Sensational Charge by John Bright.

Evening Star, Issue 7195, 25 April 1887, Page 4

Sensational Charge by John Bright.

Speaking at the Westminster Friends' Meeting - house, St. Martin's lane, Mr Bright, in the course of a long speech on the evil of war, made the following statement:— " I heard a story the other day which I know to be true. lam not able to give the name of the officer who told it. I do not know what would happen to him. He would not be able to go up the ladder any more if it known ; but it was stated, and it is true, that after one of the battles—l think that battle called Abu Klea, in which some persons whose names are well known were killed on the English side —that in the evening, after the battle was over, this gentleman heard shots and some noise which surprised him. He did not know what was going on, but when he made inquiry he / found that the English soldiers were going about the field of battle; after the hot blood was gone and the battle was over, aud they were bayoneting and shooting the poor Arab soldiers lying wounded upon the field.—(Cries of' Shame,' and hisses.) Why, these people have all got a chaplain with them. (Laughter.) They are supposed to have a religious service at least once a week if they are not fighting on that day.—(Renewed laughter.) And yet these horrors are perpetrated, and men come home and they are put into the House of Lords and are granted a largo sum of money, and you sec in the newspapers whole columns of persons on whom promotions and decorations of one kind or another have been conferred, and we go along enjoying these occasional pieces of rapine which M. Pelletau spoke of in the French Chamber. And I do not know but we may be on the point of doing it almost any day." In consequence of the above startling statement so positively made by Mr Bright, a representative of the ' Pall Mall Gazette, waited upon Lord Wolseley, as the person most likely to be acquainted witli every detail of the management of our forces during the Egyptian campaign. Lord Wolseley read the paragraph with indignation, and authorises the most emphatic contradiction to Mr Bright's statements. "I was not, of course, Lord Wolseley added, " present myself upon that occasion, but I am perfectly certain, first, that such practices could not have taken place without some report of it reaching me at some time; and, second, that the statement is in direct and flagrant contradiction of the universal tendency of our men, which is to run even unwise risk in doing friendly services to wounded enemieß. After the battle of Tel-el-Kebir more than one soldier was treacherously wounded while giving water to wounded Arabs. Anyone who knows anything about soldiers knows perfectly well that they have no such bloodthirsty instincts as are attributed to them by Mr Bright. While you're fighting, if a man resists you he's shot, of course ; but when the battle's over, and with wounded men never ! Indeed, the very details of Mr Blight's story make it preposterous to a military man. You may contradict it in my name in the most emphatic manner."