THE BRITISH OFFICER AS HE BEALLY IS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 50

THE BRITISH OFFICER AS HE BEALLY IS.

.A Eook that Tells How Gaily the English Fighting Man Aids.Civili. BATION. The author .of ",-With K?llj to Chitral " (Edward Arnold, ipublisher) is -evidently an .example of those .youthful officers .in the , British army with whom Kudyard Kipling' has ; made the English-speaking world inti- • mately acquainted. You will.remember that they are robust, athletic youths, .with huge Rppetiteß for danger, with an airy way of .looking -upon waT and bloodshed as holiday >£aakf, with a vocabulary of free and easy English that forbids even the suggestion of jerioußnesß .on any subject - This particular representative of the class I*. Lieutenant W. G. L. Beynon, He is in, JSilglt, one.of that chain of forts along the north-western frontier of the Indian Empire, high up among .the Himalayas, overawing the thieving, murderous bands of native nomads,- and keeping a, sharp watch upon the ontposts vl Russia. He wan idling and yawning at Simla in the summer of 1894, when be : wa« ordered to Gilgit. This .meant a ohance for a " frontier row," and he was highly delighted. But when he arrived a departing officer damped his joy by saying "Gilgifs flayed out," whioh was ths young- Indian

tain guns, and their carriages acdammuti- j tion. "This slope wbich constitutes the i .pass," fays Lieutenant Beynon, "is some five j miles long and 12,320 ft above the sea; nbso- I lutely bare of trees, and with 'two iair-s t >.d lukee upon its surface. It is easy to imagine the deadly oold winds that sweeps across it." And the men who carried the guns and carriages and nmmunition also carried their own rifiss, greatcoats, and 80 rounds o°.ammunition for the rifles, and wore heavy sheepskin coats, They had to sleep two- nights in the snow, and tbey struggled from dawn until, dark, sinking at every step up to their waists. And all the while they were suffering from the blinding glare of the vast enow sheet and from the lashing of the bitter wind.

When you remember the mountains that had to be surmounted in this journey you realise that it was a historic feat, -worthy of comparison with Napoleon's crossing of the Alps. The -numbers were much smaller, bnt that does notchaDge theiaot.

Presently the column was winding among the foothills, the advance guards looking oat carefully for natives, a few of whom might hideiar up the elopes anchsendavalanohes of rock thundering .down to destroy the little army to the last man. The first opposition was at Ohokalwat. There the natives were not only behind fortifications', but -also were swarming upon the steep glopes ready to set the avalanches in motion. The attack upon this fortification meant the scaling of precipices, leaping from cliff to cliff, swift rushes across the, open, perjU^very moment from the rifles .of- the weil-concealed enemy. As J3eynon . led the foros that was ordered -to olimb the .precipices and take the enemy in me rear, lie wore oanvas shoes with rope soles. " With rope Bolee/'he says, "you oan skip about -rocks like a young lamb, -whereas shooting bootß would Bond you flying over the cliffs." It is not easj to think of skippinglike a lamb, even in rops soles, where, ' if yon wort boots, yon would go whiriSng into I abyesei several thousand feat deep

| ' These brief examples illustrate the whole | j journey to Ohitral. The ooluran arrived too j j late to have a crack at the besiegers. Tae besieging army, after' killing or wounding more than one-fourth of tho garrison, was repulsed and scattered. All the officers of the relief column were extremely irritated, especially Stewart, who bad charge of the •anillery. He cursed the whole march. " Call this war!" he shouted. "It was only a route march. If tbey were going to take me out for a promenade — why, I would have preferred the Empire Theatre." " I felt inclined to agree with Stewart," observes the lieutenant, "that the enemy had given us just cause for complaint by not playing the'game. At any rate, they might _ have given lisa run ,f or our money in front of Ohitral.";'. Not the least amueing thing about this joy- . ful- young soldier'fibook is the dedication to "my dear mother:" •' He tells her -that. he has written the book for her, " and that it may please yon is all 1 ask." There may be signs of a foolish weakness 'about war and bloodshed in other parts of the civilised world, but, with this book freshly in mind, one can discover in British manhood no such signs of yielding to an enervating civilisation. Degeneration is far distant for a race whose eons seek to please their mothers with merry tales of slaughter. And distant is the day j when British frontier lines will- retreat, since they are guarded by auoh restless, hearty lovers of the ancient and honourable sport of man-hunting.*— David Graham Phillips, in the New York World.