captives were show* over i the ship by the first lieutenant; who ', *:o\e both Arabic and Swahili. But the officer did not seem quite .satisfied with the impression he was'making, so he showed them the guns, explaining the loading, etc., finally ' '.pa Ting behind a 6-inch weapon •vincli was noted for smashing everything breakable in its vicinity when fired. He had his audience all jabbering l end gesticulating around the breech, when suddenly there was a tremen- '' Jous crash,, and, amidst broken glas» and crockery in the cook's galley opposite, subdued blessings from an indignant cook, and the downfall of " '. everything movable overhead, ' the party of Arabs, scared oul of their wits scattered to any available part of the ship, falling over obstacles, to »" the huge delight of the ship's com- ' . ,Pany. The ship's goat, disturbed from ai nap the crash, and seeing strangers flying in all directions, cvi- ' dently blamed them for the rum- * pus, so added to the "fun by chasing l % * and butting every .dusky form- within reach. At length the poor fellows were. packed to a certain exten,t, and were Ur regaled with lime juice and biscuijta % on the qnatter-deck, but thsy after J^ that gave the big guns a ' wide berth., casting furtive glances at > them occasionally. ' s \ i "When they had recovered from the j, shock a little they were shown 'Iwhat a big gun could do, their attention being called to a prominent rock well to seaward of the ship,, the top of which* had been blown clean off by the shell they had heard fired. . , ' V Before taking them round the ship > "No. 1" had had the gun loaded; and trained, and when they • were deeply , *, interested in his vivid explanations ho simply fired the gun as the most '* convincing illustration of what they *> - mighf expect if they did not be- ' / have. . t . • . ! - •. , The chiefs were liberated sopn after-; --1 wards, and, suffice to say, , their y'^ tr be. at any rate, gave the cruiser's „ crew no more trouble; > > ■ >