NON-COMBATANTS IN THE FIELD.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2438, 11 January 1881, Page 4

NON-COMBATANTS IN THE FIELD.

Amid the privations and mishaps of the rather gloomy campaign in Afghanistan, there is, the “ Standard ” remarks, one clear ray of comfort to cheer in the splendid conduct of some of the officers engaged. Those who lead men into action are expected to be brave, and get no extraordinary credit for it sometimes. It is their duty. But there are others rated as non-combatants who confront terrible risks without the heat of battle to inflame them, or the hope of distinction to beckon them on. Their conduct in the affairs in and about Candahar is such as to do them high honor and stir the pulses of their countrymen at home to thankful enthusiasm. At a meeting at Simla recently, Sir Donald Stewart made a speech in which he paid a marked compliment to the army chaplains in the field. He related how he saw a Roman Catholic clergyman attending to the wounded in the fighting line of a British regiment. He saw another chaplain more energetically engaged! n rallying with his stick certain native cavalry who were endeavoring to execute a strategic movement to the rear. The reverend gentleman “ did,” says the general, “ very good work.” The Rev Thomas Jackson, a missionary priest from Mill Hill, appears to have behaved with great courage and fortitude. He accompanied the advanced guard under fire at Kushk-i-Nakhud, ivas present in the thick of the combat, and shared in the retreat through that terrible desert, where the very officers, in some cases, broke open the medicine-chests and drank the medicines to save themselves from perishing of thirst. Every encomium is due to those heroes of the Church militant. Many of the medical officers likewise conducted themselves with pro fessional coolness and a magnificent disregard for their own lives. Surg.Major Preston, of the 66th, was in the very stress of peril, and was the second man in the regiment hit. He was desperately wounded, shot through one arm and both loins —and would have died from loss of blood and thirst but for Captain Slade, E.A., who finding him lying helpless on the road after a camel on which he had been placed had broken down, hoisted him upon a gun limber and carried him into Candahar. While England can boast of such sons as these, there is no need to pale and whine because of one or two reverses.