KITCHENER'S TRIUMPH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

KITCHENER'S TRIUMPH.

INDIAN ARMY SCHEME j VINDICATED. AFRIDIS BEATEN. LONDON, Feb. 16. Lord Kitchener's new Indian Army scheme has been triumphantly vindicated by the frontier lorce operating m the Bazar Valley. The Zakka Khels have been scattered and broken after a phenomenally short campaign and unusually light British losses, and Major General \Villocks has granted a. twoclays' armistice, ' during which the headmen of the Tirah tribes will endeavor to persuade their recalcitrant brethren to submit to British authority, and give pledges for their future good behaviour. The campaign marks a new era m border warfare. [Cables announced that the armistice resulted' m the ending of the trouble.] WALAI, Feb. 25. The Zakka Khels have been complete, ly smashed m a few days with comparatively trifling loss to ourselves. We iiave won our battles by the application of the principle of extension combined with the intelligent use- of cover. Any general, trained on European manoeuvre grounds, looking westward from the WalaL Gorge and being told that the j enemy held the heights on both flanks ] and m. front, would have hesitated to attack the. towers t in the plain with three' or four regiments supported by a few . mountain guns ; yet we have advanced on four occasions into the plain with easy confidence, a few companies protecting our flanks, and the enemy nowhere finding a target. The gun mules, hospitals, and officers' chargers were always kept m the shadow of the mounds m the ravines, while the troops m front, and on both flanks, advanced by short swift rushes;,, frx T tended m some cases fifteen paces and lying down after each rush. ".'...".".'. The enemy' were only able to fire at individual figures exposed for a few moments. 1 Moreover, our line was capable of contracting and expanding at will, so that we were always- threatening to outflank the Zakka Khels, who consequently dtared not remain till we came .to close quarters. In returning to camp our troops were so widely extended that the Zakka Kliels never found a real target. It may be contended that these ,widely ex-tended lines could easly be. broken through by a sudden and determined charge. 'Hie reply is that even were the Af i'idis accustomedl to charge, which they are. n6t, any breakage of our line would, not imply confusion and disorder elsewhere: at most two or three men exactly m front of the rush would be killed, and a murderous. converging fire at short rasge would soon overcome the assailants. All that is left to the Zakka Khels now |s sniping at night, and even that jb being .interfered with by the engineers, who are laying land mines at the spots where snipers congregate. Such a, mine was let off last night with excellent effect on a party of snipers who attacked a Gfcrkba • picke£. =