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       Winston Churchill

      The Story of the Malakand Field Force

      (Unabridged)

      An Episode of Frontier War

      Published by

      Books

      - Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -

       [email protected]

      2018 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-4217-7

       Preface

       Chapter I: The Theatre of War

       Chapter II: The Malakand Camps

       Chapter III: The Outbreak

       Chapter IV: The Attack on the Malakand

       Chapter V: The Relief of Chakdara

       Chapter VI: The Defence of Chakdara

       Chapter VII: The Gate of Swat

       Chapter VIII: The Advance Against the Mohmands

       Chapter IX: Reconnaissance

       Chapter X: The March to Nawagai

       Chapter XI: The Action of the Mamund Valley, 16th September

       Chapter XII: At Inayat Kila

       Chapter XIII: Nawagai

       Chapter XIV: Back to the Mamund Valley

       Chapter XV: The Work of the Cavalry

       Chapter XVI: Submission

       Chapter XVII: Military Observations

       Chapter XVIII. And Last.: The Riddle of the Frontier

      Preface

       Table of Contents

      "According to the fair play of the world,

      Let me have an audience."

      "King John," Act v., Sc. 2.

      On general grounds I deprecate prefaces. I have always thought that if an author cannot make friends with the reader, and explain his objects, in two or three hundred pages, he is not likely to do so in fifty lines. And yet the temptation of speaking a few words behind the scenes, as it were, is so strong that few writers are able to resist it. I shall not try.

      While I was attached to the Malakand Field Force I wrote a series of letters for the London Daily Telegraph. The favourable manner in which these letters were received, encouraged me to attempt a more substantial work. This volume is the result.

      The original letters have been broken up, and I have freely availed myself of all passages, phrases, and facts, that seemed appropriate. The views they contained have not been altered, though several opinions and expressions, which seemed mild in the invigorating atmosphere of a camp, have been modified, to suit the more temperate climate of peace.

      I have to thank many gallant officers for the assistance they have given me in the collection of material. They have all asked me not to mention their names, but to accede to this request would be to rob the story of the Malakand Field Force of all its bravest deeds and finest characters.

      The book does not pretend to deal with the complications of the frontier question, nor to present a complete summary of its phases and features. In the opening chapter I have tried to describe the general character of the numerous and powerful tribes of the Indian Frontier. In the last chapter I have attempted to apply the intelligence of a plain man to the vast mass of expert evidence, which on this subject is so great that it baffles memory and exhausts patience. The rest is narrative, and in it I have only desired to show the reader what it looked like.

      As I have not been able to describe in the text all the instances of conduct and courage which occurred, I have included in an appendix the official despatches.

      The impartial critic will at least admit that I have not insulted the British public by writing a party pamphlet on a great Imperial question. I have recorded the facts as they occurred, and the impressions as they arose, without attempting to make a case against any person or any policy. Indeed, I fear that assailing none, I may have offended all. Neutrality may degenerate into an ignominious isolation. An honest and unprejudiced attempt to discern the truth is my sole defence, as the good opinion of the reader has been throughout my chief aspiration, and can be in the end my only support.

      Winston S. Churchill

       Cavalry Barracks,

       Bangalore, 30th December, 1897

      Chapter I: The Theatre of War

       Table of Contents

      The Ghilzaie chief wrote answer: "Our paths are narrow and steep.

       The sun burns fierce in the valleys, and the snow-fed streams run deep;

       . . . . . . . . . .

       So a stranger needs safe escort, and the oath of a valiant friend."

       "The Amir's Message," SIR A. LYALL.

      All along the north and north-west frontiers of India lie the Himalayas, the greatest disturbance of the earth's surface that the convulsions of chaotic periods have produced. Nearly four hundred miles in breadth and more than sixteen hundred in length, this mountainous region divides the great plains of the south from those of Central Asia, and parts as a channel separates opposing shores, the Eastern Empire of Great Britain from that of Russia. The western end of this tumult of ground is formed by the peaks of the Hindu Kush, to the south of which is the scene of the story these pages contain. The Himalayas are not a line, but a great country of mountains. By one who stands on some lofty pass or commanding point in Dir, Swat or Bajaur, range after range is seen as the long surges of an Atlantic swell, and in the distance some glittering snow peak suggests a white-crested

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