THE TURKISH CAMP AND TROOPS AT SHUMLA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5118, 18 August 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE TURKISH CAMP AND TROOPS AT SHUMLA.

(From the London Times' correspondent.)

The sight of the camp itself is an interesting one. Innumerable white bell-shaped tents, interspersed with the green ones of the superior officers, are clustered about all over the vast hollow in the natural amphitheatre of the mountains.- The sound of bugles all over the plain breaks the stillness of a lovely summer's evening, and from all parts men are coming at the double to fetch their rations from the kitchen camp 3on the left of the road. As it is Friday (the Turkish Sunday), there is an extra treat in the way. of a pilauf of boiled rice, with just a suspicion of minced lamb among it. On ordluary days there i 3 " chaba" —that is, rice, water, and fat for breakfast, and supper too. This mess is eaten with black bread, of 'which two small loaves, weighing half an oke each, are served to each man daily. Shumla, in addition to its natural strength, is strongly fortified—is in the opinion of many men impregnable. It certainly appears to be so to the general observer., To my mind it appears capable of affording accommodation for a large army to be shut tip in and be useless to their Sallow-countrymen. . I will now permit myself to say a word or two upon the general appearance and characteristics ©f this army. To begin with, I have everywhere found the rank and file sound. Take your samples wheresoever you like—either from the Egyptians at Varna, the Arab 3 at Kustcbuk, or the mixed races here, among cavalry, artillery, or infantry, and the result is the same. You get tough, broad-shouldered, patient-looking, and obedient soldiers. They have their vices, but their especial strength | lies in their perfect sobriety. With a camp of, I will not say how many men, but with a great camp like this, overwhelming this little town, the grog-shops are simply being ruined, because there is no business, and the streets are as quiet as the city of London on a Sunday afternoon. I have seen other armies, and not one that I have known had that virtue. In this respect our friends across the Danube are very heavily handicapped. Thus, among the Russians being marched into the trains at Bucharest the other day, I counted seven staggering men at 8 in the morning, the officers took no notice whatever of tJaeir condition. So much for the Turkish p;£va,tej who is as good a piece of raw stuff to make an army out of as the most exacting, martinet would wish to handle. But they- do not fornv an army yet. The officers do, not impress one at all favorably, partly because most of them ar'eevidently new to fch*ir- business, two out of three having been newly promoted from the ranks without any previous training, and partly from the almost total absence of that " gentlemanly"' bearing which more or less, seta its-stamp upon men holding a commission in. most European armies. Many of the Sultan's officers seem to be so many good privates spoilt. They are also much given to the consumption ©f "mastic" and innumerable tiny cups ef black coffee. Mastic is a sort of Turkish imitation of absinthe, and is; I aia informed, even more deleterious in its effects. Not that I have ever Been, an, officer, exactly tfriViik.