A TYPICAL SOLDIER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13671, 9 April 1908, Page 7

A TYPICAL SOLDIER.

j GENERAL WILLCOCKS. j „ The .Qareer of Sir James Willcocks,^ I the commander of the successful ex-j petition against the - Zakka Khels, should serve as a fine example to young ! soldiers. His biographer in the Daily jyiail draws an interesting picture of tXhis soldier of fifty who feels twentyfive, prides himself on keeping fit, prefers shooting tigers in the heat to re-.j pruitina at mountain stations, studies fcealousljy has perhaps never read a] novel, ans has made it his one aim in life -to be where powder was burning. Eleven years ago ho was an obfccuro staff officer at a small, Indian station, with no influence and no prospect dF. rap id advancement. Four yeal*s -later he was reccivins the freedom of the city of London and a sword bf howmrnfrffm * the Lord -Mayor ' for his brilliant relief of Kumasi. Just Jitter he joined the army, N tho Afghan Avar broke out. His regiment was on -the frontier, but not on the list for active service. ' Ho telegraphed to Simla, where he had no friends in hi^h places,^'asking 11 for employment., No doubt scores of officers put in similar applications and were disappointed. \villc©oks'sf«f©fft J y "hwpwened to be accepted; ".he" liad luck, without which Lord \^©!sq"ley has said a soldier cannot succeed.'^Arrived. at tho railhead, lie found hinWelf stranded, with iuty other jiion, for want of couvcyancos to Peshawar, A casOvJfitf heliographs marked "very urgent^ 'taught his eye. He •bluffed the postmaster into forwarding ' them at onc,e^ find teet off by night on the top of a wuyi-cart. TJiat v was his •first step on the ladder^ and since then ho, has seen much fighting on the frontier, in- Burma/ atid' on the African coast. Mr Chamberlain, with something of Pitt's eye for a yood man.. . marked him out for command* and hijj biulliant conduct of the Kumasi campaign fitliyjaf stifled the Colonial Secretary's action. Like a greater soldier, he is most careful to keen himself in training, and it is his pride never to have spent a holiday at a hill station. He thinks that subalterns playing croquet at Simla would bo better employed with a rifle in the jungle. Perhaps he is wrong, but it is an excellent thing for the Empire that there are men 'like him. '