CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3385, 3 August 1885, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE MODERN BRITISH SOLDIER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMAKU HEItALD. Sin, — I think " Orthoproxy " lias taken a wrong view of this subject. Ab to the first part of his letter, the only accounts of that affair we have is an extract from a letter supposed to have been written by a private soldior present at the affair. I cannot find any other similar account of it m any of the Homo papers, and I for one am inclined to doubt it. As to the order issued to the troops at the latter part of the campaign, to dispatch wounded Soudanese, I consider the order quite justifiable. Anyone reading the accounts of the atrocities of the wounded Soudanese as they lay on the ground wounded, stabbing and cutting our soldiers witli their terrible knives as our troops passed them on the battlefield, will como to the| conclusion that the order issued was a just one. Our hospitals nl Home are crowded with wounded soldiers who were terribly cut about m this manner. On one occasion the Soudanese broke into ono of our squares and hacked and killed our wounded, and there aro many instances during the campaign of the wounded Soudanese killing our men when they attended to take them off the battlefield to attend to their wounds. Aud as to gaining laurels ovor a lot of badly-equipped and worse trained soldiers, I deny it. The Soudanese were wonderfully well-trained, and as to their arms, it lias been proved that thoy had plenty of good Snider rifles, and others and swords that would put ours to shame. Those latter weapons aro as sharp as razors, and the terrible wounds inflicted on our troops fully bear this out. I think your correspondent " Orthoproxy "is ono among many, who could not make one of themselves to fight, and who are always ready to run down our troops and ridicule those who give their lives for our safety, forgetting that a soldier is a human being and has a right to look after his safety on the battleflold, and have other duties to attend to besides ramming their heads m tho cannon'B mouth. I am, &c, Beiton.