THE MODERN BRITISH SOLDIER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3384, 1 August 1885, Page 3

THE MODERN BRITISH SOLDIER.

TO TOE EDITOR OP THE TIMAKU HERALD. Sib, — If the incident m connection -with tho death of Goneral Earlo, as related m your issuo of to-day, ia true, I think our boasted civilisation is a mockery, nnd tho claims ws have abrogated to ourselves of being models to other nations for chivalrous and generous conduct towards the vanquished m the battlefield are only tho relics of whnt were tbe attributes of tho British soldier m days gone by. Had eoldiere of any other nation been

guilty of tho atrocity of burning twenty-five of their enemies whom they found cooped up m a building, and watching (I won't say with delight) the horrible death of their victims, the British Press would have'boen at a loss for language to adequately express their detestation of such diabolical work During that wretched affair m Egypt, when Wolseley and Seymour gained such laurels for dispersing a lot of badly-equipped and worse-trained soldiers, tho men of some of our Highland regiments had orders to dispatch their wounded enemieß, and — what must cause an indelible feeling of shamo to them — they did it. If British soldiors find it necessary, when fighting half-civilised people, to adopt the reprisals practised by their onemies, I think it is a Bure proof that their valor is not the same as that with which Wellington, Moore, and Campbell gained thoir honors. When a victorious army becomes brutal to the conquered, they deserve disaster if they do not court it. The true soldier seeks the " bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," not m roasting alive those whom the fortune of war has placed at his mercy. I am, &c, Oethopboxt.