TURKS AS FIGHTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 141, 1 November 1912, Page 8

TURKS AS FIGHTERS.

SOME REMINISCENCES. ; CHRISTCHURC'U RESIDENT'S EXPEI'.I KXCES.

Christehureh, October 28.

A Christchurch resident, who as a member of an ambulance organisation Raw some of the fighting in the TurkoRussian war of 1877, in the course of a conversation with a representative of the Press, narrated some of the more interesting personal experiences that befel him as a member of the Red Crescent Ambulance with Mie Turkish forces.

"I was upon a walking tour," ho said, "when I received notice that my application was accepted, and within 24 hours [ had abandoned my tour, gone to Urn- ] don, improvised an outfit, arranged business matters, got my passport, and had it vised at the Turkish and Russian Embassies and left by the night mail for Faris, travelling via Marseilles to Constantinople. Originally I was attached to the Red Cross Society, hut the funds 1 of that organisation being low we (the last-comers) were offered the choice on

arrival at Constantiuople of returning or transferring our services to the Red Crescent Society. We accepted the latter course. The Red Crescent Ambulance was collecting at Phillopopolis, and it proved a long wearisome process before leaving for the front. We put in several weeks of heavy work attending the patients in the hospitals and in public and private buildings scattered,in all parts of the city. During the hot; dreary days our chief relaxation was the bazaar, and we never tired of wandering about its mazy intricacies. "When the ambulance reached Orkhnnie the first of a series of waggons bringing the wounded from Plevna were 1 arriving, for three days and three nights 1 the procession of pain and death filed j sadly past, and the ambulances, ten in number, worked without intermission. One or the other would go away for a few minutes for a breath of fresh air, a 1 bite of food, or a few minutes' sleep, but ; the work was never stopped until all the wounded were attended to. They; were roughly classed into, first, those well enough to go on, and everything possible wss done for their comfort; second, those whose only chance of re- 1 covery was immediate removal to a temporary hospital; and third, those so near death that it seemed useless cruelty to disturb them. The patience of these Turks and their' endurance of suffering were marvellous. Let trained soldiers talk of their wonderful fighting qualities, the finest raw material in the world. I see them as they lay in the native hospitals, very often on the bare floor without even a blanket, still dressed in their uniforms, and absolutely uncared for; the Government ration served to one and all alike, regardless of their injury. Fancy throe hard biscuits and one pint of water night and morning, and no one to give any assistance! I have seen a man with a badly shattered jaw hungrily eyeing the bi«cuits. He could by no possibility eat; and there were othet similar scenes by the scores, but never did I hear any complaint.. It was 'Kismet' and the will of God and the Padishah; that was sufficient to account for and excuse everything. One sees at once why the Turks, brave, kind, patient, hospitable and intelligent, are a doomed ra«e. They have ceased to struggle against fate. "Kismet,' the» glorious word, the talisman that had led them so often to victory, leads no less surely to national apathy and extinction.

"Several months afterwards saw Plevna hopelessly beleaguered, and the two armies facing one another on the heights of Ivamasli. Skirmishes were almost a daily occurrence, and the ambulances were kept hard at work. Not infrequently in the course of events the English surgeons while dressing the wounded were left between the combatants, to the great admiration of the Turks, whose doctors kept modestly in the base hospitals. The weather was intensely cold, and there were heavy falls of snow. In our tents, with a fire always going, the brandy froze and the meat liad to be cut up with an axe. The roadsides I'were strewn with the bodies of men frozen to death. Up on the hilltops, 700 ft above us, and not less than 5000 ft above the sea-level, where the armies stood facing one another, the sentries were changed as often as every fifteen minutes. Yet as many as forty men per night would be found frozen to death at their stations. The Egyptian troops suffered terribly, as might be expected. In their longing to get away from the awful cold, they were ready to take almost any risk; one method adopted was self-mutilation. A hand would be placed over the muzzle of the rifle, the trigger worked with the foot,, and two 01* three fingers would be blown into space. These men at first were sent to the rear, but the evil grew to such an extent that one morning six of them were shot, and thereafter the ' practice ceased. It was not that the men were cowards, or that they couldnot bear pain, for they would stand and have their hands attended to, and amputations performed as found necessary, without flinching. The poor creatures were probably taken from the Equatorial districts and sent straight into Polar regions."

A cable ill the Sydney Sun last week states that Sir George Reid has returned to London from New York. In the course of an interview the High Commissioner remarked that among all classes in Canada admiration for Australia wa3 very marked. The preparations made by the Commonwealth for aid towards the defence of the Empire on sea and on land had deeply impressed the Canadian people. Sir George; was much struck by the immigration policy of the big Dominion, and it is understood, that he is recommending the appointment of Australian commercial agents in Canada and the United States similar to those at present occupying such positions in Europe.

Merrie England, according to a correspondent writing in a London paper, is a thing of the past. He deplores the strange custom which insists that one English holiday-maker shall not speak to another English holiday-maker until botli parties have been properly introduced by a mutual acquaintance. For seven days, just for the lack of that mutual acquaintance, he was doomed to isolation in the midst of people apparently of his own social standing and tastes. As a "way out," he suggests that fame is awaiting the town council that is the first to employ an official, a man of taste and understanding, who will introduce visitors to each other. He would, of course, choose his men with diplomacy, according to their varying degrees of taste and intelligence. Then: should be a companionship bureau in (Tvery holiday resort. Lonely visitors on their arrival would go to the bureau and fill in a card, giving particulars oi themselves, their likes and dislikes, anil warning as to their tender subjects. An official, after consulting the other cards, irould then introduce the visitor to other companions.