The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier WarChurchill, Winston
History
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War
Churchill, Winston
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965; North-west Frontier Province (Pakistan) -- History; Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography
But something else is needed to made a hero. Some other influence must
help him through the harder trials and more severe ordeals which may
befall him. It is sentiment which makes the difference in the end. Those
who doubt should stroll to the camp fire one night and listen to the
soldiers' songs. Every one clings to something that he thinks is high
and noble, or that raises him above the rest of the world in the hour of
need. Perhaps he remembers that he is sprung from an ancient stock,
and of a race that has always known how to die; or more probably it
is something smaller and more intimate; the regiment, whatever it is
called--"The Gordons," "The Buffs," "The Queen's,"--and so nursing the
name--only the unofficial name of an infantry battalion after all--he
accomplishes great things and maintains the honour and the Empire of the
British people.
It may be worth while, in the matter of names, to observe the advantages
to a regiment of a monosyllabic appellation. Every one will remember
Lieut.-Colonel Mathias' speech to the Gordons. Imagine for a moment that
speech addressed to some regiment saddled with a fantastic title on the
territorial system, as, for instance, Mr. Kipling's famous regiment,
"The Princess Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen-Anspach's Merthyr Tydvilshire Own
Royal Loyal Light Infantry." With the old numbers all started on equal
terms.
This has been perhaps a cold-blooded chapter. We have considered men
as targets; tribesmen, fighting for their homes and hills, have been
regarded only as the objective of an attack; killed and wounded human
beings, merely as the waste of war. We have even attempted to analyse
the high and noble virtue of courage, in the hopes of learning how it
may be manufactured.
The philosopher may observe with pity, and the philanthropist deplore
with pain, that the attention of so many minds should be directed to the
scientific destruction of the human species; but practical people in a
business-like age will remember that they live in a world of men--not
angels--and regulate their conduct accordingly.
CHAPTER XVIII. AND LAST.: THE RIDDLE OF THE FRONTIER
"Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and saint, and heard great argument
About it and about, but evermore
Came out by the same door wherein I went."
OMAR KHAYYAM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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