A BRITISH NON-COM.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1927, Page 4

A BRITISH NON-COM.

HELD UP AN ARMY. "P.C.” SERGEANT TAINT. HANDLED CHINESE LIKE LONDON * TRAFFIC. It was not a Duke nor Earl, not yet a Viscount-—• It was not big brass General that came ; But a until in khaki kit who could handle men a bit. AA'ith his bedding labelled Sergeant AA'hats-is-name. Of course Kipling was eulogising ttie " meritorious services of the sergeant instructors attached to the Egyptian army,” who ''hardened Pharaoh's heart.

But the poet might have liedi prophesying the entrance upon the Chinese stage of Sergeant Taint. 2nd Battalion. Border Regiment, who handled the victorious Chinese Army entering Shanghai as if he had been a London policeman directing theatre traffic in Piccadilly Circus.

Sir Perrival Phillips, in a dispatch to the "Daily Mail”’ from Shanghai, gives us a delightful sketch of Sergeant Taint so disposing of the invading army as to keep it outside the British concession without resorting to the use of arms, which was his particular job. PROTECTING SETTLEMENT. He was with an outpost of JO men of tho Border Regiment at a railway crossing outside the cordon protecting the international settlement. Enter to him two Cantonese officers commanding a rabble of tattered, dirty soldiery—the advance guard of the conquering Nationalists. They announced that they wanted to go to the north station, outside the cordon, to which the sergeant amicably replied that iiis orders were that they could go anywhere, provided they kept on or beyond the railway. He so impressed the officers that one parted from him with a salute and the other with a handshake.

To them, in fact, he appeared an equal, which suggests that they possessed a certain amount of perspicacity. But the sergeant’s triumph occurred next morning, when the Cantonese began their march along the railway outside the international concession to the north station. To eyes lamilinr with the majorify and pomp of armies, they presented an undignified spectacle. Strnggi'ing along, regardless of any known military formation, their shapeless grey coats accentuating the awkwardness of their bearing, their varied armaments increasing the " seratehinoss ” of their kit, they might have been a defeated rabble instead of a

victorious procession. ROMBF ON STRINGS

Some had Mills’ bombs dangling by fiayed bits of string from their bells. Others bad hoisted their umbrellas as a protection against the mild sunshine. Even the officers shambi'ed along, and General Ho. the commander of the division, known to the British Tommy In Shanghai as "General AATiat Ho.” could find only a donkey to carry him, his gold shoulder tabs, and his bundle of maps, which be tucked under bis arm, a> be saluted and smiled in recognition of i lie band-ei’apping of the Chinese crowd.

Sergeant Taint and his outpost, seated on boxes beside the metals, watched ibis miscellaneous procession with Ibe grave disapproval of professionals regarding the inadequate performance of amateurs. Then 'Taint noticed that tbe passage of ihe army was bolding up the traffic on the Hunja i Road, which crossed the railway. Hi is would never do. Unemotionally he rose and strolled to tile level crossing. TRAFFIC " COR." "Half a minute there,” lie shouted to the advancing troops as he insinuated himself into the straggling mob. authoritatively holding out nil arm. Obediently the column hailed—coolies—staggering under tbe weight of cooking pets, officers brandishing walking; sticks. Labour delegates accompanying the troops' to take clmrgo of the occupied areas, and even wellarmed Russians who cropped up here and there among ihe Chinese, crime to a standstill.

Then Taint signaled forward the wailing civilian traffic—a foreign motor car, a rickety Chinese barrow, a collection of jinrickshas—and when it hail pas-.cd. down came his commanding arm.

' .Nom llioii, come on.” ho shouted, mil unkindly, and the ragged regiments (...tired along the railway again until a fun Ilia- assembly of Chinese carts or similar traffic had collected In ho permitted to cut through the armv. So Sergeant Taint for hours controlled traffic on the Ifiuijao Hoad. GOOD-TEMPERED TACT.

This exploit is typical of what is expected of the British troops, who were sent to Shanghai to do “police work.” ITis handling of the position, without fuss, or the obtruding ol weapons, and with good-tempered toleration, is in tho best traditions of the army. The circumstanees resemble scores ol occasions which might well have turned out difficult in India. Egypt, and similar countries, where all the elements of trouble have been collected in the presence of excited and often hostile mobs. Yet there is not on record n single instance of British troops acting aggressively, thoughtlessly, or unkindly. On the other hand, all the evidence is of the remarkable forbearance exhibited in tlie lace of insult, provocation, and even blows, ol which the imperturbability ot the marines at Hankow is the most recent example. tommy itero.

The man responsible for providing the world with yet another instance of British coolness and readiness is a typical Britsih Regular. A Londoner, lie enlisted in the army as drummer boy. went to France with the Expeditionary Force in 1914. served unharmed throughout the war, and shared in the troublous times in Irei'and.