The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-22 00:00:00

INQUIItY INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF
THE EXPEDITION.

"A lie, a lie," is the ready answer to all charges of
mismanagement in the Crimea, but something more than
this easy contradiction is due to the public, to the autho-
rities concerned, and to the character of the country.
If a thousandth part of the mismanagement were charged
against a union workhouse or a gaol, there would forth-
with be a public inquiry into the facts, an the truth
would be put beyond doubt one way or other by the
weight of evidence. Is blame due ? and if due, where
due should be the question. No one has a right in
this case to be stoically indifferent to unmerited obloquy;
much less to accept it, for a false impression that the
troops are suffering grievously, and that thousands
have perished for want of care and proper manage-
ment, is a cruelty to their relatives and friends, and
a foul disgrace to their country in the eyes of the
whole world. Long ere this, steps should have been
taken to put the truth out of dispute or the shadow
of a doubt, either by a commission of inquiry, or
the personal inspection of a competent authority. There
are two War Ministers here at home, like the two kings
of Brantford, smelling at one nosegay, and one of them
might surely be spared to see with his own eyes the
state of the army before Sebastopol, and how its affairs
are conducted. A month would have been well em-
ployed on such a mission, and the result would either
have laid the foundation for a most important reforma-
tion, or would have disabused the public mind misled by,
prevailing reports, and thus have relieved it of its anxie-
ties and fears. This is not the occasion for the ministe-
rial beast of being thick-skinned, and careless of injus-
tice, for it is not only their repute that is concerned, but
the lives of thousands, and the feelings of many thou-
sands more to whom those lives are dear. The truth is
due to the country, due to humanity, and the truth must
appear in some form more substantial than mere contra-
diction. For official denials have lost credit with the
public, who have found them untrustworthy in so many
instances relating to the comforts and necessaries of the
men, and the treatment of the sick.
There has been no wilful untruth in these cases, but a
misplaced reliance upon the execution of orders, the home
authorities proposing and others disposing. A certain
place is said to be paved with good intentions, and pre-
eminently like it is Balaklava, the limbo of unsupplied
supplies, the huge dead package office, where all wanted
things lie rotting in cold obstruction. The excuse is
that only one ship can be unloaded at a time ; but if
private interests instead of public interests had been
concerned, can any one doubt that the sides of the basin
would have been scooped out, and wharves constructed?
And Lord Raglan knew what the capabilities of Bala-
klava were when he made it the basis of his position,
and chose it with the disadvantage of its very limited
space for unloading, if he did not see the way of obviat-
ing that difficulty. All the consequent sufferings should
therefore have been foreseen, and the much-vaunted
march to the south was, in effect, a march into this slough
of despond. Balaklava is literally the mouth of our army,
and if the mouth be too small to feed the body, all the
results have been the natural and necessary conse-
quences of the choice of the port, supposing that the de-
fect could not be remedied, which we exceedingly doubt.
But that was not all ; not only was the mouth tee small
for the body, but the threat soon became impracticable,
the road as bad as the landing. Yet the first reflection
that must have occurred to any observer capable of
reflection must have been, what will be the condition of
this road after a little wear, and with the first wet ?
What would be thought of the wits of any individual
who selected a port for his merchandise without sufficient
landing room, and who allowed the first winter rains to
turn his road into an impassable quagmire ? We must
not be told there was no choice ; there was choice, and
the choice was made, and with it were also chosen all
the necessary consequences and evils. If the eye of a
needle be selected as the archway for a camel, it can be
no wonder afterwards that the passage is somewhat too
strait for the purpose. But when the bad choice was
made for want of better, was there no help for it, sup-
posing that the port did not allow of enlargement ? We
have borrowed of our generous allies—borrowed help to
make a road, and to convey the sick, and could we not
have borrowed also the facilities of their well-ordered
commodious harbour and landing ? The interest was a
common one in the supplies necessary to the health and
efficiency of our troops.
Another excuse for the state to which the army has
been reduced is, that its strength has been overtasked
in constructing and manning works which require
the duty of every man in the trenches every other night
at least, while the French do not take their turn oftener
than once in 9 days, or thereabouts. Bnt this evil is
like the capability of Balaklava. The consequences of the
works too large for the troops should have been as much
foreseen, ies those of the port too small. And might not
our Allies have been fairly asked to take charge of the
part of the lines which exceeded the strength of our
army? If, instead of a separate command, the armies
had been under one head, this is au arrangement which
would have been made, as a matter of course, to equanee
the duties ; and the way to diminish the evils of a sepa-
rate command is to act in all practicable cases as if it
were undivided. When the armies were flrat disem-
barked, the English somewhat exceeded the French, and
probably when they broke ground before Sebastopol the
shares of the position were not unfairly assigned to the
respective forces ; but siace then the French have
doubled in number, while the English have dwindled
and declined, and this fact equitably calls for a redis-
tribution of the parts and readjustment of the toils.
It is because the English army has been tasked be-
yond its strength in manning extensive works that it has
not had the men to spare for labours for the supply of
its vital wants. For example, could troops be occupied
in making a road from Balaklava,l while the trenches
called for every man once at least in twenty-four hours,
and sometimes oftener ? And hence it is that stores
have been sent to Balaklava, to lie there to about as
much purpose as if they had been shot down a well or
into the sea.

