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the moral effect of its accurate fire in the dark will be considerable. There are many instances from our wars on the North-West Frontier where machine guns might have been used profitably in covering the retreat; but to be successfully employed in such cases, they must be far more mobile and better trained for rapid-fire practice than they have been in the past. Lieut.-Colonel Haughton's retreat from the Iseri Kandeo Pass is typical of such operations. "A brigade had been sent on detached duty into the Warais Valley, and after completing its work there was rejoining the rest of the army in maidan. In doing so the brigade had to cross the Iseri Kandeo Pass over the hills which separate the two valleys. As the force quitted its bivouacs the Ghurkas were left as rear guard, while the 15th Sikhs were told off to hold the Kotal, which was about half-way. The main body and baggage moved off early, and the latter reached the maidan almost unnoticed. The Ghurkas, however, were pressed from the commencement of the retirement right up to the top of the Kotal; then they marched on, leaving the 15th Sikhs to cover the retirement. As the Sikhs began to draw in their piquets from the heights above the pass, the Afridis, as was their wont, grew bolder and bolder, and, taking advantage of the cover of a wood hard by, they crept down close to the rear guard. One company as it withdrew was suddenly charged by a crowd of swordsmen. . . . But those who