AN ITALIAN ESTIMATE OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1844, 30 May 1885, Page 3

AN ITALIAN ESTIMATE OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER.

£% is a very curious fact, but yet it is "a Wt, that there lu-c some English- ; jm-n, vtfiQ malse'li^it , of ' th'(f victories } •fjiiinod.-by our -tmop^ i?i. Egypt .and the Soudan. Tlifey^ity^lww-^couM uutraincdy badlf .armottijliorf'ea of seini-sUvages be expected to oyercome

well, disciplined U-00..5. .u-uoi with all the latest modcr i improved weapons: The following from an Italian paper will be read with interest, as showing what foreigners think on the subject.. The extract, is from the Esercito Italiano. It says : — "The battle of Abu Klea, which resulted in such severe loss to General Stewart's column has show n that the English . soldier has in no way deg&uera'ted, and that he does not tfiOpto count the number of. the enemy inrhbmtne hour for battle has. struck. ]W& cannot but experience a sense of wonder when we consider the coolness with which Stewart's square moved against an enomy ten times it* number, in an inhospitable country, with the natives in full revolt, and in a climate so different from their own -—so enervating and so deadly. The effect of the intrepidity o£ the English soldiers upon the mass of Arabs must have been, immense. Notwithstanding the serviceable arms possessed by the latter, in the u*»e of which they had been well trained, notwithstanding their superior position, their long experience o£ life in the desert, and their overwhelming number, they were completely put to flight. The smallness of the numbers of the soldiers whom 'Old England' sends to all parts of the globe to fight battles that would bring glory to armies of great size and more formidably equipped in point of armament, cannot be owing to petty economy, as Borne German military periodicals would have us think. We believe rather that it is due to • the absolute reliance which the English Minister of War feels he can place in his soldiers — a reliance which the memory of the siege of Delhi during "the Indian Mutiny fully explains. This confidence is brilliantly displayed in the self-abnegation with which even, the heirs of the most illustrious men of the United Kingdom go forth and face the extraordinary difficulties attaching to war in countries such •as Egypt, ready to lay down their lives for the rights of their country. . . . We see that even a small army under commanders well trained in the art of war, and who arc determined to conquer or die, may, when called Upon, rout an adversary much superior in numbers : as the English army has shown in all the wars fought 'by it during this century in Europe, in Asia, an at the two extremities of the African continent."

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