The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-24
THEY SURRENDER TO FEAR.
Severe Punishment Melted Out ia
Officers in Turkey.


From the Army and Navy Journal.
The sultan's decree of exile against
the officers of the army that broke the
windows of the palace they were in
in trying to get out at the time Of
the recent earthquake in Turkey brings
up the interesting question of how far
such acts of fear should be punished.
In fact, our Paris contemporary La
France Militaire, 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 hon
or, but there are occasions. he points
out, where it is not only praiseworthy
not to tell the truth, but where 1t is
actually indispensable to conceal 1t. II
only to deceive the enemy to give con-
fidence 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 effectiveness, to give inexact figures
of his losses and of the losses of the
enemy. He never hesitated to present
AihhbAFi0 III AAiE iEtl tlidA WOhAi D1 AhC
most favorable to the deceiving OF the
world. In the matter Of bravery he
had himself given many examples of
signal courage, and while valuing
highly this soldierly attribute he did
not place IL in the fret rank of mill
tary virtues. He knew that bravery
suffered eclipses, that the nerves have
u part i'm the attitude one shows under
fire and that there are moments when
-. a n
cass shake as one old warrior used
to say.
So this French officer takes up the
cudgels for the Turkish officers and
inveighs against condemning pitiless-
ly those who yield to a passing seiz-
ure of spirit attributable to some
physiOlogic crisis. He cites an incl
dent at the military camp at Chalons,
where an officer was killed instantly
by stroke of lightning. and another
officer. witnessing 1t. was so overcome
by the awfulness of the event that he
fed and hid under a 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 dismay of fear that he had
the man dismissed.
While freely submitting the suscept-
ibility OF men to sudden impulses I'm
a sense beyond their control. still, Sc
we're discipline, bringing with Il the
fear of punishment. can create in them
habits of body and mind that i'm time
come to be second nature and instincts
i'm a certain sense new. The danger
of yielding to these momentary feel
ings lies in the results that may flow
from n panic and the force OF exam
pie. One man by losing his grip be-
fore the enemy may endanger a whole
army 1t was probably with this feel
ing the Sultan found his officers state
of mind in the face of an earthquake
reprehensible. Still there are facts of
seeming eowardice that are really the
manifestations of the most commend
able prudence. One can conceive OF
no better time for person to seek to
leave a building than during an earth
quake, and unless the act of the Turk
ish officers compromised the safety OF
others 1t Is hard to see the Justice OF
the Sultan's order of exile IT may
be that this punishment will in the
end be injurious to the Turkish army,
for there is always a eanIy marked
line between cowardice and prudence.
One needs but to read the accounts
of the foolhardiness of British officers
who i'm South Africa thought the high
est duty of the soldier was rashIy to
dsdain cover and make himself an
unprotected mark for the enemy's bull
Tets. One Of the excellent results OF
the Boer war has been TO dignity the
style of fighting that Washington tried
In vain 10 beat into the thick head
of Gen. Braddock before ne fell at the
hands Of the Indians.