ITALIAN SOFTSOAP.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3789, 29 May 1885, Page 2

ITALIAN SOFTSOAP.

The “ Eaercito Italionio,” an Italian military newspaper, publishes an article on the fighting in the Soudan. It says : —“ The battle of Abu Klea, which resulted in such severe loss to General Stewards column, has shown that the English soldier has in no way degenerated, and that ho does not stop to count the number of the enemy when the hour for the battle baa struck. We cannot but experience a sense of wonder when we consider the coolness with which General Stewart’s square moved against an enemy ten times its 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 of the English soldiers upon the mass of the * Arabs must have been immense, notwithstanding the serviceable arms possessed by the latter, in the nee of which they have been well trained, notwithstanding their superior position, their long experience of life in the desert, and their overwhelming numbers they were completely put to flight. The smallness of the number 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 some Germany military periodicals would have ns think. Wo rather think that it is duo to the absolute reliance which the Minister of War of Great Britain feeU he can place in his brave soldiers—a reliance with 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 Jivos for the tights of their country. . . . Wo see that even a small army under commanders well trained in the art of war, and who are 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 and Asia, and on the two extremities of the African continent.”