THE TURKISH SOLDIER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 166, 30 November 1912, Page 4

THE TURKISH SOLDIER

A ■niitoi in the London Spectator discussing the Turk as a soldier points out that ho is lacking in anything like elan. But. as a matter of fact, the Turkish soldier is slow-very slow. His slowness is at once his chief defect and the outward and visible sign of his chief merit. His merit is that he does not care. A man who does not care whether he is killed or not is obviously bad to beat. On the other hand, his indifference extends injuriously to matters which vitally affect the issue of strategy and tactics. The potent fluctuations and reverses of temperament which mark the soldier of subtle races races with a juore complicated nervous system—are unknown to the Turk. The classified "French frenzy" v.hieh the Italians used to fear is not a phenomenon known to the Turkish battlefields. The Turk is no berseker. He might, indeed, if he had lived in the Norseland of a former age, have fought without armor, but he would have done so, not because he felt that to fight without protection was suitable to the dienity of the "berseker rage," but because he (lul not mind whether lie was protected or not. If the Turk does not go fast, he never goes so slow as to stop One has heard of cases of European troops who charged towards the enemy in a huricane of exhilaration, but who having been ordered to stop and lie! down, could not be persuaded to get up and go on. The passion had passed. A disastrous contemplation of the risks had got to work. Englishmen probably fight more successfully thau any other nation without passion, because they will move very rapidly when necessary, and will carry out a daring scheme exactly as it was planned, because the planning was done not in a heady flight of excitement, but with a cool appreciation of the dangers. The Turk is a fatalist. Zones of fire have no thrilling significance for him. If he is to be preserved he will be preserved; if he is to be killed, he will "be ajul in that case will enjoy his reward from Allah.