There has been a scarcity of fuel to add the very worst
suffering to the other privations of the troops, while coal
fields abound at Heraclea, within easy distance by steam,
but it has probably been objected that coals in depot at
Balaklava would be almost as much out of reach of the
army as coals at Newcastle, the means of transport, for
three short leagues being wanted. Vegetables, so
essential to the health of the men are not to .be had,
though procurable within an easy distance by sea, and
no doubt for the same reason. The coffee is still
served out green, a cruel negligence for which there can
bo no pretext of excuse, after three months of com-
plaint. The general diet is salt pork, which conduces
to dysentery and other disorders of the bowels. The
huts have arrived, but do not find their way to the
ground where their shelter is so much needed. Some of
the warm clothing, the generous supply of which was so
much vaunted, has indeed been served out, and see the
account which the correspondent of the Morning Herald
gives of these comforts :
" I can hardly think that the authorities at home sent
out the things by way of a joke ; yet they never could have
sent them in the serious expectation that they would keep
the men warm. Each soldier has been supplied with one
flannel Guernsey shirt, one pair of gloves, two pair of
socks, and one woollen comforter. Now lam aware that
these things look well when only written down; but the
articles must be ' seen to be appreciated.' In the first
place, the flannel shirt is about the thickness of an ordi-
nary silk pocket-hankerchief, and will wear about ten
days or a fortnight. When it is gone, the men have had
their 'winter clothing,' and must do without the little
warmth it afforded as theybest can. The same remarks apply
to the socks. The gloves aro good, if they would only last ;
but for the work our men have they require at least five or
six pairs for the whole winter. But the crowning absurdity,
is the ' comforter !' It is a strip of very fine gaudily-
coloured wool, about two inches wide and three feet long,
about the size of an ordinary brace. Literally it would
not make a decent neck-tie for a child. It is useless for
the authorities at home to try and contradict what I have
now asserted. I have many of those articles in my
possession, and as specimens of ' winter clothing' for a
campaign they are certainly the greatest curiosities I have
seen in the Crimea. The officers laugh at the things, and
ask, is this really the supply about which so- much fuss
was made in England, and for sending which the home
authorities got such praise ? The men look on them with
perfect contempt and disgust, and willingly exchange
their whole stock of winter clothing' for one comfortable
bread-bag."

This representation may be true, or it may be false,
but the truth whatever it may be should be known.
" Pudet hnc dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli."
It will not do to trust that such statements are not
true, or to suppose them impossible in the teeth of evi-
dence, for unfortunately tho testimony comes in such
force and with such authority that it will not be refused.
An officer writes to Colonel E. Napier, so lately as the
Ist of the month, as fellows :
"The work our men go through is terrific. It is all
trench work, as guards ; our men are never more than
twenty-four hours out of the trenches, and often only
twelve. A man, for instance, parades at four p.m.,
marches down to the horrid trenches, remains there till
about six o'clock next morning, gets home about o'clock. When the weather is wet their sufferings seevian
tense—no cover, and the mud it is impossible to desacrriben;
they are so worn out that, if allowed, they lie dog in
the mud and sleep • bat our advanced trenches aroso m-
posed they dare notP be allowed to sleep, and it is heart-
breaking work to be obliged to go about kicking the poor
fellows up. More than once the Russians have sneaked
out, caught our men in the advance, and bayoneted them
asleep. So we are obliged to be on the look-out, being
within, at eight, I should say, 100 yards of their advanced
sentries; you can hear them talking perfectly. They are
a cunning lot. A short time ago they came out in force—
came up a ravine on our left—where the French ought to
have been, and, as we thought were. They talked
French, and throw our sentries off their guard, over-
powered them, and took our advanced work in reverse,
killing and wounding about forty. The guards in the
n
rn • trench came at them with the bayonet, under
aladdy, of the 50th, and drove them out in splendid Style.
Poor Moller, of the 50th, field-officer in the advanced
work, was killed, and two officers taken prisoners. The i
junior field-officer s always in advance, and requires to
keep a sharp look-out, I assure you. The sufferings of the
(of
_w_hic morn have had a great deal)
men in wet weather
are beyond description. Thising our state is as fol-
lows : 313
Rank and file fit for duty
134
Siek in camp ...............
Ditto, at Scutari, or IlelsklaTa 309

756
"If this goes On much longer we shall have no men left.
We have lost from cold, wet, and hanger, since landing,
152 men; our casualties in the trenches are wonderfully
few, only three killed, and about ten wounded.
You will be surprised to hear me talk of hunger, but
it is true ; our Commissariat is so badly organised that
the men often hnve had no meat for twenty-four hours;
often short supply of biscuit and coffee ; and when they
do arrive it is at such uncertain hours that they 'ever have
had, I may safely say, a regular meal since being
here. We are very badly off for fuel, the men having to
goda long way for the most miserable twigs ; often we have
ha to march strong fatigue parties to our port (Baleklava)
seven miles through mad to be seen only here, to bring up
their rations in their haversacks—cruel work for men
overworked in those trenches. Their boots are sucked off