IN THE KHYBER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9100, 28 May 1908, Page 3

IN THE KHYBER.

An article on the Khyber Pass, of great interest at this juncture, appears in "Blackwoods," from the pen of a man who went through "the sword-cut in the hills" as far as Ali Musjid, the small fort in the middle of the Pass. Peshawar stands on a groat expanse of level ground, and from the town to the mouth of the Khyber every yard of the ground has bsen marked out with a view to fighting a great battle against an army which might have forced the Pass. Trenches are marked out where crops grow, and there is a net work of tolagraph apd telephone wires. "It is ground that any general might pray for and dream about as the theatre for a master-struggle, with his great arrny pitched against another, and all the odds in his favour, should ever the matchless security of the Khyber be penetrated." On two days of *he weak troops are stationed along the Pas 3 to ensure the safe passage of caravans,- and on these days visitors may drive through. The entrance to the Pass is narrow and the road is commanded from either side. "A wind, crisp and invieorating as iced champagne, hurtled through the Pass, drawn to the hot plains of India from the snows above." Standing aloft are solliers, motionless ai the surrounding boulders. Indeed, SHrie of the objseta taken at first for soldiers * were really boulders, for the wily guardians of this road to India have purposely put stones on end, "to serve tbo double purpose of afford-j ing cover and an opportunity fori the introduction, unnoticed, of a lieid of flesh and blood." A native! soldier can sit for hours without moving, and even the keen-eyed Afridi finds it difficult to piik out the man from the stones. E/ery man mat carried a rifle. Cultivation is jn progress in every nook that will hold sufficient earth and water, and i while one man guides thp plough, another paces alongside with a rifle, for the vendetta exists in this place, and at any minute an enemy may come over the hill. The writer drove home with the "pioud consciousness that no hostile force, with communications and a base to sup port, could make that passage against opposition into our great Empire of India.' And should an unforseer. situation arise in which local help might smooth an enemy's way, there still will remain the fortified t plain beyond."