INDIA: Shots in an Orchard

Near Peshawar, key city of the Khyber Pass, gateway to northern India, a patrol of the 17th Poona horse (Indian) rode last week through the sun-speckled fruit orchards. From somewhere rifles cracked. Six troopers dropped from their saddles. The rest wheeled, galloped back to barracks. British officers wasted no time, for they knew what the shots in the orchard meant. In five minutes bugles were blowing, cavalry, artillery were mounting, galloping out of town. At Peshawar's air station, 54 Royal Air Force pilots climbed into their planes, roared up into the...