A BROAD HINT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 742, 3 February 1915, Page 3

A BROAD HINT.

Familiarity with modern. weapons has not bred contempt in the m'inds of a certain cruiser on the African i coast a few years ago, the followI ing incident occurred, which went far in impressing the natives concerned with a sense of the might of the British navy. A hill tribe of Arabs had been continually .molesting "friendlies" of the coast villages, so it was deemed advisabla to teach the troublesome hillmen a lesson. After several skirmishes ashore, a number of influential chiefs of the marauding tribe fell into the hands of the bluejackets, and were taken on board the cruiser. - What their expectations were regarding the fate await'ing them is not known, but, as is generally the case with such captives, they were treated with every consideration, the authorities probably thinking to attain more influence amongst the tribe by friendly demonstration to its chiefs than by harsh methods. So the captives were showa over the ship by the first lieutenant, who spoke both Arabic and Swahili. But the officer did not seem qifite satisfied with the impression he was making, so. he showed them the guns, explaining the loading, etc., finally pausing behind a '6-inch weapon which was noted for smashing everything breakable in its vicinity when fired. He had his audience all jabbering and gesticulating around the breech, when suddenly there was' a tremendous crash, and, amidst broken glass and crockery' in the cook's galley opposite, subdued blessings from an indignant cook, and ths downfall of everything movable overhead, the party of Arabs, scared out of-their wits scattered to aiiy available part of the ship, falling over obstacles, to the huge delight of the ship's company. The ship's 'goat, disturbed from a nap by the crash, and seeing strangers flying in all directions, evidently blamed them for the rumpus, so added to the fun by chasing and butting every dusky form within reach. At length the poor fellows were pacified to a certain extent, and were regaled with lime jui'ce and biscuitson the quarter-deck, but thay after that gave the big guns a wide berth, casting furtive glances at them occasionally. When they had- recovered from the shock a little they were shown what a big gun could do, their attention being called to a prominent rock well to seaward of the ship, the top of which had been blown clean off by the shell they had heard fired. Before taking them round the ship "No. 1" had had the gun loaded; and trained, and' when they were deeply interested in his vivid explanations he simply fired ths gun as the most convincing illustration of what they might expect if they did not behave. ? The chiefs were liberated soon afterwards, and, suffice to say, their tribe, at any rate, gave the cruiser's crew no more trouble.