THE Black Watch fought with bravery and distinction at some of the most famous battles in history - Waterloo, the Marne, Ypres, Passchendaele, and the Somme.
It is one of the most distinguished and decorated regiments in the British Army, and its motto, No One Provokes Me With Impunity, speaks for itself.
The regiment breeds hard men and has done since it was formed in 1739. It has friends in high places, too.
Colonel-in-Chief is the Queen Mother, and last year she supported a massive campaign to save the Black Watch from a forced merger with another regiment as part of the British defence cuts.
When the 650 soldiers of ''The Watch'' arrived in Hong Kong earlier this year as the last British regiment to be stationed in the territory before the Union Jack is pulled down in 1997, it was an assignment taken up with pride.
Today, however, the Black Watch is troubled. The problem of drug abuse by soldiers, which first reared its head on a tour of Northern Ireland in 1990 and then later when the regiment moved to Shropshire in England, has come back to haunt Scotland's finest in Hong Kong.
It is claimed young off-duty squaddies have been sought out by triads selling drugs as a lucrative new source of revenue. Most worrying of all to senior officers are claims that some soldiers have been persuaded to become dealers themselves - taking their wares to colleagues inside Stanley Fort itself.
