The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-07-27

A COwardly and Degraded Regu-
lar Wh0 Fears Fire.
CPall Mall Gazette

lar Wh0 Fears Fire.
Pail Mall Gazette.1
We have received the following
from a correspondent who has had
considerable experience in eastern
wars: "a not unimportaRt element
in the consideration of the Egyptian
question is the value OF the Arab as
fighting material. Of the courage
of the wretches who beat out the
brains of SO many Europeans caught
by surprise and unarmed in the late
Alexandria riots, one may judge by
an incident which took place in the
course of them. On the great square
of Alexandria some 200 of these
patriotic professors against the rule
of the foreigner was engaged in
hunting Europeans, when four at
tendants of the tribunal rushed out
of their sanctuary with drawn
swords, and the whole 200 took to
precipitate flight, leaving the square
empty of all but the dead and the
wounded and the four messengers
of justice. Without some firm as
surance of the support of mustafiz
or nizam it is quite certain that none
of the rabble would ever have dared
to raise q hand against q foreigner.
A kourbssh is quite enough for the
courage of the Egyptian on any or
binary occasion. AS a soldier, the
bloody regime of Mehemet Ali has
given him a prestige, which, like
the scent of the roses fingers
long after the organization is
shattered. 1t is true that once
Egyptian soldiers defeated Turkish,
but the latter were in q
much lower state of discipline than
now, while the former were ruled
with vigor OF which-the following
incident, related by q veteran who
remembered Mehemet Ali, will give
an example,: A milk woman came
to the pasha one day complaining
that one of his soldiers had robbed
her of the milk she wss bringing to
to camp. The soldier was identi-
fed and denied having taken the
milk. "What did he do with it?"
asked the pasha. Drank it," was
the reply. At a sign the mans head
was off his body, and his stomach,
being opened, was found full of
milk. &C.," said the pashs to the
Mortified milkwoman, paying her the
value of the milk, "but if he had not
taken it your head would have paid
for it."
Needless to say, this Draconian
rule has long since passed away, and
the Egyptian soldier of to-day is,
perhaps, the most cowardly and de-
graded regular in existence. In the
late RussO-Turkish war they could
not be brought to face fire, and were
kept in reserve for depot duty. In
the Cretan instruction of 1866 the
viceroy's guard was sent to the
island to aid in the subjugation of
the Christians. but ON the first en-
counter 1000 of them, attacked in an
entrenched position by about 1900
alarmed Cretans, were driven into
their entertainments, their access
to the water sources were cut
off, and they surrendered uncondi-
tionally after the defeat of another
division, which had marched to
their relief-the total being 5000
men, with artillery, and considered
the best troops in the Egyptian army,
In a subsequent battle under Niche.
met Kiritly Pasha, when the Egyp.
tians were to cover the retreat OF
the main army, they broke and fed
precipitately at the first attack OF
Insurgents, and squads of them, lost
in the complicated by-ways and
broken ground of the pass of Krapi,
threw down their arms and were
butchered without resistance by the
Cretans. At the assault of the con.
vent of Arkadi the only use the
Egyptians could be put to was to be
put in front with the bayonets of the
Turkish regulars behind them and
no alternative of safety. They were
IN this way driven into the breach
covering the Turks by their bodies
This was the testimony of one of the
Italian officers in command of them
than for the Cretans to send an
Egyptian prisoner away contemptu-
ously, saying that it was like butch.
ering sheep to kill the Egyptians
They are capable only of the simplest
evolutions, and their officers know
little more of the science of wal
than the privates. The former are
fond of fine uniforms and gewgawry
but they actually are never exer.
cised in any movements Of warfare
there is no conception of Organiza'
ton, and If q necessity arose for
action it is not too much to say thai
the soldiers could not find their car.
tridges, the officers their commissa-
riat, nor the commanders theil
officers. Nothing but the most In.
conceivable blunders could ever
give them military advantage, and
the slightest menance toward q
f1anking movement would put the
entire army to route without firing
a shot. A division from India land
ing at Suez and marching on Cairo
would see the defenders Of Alexsua-
dria in instant retreat, and the dis
tribution of q few pounds would sci
the whole of the Bedouin tribes tC
plundering the regulars. With the
exception of the Copts and small
number of the better classes of the
inhabitants of lower Egypt, there il
nothing to form a self-governins
nation; while anything like repre-
sentative government or military
efficiency must be the result of gene
ratiOns of deVelODmento