THE GHURKA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 22, 27 January 1916, Page 3

THE GHURKA.

SOLDIER AND SHIKARI. CHEERY LITTLE FELLOW. Moore, of the 12th Gurkh Rifles, was dining with me last night. His wounds have been patched up for the second time, and he is going back to France, where he will find none of the original officers of hi s own batta. lion left, save possibly the colonel, writes "Anglo-Indian" in the Times. "I am a bit pipped," he said, "I have just heard that my orderly, poor old Tegh Bahadur, is dead —blown up by a hand grenade in a night attack. He was s uch a top-hole fellow." And he began to tell me of the shooting trips they had had together, "ltd how Tegh Bahadur had turned a bear out of a cave and tackled a huge wounded bear in the forest with his kukri.

There are many races, castes, and creeds in the Indian army; but every British officer, whether it be through love or conviction, swears by his own men. This is as it should be, but speaking as an outsider wfio knows a little of most of the Indian fighting stcck s and not a great deal of any, have always envied the man who commands the "Gurk."

He is first of all la, soldier and a shikari, and Honours his British officer "5 such —not because of his white skin, but because cf the steadfast virtues of his c'ass. There is no sophisticated century race-feeling about the "Gurkh." He can be perfectly at his «ase with his regimental officer without any encroachment upon respectSomething of the same relations exist between the two as between a house master at one of our public schools and the big boys in his house. A STORY OF TEGH BAHADUR. He was an ugly little devil (Moore said), and a chunk had been torn out of his face by a leopard. I didn't fake to him at first until one day I was in the jungle at Ghoom and heard woodcutting in a forest reserve where woodcutting is forbidden. It was in the leave season, and everybody had cleared out, and I was left in command. When 1 appeared in the clearing I saw three pairs of heels scurrying away. I recognised Tegh Bahadurg, and calle dhim to the orderlyroom. "You were cutting wood," I said. "Yes, sahib." "You know it is 'against orders?" "Yes, sahib." "Why did you run away?" "When we saw the captain, sahib, coming we were frightened and had to bolt." "Is there any reason why you should not be punished." "Yes, sahib; it is a first offence. The colonel sahib never punishes a first offence." "There were two others " "Yes, sahib." "Tell me their names."

"No, sahib. I cannot tell you their

names. We do not betray one another. . . Perhaps if I talk a little to them in the canteen they will come to you themselves and confess."

The next day the two men came and confessed and were forgiven. A simple story with no point in it o one unversed in the evasiveness of the more sophisticated East. Soon afterwards (Moore continued) we were in Waziristan, Wana way, when the country was disturbed. I went cut after markhor one afternoon without an escort, and I had an uncomfortable feeling all the while that I was being stalked. It was ny e in the evening when I noticed that a pointed rock near me cast an unnaturally bulging shadow. I covered it I with my rifle and waited. Soon a voice came from behind it: "Don't i shoot, sahib, it is me," and after the voice there appeared the forage cap and scarred face of Tegh Bahadur. j He was ashamed at being discovered. He didn't want the sahib to be ] scuppered, he said ,and seeing that I j was not angry he grinned sheepishly. ' But just think of it! He had been | shadowing me the whole afternoon, j and I had not twug it, and I was drawing my pay for training him, teaching him to stalk and scout." The fidelity of the man Moore took as a matter of course, but his story reminded me of a tradition that holds in mcst Gurkha battalions. In the attack the British officer always runs a little ahead. That is the custom what- ' ever troops he leads, but it is not al- ] way s .easy to keep the lead; two men ! in' a company of Gurks are told .off 1 to stand by him on either side, j Against steel at least he must not! fall. But, of course, this hag to be i a very furtive proceeding. j HIGHLANDER AND GURKHA. There is a long-standing alliance between the Highland regiments and the Gurk. The Highlander is attached to him because of his cheery face and the face of the Gurkha is the index of hi s soul. He has the heart of a lion and the head of a child. No sepoy is so dependent on his sahib. In the trenches of Glanders he is thinking all the while "This is- the country of the white man, these are the ways of the white man," and when al his officers are killed he is a little lost and bewildered. He is "a cheery but not a calculating fighter. He loves a scrap, and likes to look into the white of his enemy's eyes; but an enemy composed of terrible sounds, unseen shocks, and tortuous forms of death is a manifestation of the devil with whom it is hard to cope alone. If there is one place where Tegh Bahadur i s the better man it is in the listening gallery of a mine. For his ear is as good as his eye. Here one is happiest wtihout imagination as | one sits waiting in the dark for ■ sounds in the neighbouring sap, subtle j a s the football of a bear on wet leav- j -s. The Gurk's ear is true; he does j not hear sounds that are no sounds, J he is not haunted with the thought that the hole where he squats is

the shape of a tomb. But in the white man's war as a rule, in the trenches under the night flares, Tegh Bahadur is as dependent on Mcore, as Moore is dependent on him in the Himalayan jungle, his home. And apparently Tegh Bahadur was a very lovable little man. Moore, who has lost most of his pals, was sunk in depression half the night. He was thinking of camp fire in Sum and Baltistan, and his trusty little friend squatting over the hot rhododendron ashes in the Gligit boots and Balaclava cap, blowing the embers into a flame and chattering between puffs cf red bear and big sheep, and the monster ibex which he has marked down for the sahib on the morrow. One more of the bright vision blotted out by the Hun.