DENSHAWI INCIDENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 5

DENSHAWI INCIDENT.

ANOTHER VIEW.. , ' On the subject of -the Denshawi incident, a cablegram was published ill Thursday s issue, accompanied by a footnote comprising a letter from • a .Porongahau correspondent, who gave 1 an account! of the incident. This has drawn forth tho following letter from Otaki:— v > ' Sir, —Your correspondent' from Porongauau is not very correct 111 his dotails of the. Denshawi affair. . I-; Was in .Cairo at tho time, and tho circumstancos. wore as folloiys -—The Mounted Infantry, under. Major Pirio-Cofun, 'D.5.0., Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, were' on the maroh, from Cairo to Alexandria. . At Chibin-se-Kom tho Omdoh of tile villngo (i.0,, Mayor) invited the. officors to go pigeon shooting. They accepted, and the party." consisting of Major Pine-Coffin, Captain Bostock (JR..A.M.C.), Captain Bull (Inniskillihg Dragoons), Lieutenant S. G. Smithwick (Royal - Dublin Fusiliers), and Lieutenant .Porter (Rifle Brigade), wcro met by carriages cent by the Omdeh, and woro driven to the canal bank where the pigeons came oyer. > After they,-had been shopting some littlo time the natives began to collect round Lioutonant; Po'rtor,' and eventually tried to seize his gun. .'He-tried to put it at "safo," but before doing so it went off, and/ it was said, wounded a woman. This wounded woman was never produced at tho subsequent proceedings.' . Tho other . officers came up to seo what the tronblo was, and word attacked by the natives with " hoboots " (a heavy stick like the okl-timo qUarter-staff). Major PinyCoffin ordered the others to givo up their gunn to avoid troublo, and at tho samo timo explained that lie arrested Lieutenant Porter until tho charge of phooting tho woman had been investigated. ■ ■ Captains Bostock and Bull started for help to the camp somo. milos off, whilo Major Pine-Coffin and Lieutenants Smithwick and Porter were taken to a threshing floor, where the natives proposed to cut their thro us arid burn them. Captain Bull was iwirtalfuii and was badly, beaten on the way. Ho was, left lying on tlie canal bank. Ho was loi>r,d' tltad,' and tho medical evidence showed that tho cause was sunstroke. Hjs' helmet was ' Knocked off in tho fracas, and his wo'Jiids prevented him from going on. All wcro badly beaten. I saw Captain Bostock when he arrived in Cairo ; he was one mass of bruises. Major Pine-Coffin had his arm l>rokon, and Lieutenant Smithwick his nose. 'All tho officers woro in uniform. Tho Mcnonfieh district,where this occurred, has boen notorious for tho lawlessness of its inhabitants. ; ; Tho tribunal which sentenced tho ringleaders consisted; of' Judge MacGlough Bond (an Englishman), a distinguished nativo judge whose name I cannot rccolleot, and Colonel Ludlow (A.S.C.), representing tho Army of Occupation. The • proceedings were conducted in Arabic, and all the prisoners were defended by native counsel, paid by tho Government, and tho prosecution was ontirely in the hands of Egyptian natives, no Britisli barrister being in the Court. Tho case'created'a good deal of oxcitomont in Cairo at the time, and all the hotter class of Egyptians wero unanimous in upholding tho sentences. Several other cases of assault of Englishmen in tho Irrigation Scrvico and other departments occurred about tho same timo, and an example was badly wanted. Tho proposed release of the prisoners will certainly be takon as a sign of woaknoss by the Egyptians, and will encourage tho Young Egyptian party, backed by Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, to fresh foolishness.—l nm, etc., • ANGLO-EGYPTIAN. ' I ■