THE CHARGES AGAINST ENGLISH SOLDIERS IN EGYPT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3589, 12 January 1883, Page 4

THE CHARGES AGAINST ENGLISH SOLDIERS IN EGYPT.

Sir Henry Havelock-Allan in a letter to the Times pronounces the .statements made in some of tho Continental papers regarding the conduct of our soldiers at Tel-el-Kebii-to be, " where not absolutely untrue, so grossly colored aud exaggerated, as to suggest that which is worse than untrue." As"to the alleged slaughter of the wounded by our men, Sir Henry says : —" To this I give the most flat and absolute contradiction. I know every one of the four foreign gentlemen on whose authority the statement is made. Two of them were not on or near the field at all till long after tho action ; and in the case of the two others, there are strong reasons why their evidence is to be received with considerable qualification. The facts, however strictly investigated, do our men as a body much honor, instead of the reverse. With that humanity, almost soft-heartedness, which has always distinguished Englishmen, our soldiers in many instances "turned aside in pursuit to help" wounded Egyptians. They were too often rewarded by being shot at by those very men tho moment they passed on. Two officers were wounded, the one slightly, the other very seriously, in this manner. Inquiry will show that there are also scores of similar cases, not so well known, among the rank and file ; notably one of a private of the 4th Dragoon Guards, who in the end of August, having tended a wounded man for two days, and shared his rations with him. was shot dead from the opposite bank of the canal by sonic stragglers while in the very act of" re-filling his water-bottle, after giving the man a drink. On the other hand, all our wounded accidentally left on the ground on the 28th of August and the oth of September were afterwards found put to death with mutilations of the most barbarousnature. These tacts were well known to every soldier in the army. Is it wonderful, therefore, if in. some cases Egyptians not dead, or only feigning death, and lying with their arms in their hands in a suspicious attitude, should have received the final stroke in passing from men who were determined not to expose themselves to be murdered from behind ." As to the so-called plundering of Sir Henry HavelockAllan's bsififf-iiife, tlie fii_t.s lie .._ys. iivc as follows: —"Being merely a. spectator, and not attached to the army in any official capacity, I did not like to be burdensome by asking, as I might, to have my camels put under a guard." My Arab camel driver got separated from my Indian interpreter, and being thus unable to explain himself, it was the most natural thing in the world that himself and his camels should be seized by our men and their loads thrown off, they not being distinguishable from the many hundreds of Arabi's camels that were roaming- about, with or without drivers. In such cases baggage lying unowned on the ground, amid all the confused debris of an abandoned camp, is sure to be tossed over and broken up by the first comer. The owner is lucky if, as happened to me, he lias every article that was recognised to be his carefully taken charge of and restored by the soldiers who found it. This extended in my case to the restoration of envelopes and scraps of private letters and papers, which, having my name upon them, were found and brought back many days after the battle, in many instances by private soldiers, who never thought of reward, in a kindly and considerate manner, of which I hereby record my grateful acknowledgments to many men unknown to me, and whom I had not, therefore, an opportunity of thaking personally." The other and larger question incidentally touched by the allegations of these foreign correspondents, whether the discipline of the army has or has not suffered somewhat from influences lately brought to bear upon it, Sir Heury says he will "not venture to touch upon ;no man of ex2>erience will deny the fact.