“LOOKING AT WAR.”

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 June 1890, Page 5

“LOOKING AT WAR.”

MR DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY’S LECTURE.

Auckland, May 31. Mr David Christie Murray possesses in a remarkable degree the faculty of entertaining an audience. He is a capital raconteur and a clover elocutionist; while, at the same time, his more thrilling stories are toid with so much dramatic force that the interest of the audience increases to eagerness, and then, before the end of the tale is reached, the feelings of every listener ate worked up to quite a pitch of excitement. “Looking at War,” or “ The experiences of a special correspondent,” was the subject of the lecture last evening, and there was no question that the subject is one on which Mr Murray is admirably qualified to speak. Never before, perhaps, have I lie horrors of war and the attendant atrocities been so vividly por brayed to an Auckland audience as they were last night. Considering the nature ol the lecture, it appeared peculiarly fitting that rhe savagery of war should be denounced under the auspices of th-. Auckland Savage Club.

Mr Murray was received with applause. Referring to James Grant s “ Romance of Ward' he said that be wouid try to knock the sawdust out of that idiot- god War, and show what war really was like. Ue mentioned how he had been engaged to go out to the East during the RussoTurkish war as correspondent for the “ Chicago Times.’ Upon arriving at Constantinople, he learned that there had been a change of proprietors and he was no longer required. Ho was, however, at once engaged by the manager of the London “Times.” Describing Constantinople, the lecturer said that outwardly it seemed like the Prophet's dream of the New Jerusalem, hut inside it stank drearily. He found Oonsta .tinople in a state of siege, and seven ui incidents were related as to how the inhabitants were treated by their so-called defenders. Mr Murray stab- d that lie h id seen a Circassian, after boasting about the temper of his curved sword, step into the street and at one blow sever the head off a donkey’ that was being led past. He also witnessed a money changer robbed in the public street. The lecturer mentioned how he first metShipka Campbell in a cafeinConstantinople. An Irish German called out, “ Long life to the Sultan,” thinking that those present were Turks. They, however, proved to bo 1 Greeks, and a row ensued, in the course of which, Mr Murray said, he found reason to i thank his stars' that he had learned the art of self-defence under the Tipton slasher. There were about five men from the West of Europe, and close on 60 Greeks. Campbell cook charge of the expedition, and they succeeded in clearing the cafe and reaching their quarters in safety. Mr Murray next went to Adrianople in a train, which he stated went not much quicker than those he had travelled on in New Zealand. He found the city illuminated for victory, every dome and mosque being outlined in lire. The following day he saw the first fruits of victory in the arrival by train of two thousand wounded. It- was one jumble of human suffering. The men had been for three or four days unwashed and with their wounds undressed. They were conveyed to the Hospital in vehicles with eight wheels, and each wheel had eight corners, so that their sufferings might be imagined. As showing the incompetence of Turkish doctors, Mr Murray stated that at the Hospital he saw "Dr. Bond-Mooreset tlieleg of one of the wounded. Afterwards the head Turkish doctor came along, and, being curious as to the method of treatment, undid the bandages, broke the leg, and re-set the leg heel foremost, concluding the operation by using bandages steeped in undiluted carbolic acid. Of course the man died, and when Dr. BondMoo re learned what had been done he thrashed that Turkish doctor soundly and kicked him out of the Hospital. The doctor complained to Ibriham Pasha, who went to the Hospital and upon learning the true state of affairs, thrashed the Turkish doctor with his walking stick. The lecturer said that shortly after this incident ha proceeded in a reconnoitring train to a place about 60 miles from Adrianople, and there found that instead of a victory Raulf Pasha had sustained one of the most crushing and disastrous defeats in the whole history of warfare. Of the 17,000 men who went out, 2,000 wounded were sent in to the Hospital and he met tiic remainder returning. There were only 17 —Raulf Pasha and his stall—who owed their escape to the fact that tiiey were better mounted than the rest. Speaking of the Bulgarian atrocities, Mr Murray said that much had been made of these by political diplomatists. He went to the East, burning with indignation against the Turk, of sympathy for the Bulgarian Christians. He iiad returned full of admiration for the Turk, and filled with disgust at the so-called Eastern Christians. As he had the honour to distribute the Burdett-Coutts’ chariqy through Bulgaria he was enabled to pass where any other Englishman would have had his throat cut. He had seen the atrocities, and could state that they were committed by both Turk and Bulgarian. He had seen "the hand of a child of about five years of age. It had been lopped off, and still held a spelling book, so that it must have belonged to the Christians. Eastern vengeance was still the same as it was when the Scriptures were written. They smote hip and thigh, man, woman, and child, and razed the very walls of the cities. In one vineyard he had counted 1,200 bodies of people who 'had been massacred — men, women, and children. He had learned to loathe the Eastern Christian. The true Turk was the husband of one wife, sober, truthful, absolutely honest, and of undoubted courage. On the other hand, the Eastern Chri-tian was not admirable. He was the dirtiest rascal unhung, with no morals, a cheat from his cradle, and a coward to his bones. Mr Murray next described how, in one village, when the Russian Cossacks approached, the Turks went out to drive them back. They succeeded, and upon returning found' that their Bulgarian Christian neighbours had massacred all their aged, and the women and children left at home. He was sorry to state that the enraged Turks retaliated in the same dreadful manner. He did, however, see one incident at this village which was about the only Romance of War he had witnessed. About 20 Turks were sitting in a group, and the head man had in his arms a baby. He was told that this was the child of the leader of the Bulgarian Christians, who had slaughtered the wives and children of these Turks. Returning from the slaughter, the child was heard crying in a blazing house, and was rescued by the Sheik at the risk of his own life. The Turk had laid his hand on the head of that child and said, ‘‘He is the gift of God; I will bring him up and make a good man and a good Turk of him.” Speaking of Shipka Pass, Mr Murray said that war was less interesting than it was imagined to be. Qne pf the dullest months of his life was at Shipka Pass, while the great artillery duel was proceeding. He was with Shipka Campbell, and saw him do an net of daring coolness. A portion of the

