The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-01-30
FEAR IN TURKISH SOLDIERS.
They Are Pftilessly Condemned By
the sultan Upon the Slightest
Manifestation.

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 displayes of alleged cowardice are
no more to be reprehended than lying.
This officer, who is himself 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 it is
actually indispensable to conceal it, if
only to deceive the enemy to give con-
fdence to ones own troops, says the
Army and Navy Journal.
Napoleon never had any scruples
against proclaiming himself victori-
Gus, even when he had been half beat
en-. He did not fail in his bulletins to
swell his electives, to give ineXact fig
ures of his losses and of the losses of
the enemy. He never hesitated to pre-
sent 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 front rank of mill
tary virtues. He knew that bravery
suffered eclipses, that the nerves had
part in the attitude one shows under
fire and that there are moments when
the most intrepid feel their old car
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 pitilessly
those who yield to a passing seizure
of spirit attributable to some physio-
logic crisis. He cites an incident at the
military camp at Chalons, where an
officer was killed instantly by stroke
of lightning, and another officer, wit
Messing it, was so overcome by the aw-
fitness of the event that he fed and hid
under a bed. Not even the interven-
ton of brother officers was sufficient
to make him come out from his re-
treat. The colonel was so moved by
this dismay of fear that he had the
man dismissed.
While freely admitting the suscepti-
bility of men to sudden impulses, in a
sense beyond 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 nature and instincts in GER
tain sense new. The danger of yield
ing to these momentary feelings 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 a whole army. 1t
was probably with this feeling the sui
tan found his officers state of mind
in the face of ali earthquake reprehen-
sible. Still there are facts of seeming
cowardice that are really the mani
festaions of the most commendabl
prudence. One can conceive of no bet
ter time for a person to seek to leave
building than during an earthquake,
and unless the act of the Turkish Off
GERS compromised the safety of others
it is hard to see the justice of the sui
tan's order of exile. 1t may be that
this punishment will in the end be in
furious to the Turkish army. for there
is always a clearly marked line be-
tween cowardice and prudence.
One needs but to read the accounts
of the foolhardiness of British officers
who in South Africa thought the high
est duty of the soldier was rashly to
disdain cover and make himself an un.
protected mark for :he enemy's bull
let's. One of the excellent results of
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.
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