A PORT OF MEMORIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15862, 27 February 1912, Page 6

A PORT OF MEMORIES.

The Syrian port of Beirut, where two Turkish warships have been destroyed by tho Italian fleet, has been the scene of some notable battles. In the days of the Crusades it was held alternately by the Christians and the Saracens, and a score of times its streets ran with blood. A peri&d of comparative peace followed those strenuous times, but just eighty years ago Beirut was seized: by Ibrahim Pasha in the course of the Egyptian revolt. Tim Egyptians were in possession of the town for nearly eight years and used it as a base for excursions into Syria. Then their army was attacked by the. combined forces of Britain, Turkey and Austria. Sir Charles Napier took a British fleet into the port and after a desperate struggle tho Egyptians were crashingly defeated. They lost 7000 men, killed, wounded and captured, and a Turkish garrison was installed once again. That was a.t the end of 18-10, and it is not improbable that there are still alive Syrians who remember the terror that was inspired by the attacking warships. Doubtless any greybeard whoso memory reaches back over tho intervening years would assure his great-grandchildren that tho little engagement reported in the cablegrams was very unimpressive indeed. Apparently two small Turkish boats, a corvette and a destroyer, were sunk at their anchorage by the Italian cruisers, a few stray shots finding their way into the town. The “wooden walls ” of 1840 reduced half Beirut to ruins.