PRINCE ESCAPES DEATH

Taranaki Daily News, 29 April 1931, Page 5

PRINCE ESCAPES DEATH

KILLED A KING COBRA WITHIN AN ACE OF DEATH, SYMPATHY FOR THE “TOMMIES* The Prince of Wales once saved his own life with a lucky shot. If he had missed, a king cobra would have had him. The story is told by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Frederick O’Connor, who went out to India a? a young officer in search of adventure, and became famous even in Tibet. Sir Frederick began by grinding away at the Tibetan language and exploring tho paths to Tibet, and the upshot was that, when Sir Francis Younghusband’a historic mission was sent to Lhasa, young O’Connor went with it, and ha drew up the Tibetan drafts of the treaty. Thereafter Sir Frederick conducted the Maharajah and Sikkim on a tour of the world, interviewed the Walai Lama in Pekin, met Enver Pasha in Com stantinople, was in charge of the British legation in Teheran during a revolution, was arrested by the revolutions aries, kept prisoner for a year, returned to ’ England during the war, was sent by Lord Beaverbrook, then Minister of Information, on a mission to> Siberia, and after the war became British Resident in Nepal, where he accompanied the Prince of Wales- on the Prince’s visit to that country. Sir Frederick tells the story of his adventurous career in a delightful book, “On the Frontier and Beyond.” The Prince shot a 9ft Sin tiger in Nepal and, a rhinoceros, but his most , remarkable luck was with the cobra. Sir Frederick, whose language is’ always restrained, confesses that it was “an exciting little adventure.” BEATERS’ SHOUTS. Here is his story:— “We were walking along in line through a patch of jungle—the Prine® on my right with half a dozen native beaters between us—when I heard him fire two shots, and this was followed by excited shouts from the beaters, and the Prince called me to come and see what he had shot. “I ran up, and found him with a dead snake, some I Oft long. It appeared that he had seen the snake gliding away through the brushwood, and had, fired at it, whereupon it had turned, and was making for him at full speed when he shot it dead within a few yards of himself wtih his second, barret “There is only one snake found in. India which , attacks human ’ beings, namely, the poisonous king cobra or 1 hamadryad. It is not very common, and during all my years in India I had. never even seen, far less been attacked by one. ' “We took the snake back to camp, where it was examined by our expert zoologist, Mr. Ellison, who pronounced it to be a hamadryad, measuring 10ft Sin. ’ ■ T'.'.T . , .

“It was really an extraordinary' chance that the Prince should have' been attacked by and have shot one of these deadly and pugnacious reptiles on foot during his one week in the Indian jungles —an adventure which might not come once in a life-time spent in the country —and it was for-, tunate that he shot straight.” ' One day, in Nepal, the Prince exclaimed, “Why; there’s a British soldier in uniform!” He was a sapper, on telephone line duty. The Prince pulled up, called the man, t, and found that they had been on the same part of the French front at the same time. He shook , hands warmly with the sap-i per on parting. ‘Tt was,” said Sir Frederick, “perhaps! a trivial incident but it was typical” “As we drove along afterwards the Prince appeared moved and touched. He explained to me that during the war he had, had opportunities such as probably had never before been afforded to the heir to the Throne of seeing the British soldier in all sorfs of conditions and circumstances, and how he sympathised with and admired him; “He had s'een the men in the filth and wet and cold and misery of the trenches and under fire, and, most pathetic of all, when, after a spell of leave at home and decent food and warmth and family life, they were on their way back to the front again.

NIGHTMARE EXISTENCE.

“And he related to me individual , eases of hardship which he had come • across, and of the revolt of all a man’s natural human instinct against returning to, such a nightmare existence. “He knew from his : own personal experience what the men had suffered, and how they had stood up under it all. He could never forget it, and his heart went out to every British soldier whenever and wherever ho saw one. “Most human beings, I suppose, are more or less selfish, and insensitive to other people’s misfortunes,” comments Sir' Frederick, “and it is difficult for anybody bred and brought up in regal, or, indeed, ordinarily prosperous surroundings to appreciate the troubles and difficulties of others ! less fortunately placed; but the Prince .had seen these things for himself. He had lived with the men at a time when the veil was lifted, and he could see the raw , and ugly side of life, and his sympathy and understanding were very genuine 1 and human.” !