Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
IMPULSE OF SOLDIERS.

The Sultan's Punishment of Officers
Who Gave Way to Fear.
From the Army and Navy Journal.
The sultan's decree of exile against the
officers Of the army that broke the WIN
dows Of the palace they were in in trying
to get out at the time OF the recent earth
quake in Turkey, brings up the interesting
question of how far such acts Of fear.
should be punished. In fact, our Paris con-
temporary, La France Miitaire, mentions
an officer Of high rank who has maintained
that such displays Of alleged cowardice are
no more to be reprehended than lying. This
officer, who Is himself a model Of military
scrupulosity. admits that the man of war
ought, of course to respect his word and
never fail in honor but there are occasions,
he points out, where it is not only praise
worthy not to tell the truth, but where 1t
is actually Indispensable to conceal 1t, If
only to deceive the enemy to give conf
dence to ones own troops.
Napoleon never had any scruples against
proclaiming himself victorious, even when
he had been half beaten. He did not fail
in his bulletins to swell his electives. to
give jneXact figures of his losses and OF
the losses Of the enemy. He never hesi-
tated to present matters in the light that
would be the most favorable to the dece1y-
ing of the world. In the matter of bravery
he had himself given many examples OF
signal courage, and while Valulng h1ghly
this soldierly attribute he did not place it
in the first rank Of military virtues. He
knew that bravery suffered eclipSes, that
the nerves have part in the attitude one
shows under fire. and that there are mo-
ments when the most intrepid feel their
old carcass shake" as one old warrior used
to say
So this French officer takes up the cudgels
for the Turkish officers and inveighS
against condemning pitilessly those who
yield to a passing seizure of spirit attrib
utable to some phySiologic crisis. He cites
an incident at the military camp at Cha
Ions, where an officer was killed instantly
by stroke of lightning, and another off,
Ger witnessing it was so overcome by the
awfulneSs of the event that he fled and hid
under bed. Not even the intervention OF
brother officers was sufficient to make him
come out from his retreat. The colonel was
so moved by this display Of fear that he
had the man dismissed.
While freely admitting the susceptibility
of men to sudden impulses, In sense be-
yond their control, still, severe discipline,
bringing with it the fear of punishment.
can create in them habits of body and
mind that in time come to be second ma
ture and instincts in certain sense new.
The danger of yielding to these momen-
tary feelings lies in the results that may
flow from panic and the force of example.
One man by losing his grip before the en-
envy may endanger a whole army. 1t was
probably with this feeling the sultan found
his officers state of mind In the face of an
earthquake reprehenSible. Still, there are
IdCtS Oh seeming COWdIuiCc THAI really
the manifestations of the most commend
able prudence. One can conceive of no bet
ter time for a person to seek to leave
building than during earthquake, and
unless the act Of the Turkish officers COM
promised the safety Of others it is hard 20
see the justice Of the sultan's order of
exile. 1t may be that this punishment will
in the end be injurious to the Turkish
army, for there Is always a cleanly marked
line between cowardice and prudence.
One needs but to read the accounts of
the foolhardiness of British officers who in
and make himself unprotected mark
for the enemy's bullets. One of the excel
lent results of the Boer war has been to
dignity the style of fighting that Washing
ton tried in vain to beat into the thick
head of Gen. Braddock before he fell at
the hands Of the Indians.