"
As one over the age limit, or because he did not consider me an
empire-controlling force, on this great occasion, I was permitted to
be present. But except that the number of incipient empire-builders
was very great, that they were very happy, and that save the host
himself none of them took his idea seriously, I would not call it an
evening of historical interest. But the fact is interesting that of all
the boys present, as yet, the host seems to be the only one who to
any conspicuous extent is disturbing the destinies of Great Britain.
However, the others can reply that ten of the twenty years have not
yet passed.
When he was twenty-three Churchill obtained leave of absence
from his regiment, and as there was no other way open to him to
see fighting, as a correspondent he joined the Malakand Field
Force in India.
It may be truthfully said that by his presence in that frontier war he
made it and himself famous. His book on that campaign is his best
piece of war reporting. To the civilian reader it has all the delight
of one of Kipling's Indian stories, and to writers on military
subjects it is a model. But it is a model very few can follow, and
which Churchill himself was unable to follow, for the reason that
only once is it given a man to be twenty-three years of age.
The picturesque hand-to-hand fighting, the night attacks, the
charges up precipitous hills, the retreats made carrying the
wounded under constant fire, which he witnessed and in which he
bore his part, he never again can see with the same fresh and
enthusiastic eyes.
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