embankment had given way and left an exposed place. When anyone passed a perfect storm of bullets shattered on the stone wall, until it had become whitened with the lead. Campbell invited him to pass this spot, but lie declined. Shipka Campbell explained that it took 2£ seconds for the bullet to cross the intervening space, whilst they might run across the break in less time. Campbell rushed across, and vva® followed by a hailstorm of bullets. As he saw that Campbell was unhurt, be ran across himself, and only had some 30 bullets fired at him. Campbell then deliberately sat down and sketched the fortifications on the other side, although every time he peeped over the embankment he was saluted with a shower of bullets. Mr Murray told in graphic language how a few days later Campbell took Shipka Crag, but being betrayed by Sullieman Pasha wa? compelled to retire again. Afterwards Sullieman Pasha sent up 60,000 men to take that Crag and 12,000 were shot down in two hours. The lecturer then launched into an invective against this traitor, who, though a cousin of the Sultan, betrayed Osman Pasha at Plevna, Mehemeo Ali, and all others with whom he was connected. He had arranged with the Russians that they should leave the country to the Balkans, whilst the Sultan was to be deposed, iind lie was to have his throne. It all came out afterwards, but of course the Russians denied that such an arrangement had existed, and Sullieman Pasha died a shameful and horrible death in prison. Mr Murray next recited the “ Story of Mr King,” and gave a harrowing description ol the condition of the wounded in the Hospital in Plevna, paying a tributa to Dr. Charles Rvan (now of Melbourne), who laboured there for months, and also to the good work done by Lady Strangford and the Baroness Yon Rosen, in the Hospital at Sofia.

In concluding Mr Murray said he had a vision. Australia would federate and form another English-speaking nation. Canadand New Zealand would ultimately do like wise. Then these right-thinking English• speakingnations, which would, ofcourse, include the United States, would unite in one magnificent Anglo-Saxon Confederation and fulfil the offices of a police force for the world ; and at their bidding war must cease. They would bo able to say to any prowling Power, “ touch that weakling and you perish.” Such a power as that would be in the hands of that English-speaking confederation. Mr Murray closed an eloquent peroration by quoting the following lines from Longfellow : “ Down the dark future, through long gen-

erations. The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cense * And, like ’ a bell, with solemn sweet vibra-

tions, I hear once more the voice of Christ say 'Peace.' ”

The lecturer added, “God hasten the hour. I pray and trust that is the wish of all of us.”