CHARGES AGAINST THE BRITISH TROOPS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1212, 25 December 1882, Page 2

CHARGES AGAINST THE BRITISH TROOPS.

♦ The Cologne ' Gazette' has printed a number of articles in which the British troops are charged with needless cruelties to wounded Egyptian soldiers. A M. Janson writes, confirming some of the assertions of the correspondent of that paper in Egypt Ha rel ites the following incident, of which he was an eye-witness : — " When I arrived at Arabi's fortifications, the tight inside them was at an end. Not the slightest resistance was being offered. Hundreds of dead and wounded lay i scattered on the ground. As I came through one- of the gateways, I noticed i to the left several English infantry 1 soldiers who had remained or wore I left behind to collect their wounded' | country tr.on. They were but a few paces from me. A number of Egyptians I likewise lay here and there. Just then j an Englishman fired at one of them. S A comrade asked him, ' Why did you '■ do that] 'and added, 'It was not that one that moved, but other yonder." The first mentioned soldier thereupon took a sword and plunged it into the back of the Arab pointed out, who was lying face downwards. I saw the body writhe, and the man's shirt sodden ! with blood. The Englishman quietly drew his sword out and said, • I think 'he has had enough.' Almost at the ■ same time other soldiers a little father I off fired bix, seven, or eight shots, put- ; ing the wounded out of their misery." I This correspondent at the same time ; states that during the rest of the day, 1 especially on the march, ho observed Ino cruelty of any kind. The fugitives were magnanimously allowed to get away, in some cases even without . having thrown down their weapons. | Some have Warned this meritorious i behavior of the army, but he leaves it j to everybody to say whether blame was | deserved. An English correspondent writes ! regarding th°sc charges :— " Like | many tales of the kind, there is a half 1 truth about them ; the fact is that on ; more than one occasion wounded ' Egypians have tired at our men as soon : as they passed unsuspectingly by, and Iso scriou3 was the prach'c? that it I became necessary to teach th« enemy 'j a lesson, and accordingly every man whose conduct gave rise to suspicion was killed outright. It is quite posj siblc in the heat of war that reckless- ! ness is sometimes displayed. One cannot expect all the features of a high I Christian chivalry amongst men who I are chosen from some of the lowest . ranks of the population. At any rate, it certainly doos not lie in the power lof the German to say much on this score, for anything like treacherous or underhand proceedings on the part of the French were met by Draconian severity on the part of the Prussian officers during the war,"