NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE Government of India is punishing a frontier tribe, the Waziris, for making raids and otherwise breaking its agreements, and the necessary movement of troops has been exaggerated here into a "little war." It is not a war, little or big, but a measure of police, carried out by soldiers because these tribes only respect armed men. The tribesmen are resisting feebly, and may be considered beaten; but a few out- laws rendered desperate by recollections of their own crimes defended a "peel," as it used to be called on the Border, with determined courage. Colonel Tonnochy, of the 3rd Sikhs, finding that his guns made little impression on the stone tower, employed dynamite, and then stormed the little fortress. The tower was entered and destroyed, and all its defenders killed; but the gallant Colonel was so severely wounded that he died, as did Captain G. E. White, of the same regiment. Three officers more were wounded, and eight Sikhs. The loss of good soldiers is, of course, to be regretted ; but the frontier cannot be held in peace without such petty expeditions, as a sort of lust for plunder every now and then seizes a clan. They know they will have to pay in lives and cattle, and they are all willing to take service in British regiments, but they thirst for a fight, and they provoke one.
