The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-07 00:00:00

TRE TURKISH CONTINGENT.

KERTCH, Nov. 2G.—The arrival of this force at
this late season puts an end to the slightest chance
of active operations this year on their part against
the enemy. General Vivian, instead of heedlessly
wasting most precious time in the delicious halls
and bowers of the Russian summer palace on the
banks of the Bosphorus during the summer months,
now comes forth with his men to ensconce them
for the winter in the Crimea. Most are still under
canvas. Snow has set in, and the Turkish Con-
tingent will he housed and hutted probably next
January. In the meanwhile sickness and the in-
clemency of the weather will do its ,work of deci-
mation, far greater than the sword of the hussar or
the lance of the cossack, who occasionally show in
the neighbourhood. Lieutenant-General Vivian,
no-doubt, while Adjutant-General of the Madras
Army, was most efficient at the red-tape and pen-
and-paper business ; but the utter waste and reck-
lessness incurred in this force completely place his
capabilities and ideas on a par with those of the
ancient race of generals of 1793, who lel tlieir men
to disgrace and defeat.
No wonder that robbery, rape, and plundering
of all description have become the order of the day
in Kertch, from the indecision and wish on the part
of the Lieutenant-General to soothe a few old
Pashas, by overlooking the most horrible'atrocities
ever corrmitted by the hand of mau on the part of
the Osmanli soldiers now belonging to the Turkish
Contingent.
What little remained of Kertch, from its first
sack by the Allies, once one of the most beautiful
towns in the universe, is now a scene of the greatest
misery and desolation, from the atrocious and
villanons excesses of every description by the troops
under n. -Vivian=-4hearoerfe-estVidooting -of the
best houses torn up and burned for sheer want"n-
ness and a passion for destroying property which
ought to have been available for a future day.
The arrival from Buyukdere of a fresh supply of
those heroes was the signal for a fresh display of
the same conduct, consisting of every crime in the
calendar, on the unfortunate few of the poor resi-
dents who could not escape with their more fortu-
nate neighbours to a secure place of safety. A
minute portion of some of their soldier-like propen-
sities I will now relate for the edification of John
Bull, who has the gratification of paying for those
scoundrels.

A few evenings back two of those heroes, a cap-
tain and a private, attacked a small house occupied
by two old ladies above 60 years of age, and plun-
dered them of all the money and valuables they
possessed. They then attempted a horrible crime,
when, an alarm being given, they escaped with their
spoil. The next day the fellows came again, when
an outcry being raised, one scoundrel drew his
sabre, and cut one poor woman's head asunder,
while the other smashed her skull with a huge
stone. The wretched woman being released from
her misery in a very short time, the fellows made
towards their camp as if nothing occurred, no looker
on daring to notice it for fear of meeting the same
doom. Thosemurderersbelongedtearegimentof the
Contingent that arrived only a few days back from.
Buyukdere, and, though officially reported at head-
quarters to the Deputy Adjutant-General, Turkish
Contingent, Lieut.-Colonel (local) Crewe, a captain
in the Madras army, no notice or endeaTours what-
ever were taken to find out the assassins, though
this gallant officer of the Madras army, who never
saw a shot fired during his career, if he perceived
an officer out of regimentals in the camp dr street,
would order bim to return at once to his quarters,
under pain of being placed in arrest and ,reported
to the Lieut.-General commanding, making a fuss
perfectly ridiculous to soldiers, while no notice is
taken of assassins such as I have described.

It is well known that the wealthy portion of the
Russians inter their dead with their rings and jewel-
lery attached to their persons, and it was brough t
under the notice of the authorities that the graves
and tombs in the burial-grounds were exhumed
and the dead bodies exposed to every indignity by
the atrocious rapacity of the Turkish soldiers re-
cently arrived. A small picket of the 71st High-
land light infantry, a corporal and six men-250 of
whom are quartered in Kertch—were patrolling
the town near the churchyard the same evening
the woman was murdered, when they were fired
upon by those sacrilegious vampires ; they soon re-
turned the fire, killing a yuz Bashi on the spot and
wounding others. Not the least notice was taken
by the contingent authorities of the conduct of
those men, unless to hush the affair, if pospible,
from becoming public ; while the necmommissioned
officer and men of the 71st, for -their gallant con-
duct, were thanked in regimental orders. The
morning after this affair, Reschid Pacha, who com-
manded a brigade of Turks previous to General
Vivian's arrival, had the consummate impertinence
to send his interpreter with a written order to
Captain Hope, commanding the 71st, to place the
picket in close arrest, previous to their being tried
by a court-martial for shooting one of his officers.
The gallant captain, the momeht he read the order,
crumpled it up, stating to the interpreter there
was no answer, but to tell the Pacha how he treated
his orders, and would continue to do the same with
any others he might send on the subject. Peaceful
measures with these demi-savages will never teach
them their duty towards society—nothing, I am
convinced, but the strong iron hand of military
discipline held over them will ever bring them to
order. No temporising ,or half-measures of mis-
placed affected feeling towards a Turk can make
him act towards you in any other way than a half-
suspicious feeling that you have some design to-
wards him, to better yourself out of his superiority
as a human being—a fellow little better in intel-
lect than the larger species of a baboon, as far as
his moral or human feelings go, where a Christian
is concerned.
A slight commotion was caused in the market-

