WITH THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD FORCE IN CRETE, 1897. 533 
been educated in Germany and all his drill was carried on by trumpet 
sound, with the exception of naming the range and naming the target; 
otherwise he did everything by trumpet sound, and commanded the 
whole of the fort from his own position; the men marched out and 
piled their arms in rear of the guns, cast loose and loaded, and all the 
rest of it, and it was all carried on by the trumpet sound. As regards 
the Turkish garrison in Crete I do not think that many English officers 
realise that very few of them were Turks—the majority of the infantry 
were recruited in the neighbourhood of Aleppo and northern Syria 
and were Syrian Arabs and not Ottoman Turks at all. They could 
not speak Turkish and there was no sympathy between officers and 
men; on the contrary all the Turks, both officers and men, despised 
these Arabs very much. And in regard to Fort Malaxa, of which you 
saw a photograph just now, nearly all the garrison there were Arabs 
with the exception of five who were Turks ; and, when it was necessary 
to surrender, the five Turks rushed down the hill—three got away and 
two were shot. The Turkish officers on speaking to me about it after¬ 
wards were anxious that these Arabs who had surrendered to the In¬ 
surgents, should be tried by court-martial and shot for it. They were 
handed over to the Turkish authorities, but I do not know what be¬ 
came of them. A great deal of antipathy has been created towards 
the Turkish troops in consequence of the occurrence at Candia last 
September, and I am glad to have the opportunity of saying that during 
the early time of the insurrection in Crete the behaviour of the Turkish 
Regulars was excellent; there was no sympathy between them and 
the so-called Bashi Bazouks—on the contrary many Turkish soldiers 
were killed and wounded in trying to suppress the outbreak in Canea. 
And as regards the charge brought against the Turkish troops of 
looting at that time, I only know of two instances in which it was 
brought home to them. One of the men who was caught looting was 
shot by a Turkish sentry clearly showing that there was no sympathy 
with him, and the other was shot by a Carabinieri officer of the Crete 
Gendarmery. There really was at that time no sympathy at all be¬ 
tween the Turkish troops and so-called Bashi Bazouks. The Turkish 
garrison disliked the Moslem Bashi Bazouks almost as much as they 
disliked the Christian insurgents, and the Turkish troops were only 
too anxious to get away from the island. There has been so much 
talk about “ Bashi Bazouks ” that I should like just to explain the real 
meaning of the word Bashi Bazouk. It is a word that has been familiar 
to nearly all Englishmen since the Crimean War, and it is a word 
which, I fancy is now familiar to all Europe owing to the disturbances 
in Armenia and in Crete. The general impression is that a Bashi 
Bazouk is a gaily dressed man, armed from head to foot, who goes 
about looking for some throat to cut or somebody to murder.; The 
real meaning of the word Bashi Bazouk is simply nothing more nor less 
than our English word “ Civilian ”—that is all it means. If there are 
any armed irregulars about the regular troops call them Bashi Bazouks 
meaning civilians, and that is no doubt the origin of the idea held by 
most Englishmen that Bashi Bazouks mean irregular armed troops in 
