The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-21
KILLING TIE WOUNDED.

| The British army, too, has troubles
of it's own. The London Chronicle. Man
chester Guardian and other influential
Journals are talking wildly about
atrocities in the Soudan,' and urging
the necessity of an investigation to vim
dictate the honor of British arms. The
proVerb that there is no list of wounded
| IN the report Of enenys casualties in
the Soudan, is as old as the battle of Tel
| Ell kebir, when Sir Garnet WolseIey de-
| feated Arab Pacha, in 1882 But the
cause OF the recent hubbub is an article
written for the Contemporary Review
by MI Bennett, fellow and lecturer of
Hartford College, Oxford University.
who went to the Soudan to make collec-
lions of insects and copy the inscrip-
lions of the temples of Meroe In order
to enlarge his facilities for work, he
got commission of correspondent for
the Westminster Gazette of London.
and marched with the army. What he
said in his magazine article he has
backed up, though in more guarded lam
guage, by the publication of a book.
startling. He declares not only that the
dervish wounded were massacred by
Egyptian soldiers, but by white British
soldiers as well, and moreover, that the
order of determination was given by the
sidar, Gen. Lord Kitchener himself;
that such wounded dervishes as escaped
the slaughter were cruelty left to die in
the clustering desert sun without the
| slightest effort upon the part of the we'll
equipped Anglo-Egyptian medical corps
to alleviate their sufferings; that the
| city of Omdurman was delivered IN to
the victorious battalions to pillage; that
non-combatants We're robbed, assaulted
and outraged; that the artillery was re-
morselessly turned upon a horde of hap
| less fugitives from the city and hun
| dreds of non-combatants were moved
down; that the bombardment of the
| mahdi's tomb and the elimination of
his body, which was afterwards behead-
| ed and cast into the Nile, was sheer
vandalism and barbarity, which should
bring blush to the face of every
AngloSaxon.
1t would seem that there was reason
enough for investigation and for the in
dignation of the sirdar who denies that
any order of massacre issued from him.
Other correspondents declare that thew
never heard of the sirdar's alleged or
der, and they do not believe one was
given, They also sneer at Mr.. Bennett
! as neophyte in war reporting. that he
did not so over the field as thew did
that he was unfamiliar with the real
character of war and is just discovering
that war is hell and finally that he
has not only exaggerated but misre
ported the important facts 1t is made
! tolerably clear that Mr. Bennett wa
persona non grata both to army officers
and correspondents, and that he wasted
no love either on them or on the sirdar
himself.
| But what are the facts? There is no
! dispute as to the killing of wounded
dervishes. English soldiers have told of
1T and correspondents admitted it, I'll
was military necessity for the pro-
lection of the Anglo-E Egyptians. The
Arabs asked no quarter and gave none.
Even while their own life blood was
eoplnS away, they would shoot officers
and men in the back. stab or shoot sur
geons and hospital attendants and in
| general were scarcely less dangerous
when wounded than when rushing en-
masse upon the British line of battle
The defense is, however, that the
wounded derVishes were not indiscrin
inately slaughtered, but only those who
gave evidence of treachery and fight
We're dispatched by shot or bayonet as
was most convenient; and many wound
ed dervishes were treated by British
surgeons.
| Other correspondents deny that there
was any such general looting of ON
durham or any such slaughter of non
combatants, women and children. as
Mr.. Bennett describes. A few natives
and a few Soudanese and Egyptians got
loose and made trouble. but these ex-
cesses were stopped. The wanton bonn
bardment, which Mr.. Bennett says was
wanton, did not cause the death of Mr.
Howard of the New York Herald. as no
| p
Grafton of the inahdis tomb was a, ne
cessity in order to convince the natives
that their late prophet chad no divine
mission" I'm Mohammedan belief, the
removal of the head will greatly puzzle
Azrael when he flies abroad to summon
the dead to judgment"
1t is notorious fact, that the mahdi's
pretence at the supernatural gave him
his Wonderful power over the Arabs.
and to expose him as an impostor was
to destroy the last vestige of the power
of his successors. Appalling as is the
story Of war in the Soudan, even when
told in the softest terms, it is only a
sample of the horrors of war waged bv
colonizing powers upon savages, "the
f. British, French, German nor Italian arc
exempt from criticism.