place of Kertch on Friday last. The circumstances
are as follow :—The provost marshal, Major
Guernsey, and the commandant of the siege de-
fences Major Hill, R.A., were walking in the
neighbourhood of the chief pay-office on the heights
of Kertch, the former looking oat, as was his duty,
for squalls—or, vulgarly speaking, to see what was
going on, in the vicinity of the late dreadful mur-
der. At some distance CT, on a hill, ho espied
five Turkish soldiers suspiciously watching a house
belonging to an old man, a Russian, and five chil-
dren ; they soon entered, and, as usual, commenced
knocking down the man and children, putting them
in fear of their life ; then plundering became the
order of the day. The provost-marshal coming up
to the house changed the scene. Two of the fel-
lows, coming out of the gateway laden with the
spoil, immediately dropped it and bolted ; the
other three were caught in a trap in the yard, with
all the articles they could carry away ; two of them
escaped, but the third wal secured by the provost-
marshal, arid taken to the guard, where he re-
ceived three dozen lashes, which he most richly
deserved, amidst a commotion of Turkish officers
and soldiers, of all descriptions and grades, who
appeared dreadfully annoyed that this person was
not allowed to go free as they wished—for as to knock-
ing down an old man and children, putting aside
a little louting, in their eyes constituted no crime.
However, the chief leader of the mob outside the
prison was a captain of the same regiment, the 7th
Turkish Contingent, quartered at Fort Paul, near
five miles off from where the delinquents were
caught. After the fellow received his punishment
he was let free, when an attack was made by a mob
of over three hundred, headsd by the above offiCer
with a drawn sword ; ston throwing and other
missiles were vented,on the unfortunate provost-
marshal and his assistants, who were knocked down,
and would to a certainty have been murdered on
the spot, if the former, with a presence of mind as
cool (as the saying is) as a cucumber, had not pulled
his revolver out, and, covering a fellow that nearly
broke his arm with a stone, shot him through the
lungs—repeating the dose to two other indivi-
duals by clipping a fellow's ear and shooting
a Turkish soldier through the neck, which nearly
settled him. The valiant heroes soon cleared the
streets. The captain, who caused the row, threw
himself flat on the ground the moment he saw
Major Guernsey's pistol pointed towards him, who
had magnanimity enough not to shoot the scoun-
drel as he lay on his back floundering like a turtle
cut from
.R.A.,
and growling for mercy ; he merely took his sword
and broke it. The provost-marshal was wounded
in in the head and his arm nearly broken ; One of his
serjeants was cut and bruised ; a corporal of the
71st The a
alsoffra hadaffray
was
ahsi s
witnesseda rm severely
bymaujtor f
Captain 'See. Swaby, 39th Regt., Major F. Miller,
80th Regt., and Captain Walker, of the East India
Company's service, who all deposed before a court
of inquiry that, but for the coolness and intt4epidity
of that officer, all the Europeans would have been
murdered on the spot to a moral certainty. He
only acted in self.defence, and they would have
done the same. Indeed the latter officer, riding
up at the moment, cut down a Turk with his
sword, while in the act of felling one of the ser-
jeants with a stone.
Now what follows is a sad reflection on giving
unlimited power to parties not, I may Bay, baying

common sense to command themselves, let alone a
body of men, to say the least of them, as I have
already stated, little better. than demi-savages, as
they proved themselves. The officer who is in per-
formance of his duty, outrageously assaulted by a
mob of plunderers miles from their cantonments—
saving his own life and those of others around him—
is immediately placed in arrest for seven days, and
.then coolly informed by the Deputy Adjutant-
General that the Lieut.-General Commanding can-
not; allow Whim to serve with this force any longer,
and that 'he .must leave for England-at once, and
present himself to Lord Panmure for his decision
of the else, who it his hoped will take a more honest
and just view of it than Getieral Vivian. The
officers of the contingent are highly incensed at the
decision given against Major Guernsey. He bears
with him letters from most of the officers of rank
in the force, approving of his conduct, regretting
his loss, and indignant at the injustice done him.
Not a sentence breathed of Major Guernsey's
case in the general orders-OTT:MY ; but iu a few
days a letter is sent to the generals of division, &c.,
requesting them to read it to all the officers under
their command. The purport of it is that General
Vivian requests and commands that no officer will
draw his sword for the future ou any Turk, under
any circumstances; but if they commit a crime,
their regiment is to be found out, and they are to
be handed over for punishment. The Turks being
now aware of such an order, place it all to fear,
and act accordingly.
Turkish prejudices, more especially when mixed
up with them politically, are to be viewed in a dif-
ferent light than when large bodies of troops are
congregated together, such as are at present in
Kertch, &c., consisting of material scraped to-
gether from all parts of the Ottoman empire. In-
atead of our bending to suit their ideas, half bar-
barous, it should be the object of the officer in
command, as far as compatible with the order of
things, to bend them to the form of the civilised
portion of the army of the two great nations doing
duty in Kortch and its vicinity. General Vivian
may rest assured—and it is the opinion of the
principal generals and officers under his command
—that his soothing system, of letting no European
whatever interfere for the future with the Turks,

