A CHAT ON BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 51

A CHAT ON BOOKS.

" The Story of the Malakand Field Force/ told by Spencer Churchill, is in other words so complete and interesting an account of the Indian frontier war of 1897 that I commend it to your reading., Not likely to interest women? Are not women always interested in the heroism -)f men? T think so, and the story of that frontier war is so full of instances of personal courage and heroism that it becomes a very bead-roll ot valour. In the course of the attack on the Malakand fort, which was the very first step in. the long and wearisome struggle which was to ensue between tie fanatical followers of the "Mad Mullah" and the British troops on the Indian' frontier, the following incident took place : — " About 10 o'clock, during a lull in the firing, the company which was lining • the east enclosure heard feeble cries for help. A wounded haviklar of the 24th was lying near the bazaar. He had fallen in the first attack, shot in the shoulder. The tribesmen, giving him two or three deep sword cuts to finish him, had left him foi dead. He- now appealed for help. The football ground on which he lay was swept by the force of the troops, and over-run by the enemy's swordsmen, yet the cry for help did not pass unheeded. Taking two sepoys with him, Lieutenant E. W. Costelb,

the artery. I think there are few whatever may.be their views or interests who will not applaud this splendid act of devotion. : . The specUiclp of a doctor in action -among soldiers in equal danger and with equal courage, saving life where all others are taking it, allaying pain where all others aie causing it, is one which must always &eem glorious whether to God or man. It is impossible to imagine any situation from which a human being might better leave this world and embark on the hazards of the unknown. "

Scarcely less heroic is an incident related of the defence of Chakdara, a fort some eight miles distant from Malakand, and from which it was usual to signal by the Use cf the heliograph. Chakdara and Malakand were beseiged at the same lime, and the reinforcements which saved the Malakand were only just in time to relieve the brave little company which held Chakdara in the face of fearful odds and under the most difficult strategic conditions. The signal tower referred to in the following incident is described as "a detached post 200 yds up the cliff": —

"During the whole time of the seige the difficulty of maintaining the signalling communication with the Malakand was extreme, but for the heroism of the signallers it would Juivc been insurmountable. One man iti particular, Sepoy Prem Singh, used every day at the risk of his life to come through a porthole of the tower, establish his heliograph, and under a terrible fire from short range (tiie tower was surrounded by stone 'sangars,' or shelters, whence the tribesmen kept up an incessant fusilade) flash urgent messages to the main force. The extreme danger, the composure required, the delicacy of the operation of obtaining connection with a lie.Ho — these things combined to make the action as brave as any my pages record."

always to find time to read as much as on» could desire, and I must buy my peace bj promising to have a long list ready for oui next "Oh at on Books." * '