526 WITH THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD FORCE IN CRETE, 1897. 
quarters beyond the outposts in different directions, by way of letting 
these gentry realise that we were not prepared to allow their behaviour 
to exceed a certain limit. In no case did they offer resistance. Indeed, 
the same men who would shoot you if they caught you alone would, 
when you went in a body, load you with gifts of fruit and flowers. 
As an example; on the day preceding one of these marches out, the 
Colonel of the Seaforths, who was to command the column on the mor¬ 
row, was fired at whilst reconnoitring with his adjutant the road he 
proposed to take the troops, whereas, the next day he was overwhelmed 
with kindly attentions on the arrival of our column at the Insurgent 
village. 
In July the Sultan having firmly established his position in Thessaly, 
conceived the idea of re-establishing his authority in Crete, which he 
considered had been temporarily usurped by the Powers, and who 
appeared to be unable to agree on the choice of a suitable individual 
as Governor of the island. He determined therefore, to send a former 
Grand Vizier, Djevad Pasha, to Canea as Governor, and proposed to 
reinforce his troops in the island. Both these requests being refused 
by the Powers, he decided to replace Tewfik Pasha, Military Comman¬ 
dant in Crete, by Djevad Pasha, who landed quietly at Canea on 24th 
July. Fresh intrigues at once commenced, and it was considered ad¬ 
visable to bring the British contingent in Candia (which had been 
considerably reduced in numbers by sickness), up to its full strength. 
The remaining half battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers were 
accordingly despatched from Malta. Two days after their arrival in¬ 
telligence was received that the Turkish fleet had left Constantinople 
for a Cretan port, possibly Candia. At the same time a rumour went 
abroad that the Turkish Irregulars, (some 20,000) in Candia, contem¬ 
plated rising against the International troops, in the event of the battle¬ 
ships being withdrawn from their positions off the town, to engage the 
Turkish fleet off Standia, an island five miles from Candia, in the 
roadstead. 
Now our position in Candia, although an enormously strong one, 
from exterior attack, its walls being thicker and higher than any fort 
at Malta, was, as regards protection from interior attack from the town, 
absolutely exposed, and we might all have been shot in our tents any 
night by a comparatively small body of Bashi-Bazouks. The reason 
for not fortifying our rear, was in order not to hurt the susceptibilities 
of the Turkish authorities, who were still responsible, with us, for 
order in the town, and with whose troops we were supposed to be acting 
in concert. A council of war was held immediately and certain steps 
were resolved on, but no entrenchments were to be thown up, excepting 
some slight protection for the guns, unless certain circumstances super¬ 
vened. I recommended that the next reinforcements should include 
a battery of 13-prs. moveable armament from Malta. Had these re¬ 
placed my battery on our withdrwal from Crete, and the entrench¬ 
ments arranged for been thrown up at the time I speak of, the attack 
on the camp in September, 1898 would posssibly not have taken 
place, as the guns could have been placed in positions commanding the 
