The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-24

sultan Won't Tolerate towards in
His Army.

HIS army
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 re-
cent 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 honor, but
there are occasions, he points out,
where it is not only praiseworthy not
to- tell the truth, but where it is ac-
tually indispensable to conceal it, If
only to deceive the enemy to gives 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
electives, to give inexact figures of
his losses, and of the losses of the en-
envy. He never hesitated to present
matters in the light that would be the
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 it
in the first rang of military virtues.
He knew that bravery suffered eclipses,
that the nerves have part in the at
titude one shows under fire, and that
there are moments when the most in
trepid 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 passing seizure of
spirit attributable to some physiologic
crisis. He cites an incident at the mill
itary camp of Chalous where an Of
ficer was killed instantly by a stroke
of lightning, and another officer, wit
Messing it, was so overcome by the aw-
fulness of the event that he fed and
hid under a bed. Not even the inter-
vention of brother officers was suf-
ficient to make him come out of his re-
treat. The Colonel was so moved by
this display of fear that he had the
man dismissed.
While freely admitting the suscep-
tibility of men to sudden impulses, in
a sense beyond their control, still, Sc
we're discipline, bringing with il the
fear of punishment, can create in them
habits of second nature and instincts
in a certain sense new. The danger of
yielding to these momentary Ceilings
lies in the results that may flow from
a panic and the force of example. One
man by losing his grip before the en-
envy may endanger whole army. 1t
was probably with this feeling that
the Sultan found his officers state
of mind in the face of an earth
quake reprehensible. Still, there are
acts of seeming cowardice that are
really the manifestations of the most
commendable prudence. One can con-
ceive of no better time for a person
to seek to leave building than during
an earthquake, and unless the act of
the Turkish officers compromised the
safety of others it is hard to see the
justice of the Sultan's order of exile.
1t may be that this punishment will
in the end be injurious to the Turk
ish army, for there is always a clean
ly marked line between cowardice and
prudence.
One needs but to read the accounts
of the foolhardness of British officers
who in South Africa thought the high
est duty of the soldier was rashly to
disdain cover and make himself an I'M
protected mark for the enemy's bull
ielS. OIG VI the cACtllCHI ISSulLS VI
the Boer war has been to dignity the
style of fighting that Washington tried
in vain to beat into the thick head of
Gen. Braddock before he fell at the
hands of the Indians. The battle of
Colenzo, in which Gen. Buffers forces
were thrown back in confusion, was
the first battle in history in which the
defeated army never got sight of
their adversaries. That victory of the
burghers was the apotheosis of the In
dian fighting style. 1t has never been
condemned since. while the British
have been continually blamed for
ing themselves.
We have been told that at the battle
of San Juan, Cuba, some volunteers
laughed when they saw the regulars,
in crossing the Aguadores, stoop so low
that they brushed the water. This
was the first battle those volunteers
had ever seen, and they had the book
ideas of solid columns of erect men
marching grandly upon the enemy. Be-
fore the day was over they changed
their minds considerably about the
value of cover. 1t was even alleged
against certain volunteer officer that
while his command was halted for
hours in the Bloody Trail he had, in
sitting down to rest, taken refuge be-
hind some improvised shelter. Since
the Boer war. and the elevation of
shelter seeking into such a science as
the world had never known before, 1t
is seen that the volunteer officers ac-
ton was as wise as that of the regulars
when they ducked crossing the ford.
The rule of our French contemporary
is this: To expose oneself is good
only when it is Indispensable; to shield
oneself is good because ii is useful.