IS BRITISH VALOR DECLINING?

Dunstan Times, Issue 1209, 1 May 1885, Page 3

IS BRITISH VALOR DECLINING?

There is a strong tendency, says the Broad Arrow, to weep at the present moment. It is a habit to take all the random ill-natured, and waspish criticisms of the semi-inspired Continental journals for gospel. The French Press is So convinced, apparently, that Tel-el-Kehir was simply won with “ British gold” that it is more easy to rule it out of court than to dispose of the German papers. For come time past the German journalists have been afflicted with a peculiar disease, with two sets of symptoms, the one covering the other. Internally they have a great dread of British enterprise ; externally they affect to despise military proceedings altogether. It is pitiable to notice that some Englishman consider the latter without noticing the former. Moreover, it chimes in with a melancholy chord when foreigners say uncivil I and untrue things of our little army whenever it may be in the field. But what ; ground is there for the constant accusation .that British valor is declining? Wo have been unab'e to find any. It is said that we undertake rash things. We should have

hi ii A hC thut miy Lt.inQ l>ut a sign of wreak n ss, 'the van urecO ii" mao, Win in' i p O.lcuUting iinil fore, astiug. imt Hanks cu -mrc'ine o* H'.aelts by dash, pluck, an t audacity, may be unscientific, imprudent, and over zealous, bat he cannot be sid'l to bo wantin ' in valor or to hj »ve lost his conspicuous quality of courage. Oddly enough, the very men who raise this cry complain that we attempt to do great things with too few men. A German c Lie has said thit Lord Wolseley ought never to have move out of Cairo for Khartoum with less than 25,000 men, whereas be bad only abont ones third of that number, ft it a sign of declining valor that one English soldier should be expected to do the same work as three other European soldiers? There was one British soldier in Khartoum for many months with only a second soldier to help him, and his deeds have astonished the whole world. Neither in the case of General Gordon, nor General Stewart, nor Colonel Burnaby can be said that any decline of valor is visible. Tt is certainly invisible in the rank-and-file. In the power of bearing fatigue, overcoming obstacles, and observing the strictest discipline and coolness under fire, no recent battles can be cited against our troops, not even Majaba Hill. Reverses will come to the very best of troops under certain conditions ; but a reverse is no proof of lack of valor, and it may very well be the contrary. He who risks much will sometimes lisk too much; but all war is a game of risks, and the men who cannot be inn duced to risk anything have lost their valor, not proved it. Neither in Afghanistan nor in England, neither in Egypt nor in the Soudan, has the British soldier forfeited a single one of the good qualities which have made him famous. He has been cool, steady, and brave, resisting at great odds, fighting with men notorious tor their contempt of death ; and, though he may have been surprised and slaughtered, he has never proved himself to be » poltroon or a coward. He has had to fight under novel conditions, hand-to-hand and toot-to-foot. and he has shown himself to be as courageous and as obstinate as ever Anyone who denies such facts will deny anything. There is every inducement to the officer and the private to be as true to our best traditions as ever The nation looks on admiringly ■ whenever any brave deed is recorded. The record comes quicker and more completely than it ever did before. A few honrs or days after a battle and we know all about it Nothing else is talked about in every Bri tish home. The names of the men who have achieved distinction are known to everybody. The merchant, the lawyer, and the divine—the shopman, the agricultural laborer, and the miner are familiarised with their names and deeds. A great thirst for details is manifest. The soldier knows it, and it steadies him in bearing misfortune, in braving fatigue, and in standing firmly and resolutely amid the rush and swarming of the foe. Rewards come quicker. There is no need to wait for the slow, cumbersome process whereby despatches formerly travelled in order to obtain information as to a battle and its incidents. It spreads by telegraph everywhere, and cheering messages can be sent to the victors and to the wounded ere the battle is forgotten. This close connection with the national heart this newer sense of national unity, this readiness to make fame quick and precious, cannot have any other than an excellent re- ! suit upon the individualities of our soldiers. They may be maligned and badly used by critics, by foreign rivals, or by cynics of all nationalities, but the solid fact remains , they can rely for justice and appreciation upon their own countrymen. To stand in a square at Waterloo while the French cuirassiers came thundering down upon them required no more courage than to stand or move in a square at Abu Klea or Gubat while hordes of rushing Arabs poured I upon them, like a storm of muddy water. For a time there was a little disorder at Abu : Klea, but there was no lack of valor. Our soldiers fought as gamely as on any other fiftld nf mnrlf»rn nr ftTHrMfinf. ti/npR.