Practice

Last week the British wound up their biggest experiment yet in the use of modern armament in India. Their enemy: the non-passively-resistant blood brotherhood of turbaned Hurs in Sind Province.

The goad to action was a new outbreak of rapine and train-wrecking in protest against the jailing of the Hurs' Robin Hood leader, the lecherous, pock-marked Pir of Parago (TIME, June 15). Coordinating land and air forces, the British dropped parachutists on the edge of the Sind desert. From there they moved west toward the Hurs' jungle stronghold in Makhi Dhand, the "honey swamp." A column of camelry moved in from the north. From the east, Punjab constabulary in assault boats drew the trap tighter. A motorized infantry unit completed boxing the jungle.

Cracked from four sides and the air above them, the Hurs sought to hide by ducking under water and breathing through straws. Their ancient blunderbusses, hatchets and spears proved virtually useless. Even their jungle allies, 120DEG heat, snakes, mosquitoes and crocodiles, claimed few casualties. One parachutist sprained his ankle.

The British arrested hundreds of Hurs, promptly executed 27 ringleaders. But they had done more than a mop-up job on rampaging natives. From his sand-island G.H.Q. dominating the jungle, Major General Roland Richardson authorized this statement: "The whole operation may be regarded as valuable practice for jungle warfare elsewhere, in which the British forces so far have been at a marked disadvantage."

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