The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. THE INDIAN FRONTIER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 146, 29 September 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. THE INDIAN FRONTIER.

During every moment of the years that Britain has held India she has gazed with anxious eyes towards the frontier, for beyond it is the unknown, and the unknown is always threatening- Innumerable times have armed bands- descended from the hills to the plains, until the British soldier in India has become inured to the routine of dealing with raids and riots and' of keeping his mouth shut about them afterwards. The history of frontier skirmishing supplies many a brilliant page redounding to the credit of British arms and with tributes to the desperate courage of the raiders. Attention to the frontier has lately been called by the doings of warlike tribes who have made quite ordinary everyday raids' from their primitive point of view. The cable shows that these tribes had been receiving arms from Afridi dealers—and the Afridds, as all Britishers know, love a fight better than a meal. The Ameer of Afghanistan, who has never concealed his liking for fighters, has, so the cable tells us, consoled disappointed Afridi leaders with presents. They and their friends, the Khels, having ibeen done out of a fight are, according to the Ameer, worthy of pity. On March 11 last, Captain Stirling and some of his men lost their Uvea at Pahari Khel, and /this stirred up the tribesmen. It also stirred up tihe British I authorities who strengthened the troops on the frontier and armed the villagers. While the British authorities necessarily quell these border disturbances, by giving Wow for blow, they are never regarded as serious l menaces to the Crown. The i raiders descend on the villages with q.s ' mucih cheerfulness as the ordinary British fishermen goes fishing). But the latest incident is regarded as less of a pastime than usual. A Mahsud leader I of great wealth, and who has apparently been kept quiet by the gentle administraI tion'of Ibrilbesi, was annoyed that two of ; his men were found dead after the Pahari Khel trouble. He insisted that the ■ British authorities should regard him as a big chief. The British Government evi- , dently has the best of reasons for negI lecting his requests and while he is alive I this angry person will make trouble. All | the tribes in. the neighborhood of the Mahsuds are opposed: to them and since Britain through the Indian Government has said that she no longer protects the Mahsuds, the tribes are seeing that the Mahsuds do not oversleep themselves, The Mahsuds are born raiders, and being harassed by their neighbors, they are likelyi to cross the borders into British territory in order to supply their needs. The Government therefore .has served the villagers with arms, and, of course, as usual, tihe British non-com, is knocking training into the iblack troops. There i 9 a reward offered to any villager who captures a Mahsud. One wild gentleman who captured a dozen, of the devastators was given quite a small fortune in March and is now living in style in a stone house supplied; by -the Indian Government. There is every probaMity tihat these frontier raids will continue for many months, for the savage tribesmen regard: the capture of every .one of their friends as an insult only to be wiped out by the death of an enemy. With them there is no quarter, and as far as Tommy Atkins is concerned, when he is not too near a caJble station there ig not much quarter from Ihis side either. On the whole, the motto of the Indian frontier, like the motto of the Boy (Scouts, is. "Be prepared," and the great stretch of border that divides the wihite troops and their friends from unknown and fierce enemies is the finest training ground the British soldier has. Border raids u.nd skirmishes have nothing whatever to do with the dislocation of British rule in India and are not regarded with gravity. from the hills, when descending to the plains, not only have to face white men, but Mack, and' the tribes" on the British sides of the borders are the most warlike in the great dark Empire.