as far as punishment goes, for any crime, will go
far to render the force nugatory and useless. Their
own officers, from their highest paella downwards,
are men so ignorant that, if he got the Sultan's do-
minions, one of them could not sign his name. An
English officer would be ashamed to be seen in a
tent with one of them, so degraded, and vile, and
lost to all decency are the characters of those men,
more especially when we know and rest assured
that the source of their appointment proceeded
originally from a calling so disgusting and so pol:

lilted that it can hardly be named or even hinted
at. Such are the proteges to be brought under-
British rule by mild treatment. I can give the
opinion of a French officer who witnessed the
affray with the provost marshal. If, says he, a
French officer were treated in a similar manner to
your provost marshal, more especially in the exe-
cution of his duty,. I should feel degraded if I did
not order out every man of the French army in
Kertch, and decimate them on the spot, for inter-
fering with justice. The destruction of public pro-
perty fresh from England is disgraceful in the
extreme ; only within the last week I witnessed
such havoc and waste that it is high time John
Bull should open his eyes to the facts. At Fort
St. Paul I witnessed the landing of 700 sheep on
the beach, per the Tynemouth, from Constantino-
ple, ordered there by the command of Captain
Hall, of the Miranda frigate. No person was pre-
sent to receive them ; the consequence was, that
nearly one half of them wore lost (Captain Hall's
duty seems to be chiefly riding with an aide-de-
camp two government horses, provided by order
of General Vivian, through the streets of Kertch)
by the negligence of giving an order for the com-
missariat to receive them. The same vessel brought
up 300 bags of barley, which were landed on the
beach. No person ever came to receive them. I
saw a lot of Turks, each with a horse, the next day
feeding out of sacks ; after they had finished, the
remaining portion was thrown away, so that out of
300 bags only 120 remained untouched. Any per-
son walking on the beach for the last fortnight
could have perceived several cases of medicine, ex-
posed to every danger, addressed "The Inspector-
General, Turkish Contingent ; " there they remain,
and are likely to remain. The same remark ap-
plies to the purveyor's stores. I witnessed several
cases of lamps lying in the same condition, the
cases burst opstc• an& any one that chose helping
himself to what he pleased. Now, instead of Gen.
Vivian showing off through the streets of Kertch
daily, with a guard or escort of Turkish Lancers,
if ho would give his attention to these trifles, he
would far better serve his men and the country,
that employs him. In Madras he never saw ser-
vice, and it is very unlikely while ho is employed
here that he will ever have the chance of seeing a
shot fired, with his Brummagen brigadiers, as Sir
Colin Campbell most felicitously designated them.
Major-Gen. Shirley arrived here a fortnight back
with the cavalry of the contingent, and after re-
maining this length of time and losing several of
the best horses, it is now found out there is no
stabling or forage for them in Kertch. They are
at last ordered to Eupatoria, where it is pretty
certain they will be hardly allowed to land, and
they will most probably proceed to Buyukdere or
Varna. Surely such wanton waste of public money
must be put an end to—there is no denying it.
The head-quarter staff of the contingent are ineffi-
cient, and not up to their work. General Vivian no
doubt must have been delighted to have pleased
and promoted his friends from the Madras Army ;
but if the country pays for service supposed to be
rendered, it ought to have the best men for the
money it affords. His staff at head-quarters con-
sists of the following, where they came from being
stated: —Deputy Adjutant-General, Lieutenant-
Colonel Crewe, captain Madras Army ; Assistant
Adjutant-General, Major Goldsmid, lieutenant,
Madras Army • Deputy Assistant Adjutant-Gene-
ral, Captain Hearne, lieutenant Madras Army ;
Assistant Deputy Quartermaster-General, Major
J. Lather Vaughan, lieutenant, Madras Army ;
Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, Captain
J. L. Parry, lieutenant, Madras Army. All the
brigadiers are from the Indian army, the last pro-
moted
is Paymaster of Warley Barracks, and one
of the Generals of Division is an Indian officer,
who commanded a company in Burmah two years
back, but never was under fire in his life. One of
those staff gentlemen, who got himself made a
Pacha some weeks ago by a commission from the
Sultan, to flatter his vanity, had the good taste
and feeling to express publicly at Missiri's Hotel,
Constantinople, a short time back, that Lord Pan-
mure had no right whatever to appoint an officer
from the Queen's service. Having that opinion
surely discretion should have made him keep it to
himself. It certainly was rather an awkward
expression to use. However, the officers of the
Queen's army present treated it as it deserved.
Constituted as at present, the Turkish Contingent
can never repay the money expended on it in any
one way. At a future period I will give you a
further detail of its proceedings in Kertch.