LAND AND WATER 
December iS, 191 5. 
of the nation. Tiic cs(>rU dc cor/>s in the Janissaries 
became so <-r->iifr that they could admit no one into their 
ranks who had not been bom of Christian parents. They 
became so jealous of their own rights that they woulii 
allow of no interference with their own ofticers. At the 
beginning of last century- there reigned in Turkev, Mahmud 
II, a notable reformer. He desired to introcluce Euro- 
pean artillen,' and to subject the Janissaries to European 
military drill. The Janissaries objected and revolted, the 
symbol of their revolt being the turning over of their 
camp kettles. They wore attacked with artillery in their 
own barracks. They resisted, and it was only b\- the 
skill and personal courage of a leader known as Kara 
Gehenna (Black Hell) that their resistance was over- 
come. An order was issued for their entire destruction 
throughout the Empire, and for the next fortnight they 
were remorselessly shot down wherever they appeared. 
This was in 1826. 
European Discipline. 
Then European disciphne was supposed to be intro- 
duced into the Turkish arm v, but the Turks from that 
time to the present never reallv distinguished themselves 
as soldiers. When i)roperly led thcv have always fought 
fairlywell, but their native officers have nearly alwa.\s been 
mcompetent. One of the late Col. Briscoe's stories was 
characteristic. In 1877 when he was lighting with the 
Turks in opposition to the Russians who had crossed the 
Balkans, the Turks being under Suliman Pasha, they 
blundered so abominably that Baker Pasha believed that 
Suliman was a traitor. Briscoe, who was under Baker, 
saw a splendid chance to defeat a Russian detachment! 
and his men also saw it. He took the responsibility of 
leading an attack on his own account. He probably did 
not know more than half a dozen Turkish words, but he 
put himself at the head of his regiment and shouted at 
the top of his voice " Gell " (Come on) followed by the 
battle crj' of " Allah." The men followed him and he 
entirely succeeded in his attempt. In the war with 
Bulgaria IQ12-13, the incompetence of the officers was 
again manifest and the complete failure of the Turks at 
Liliiburgas was largely due to this cause. 
It must be remembered that the Turkish army is 
composed of many races. The Egyptian section was 
always poor. The Fellaheen are made of poor fighting 
stuff but they handle their weapons very smartly, and 
even drill for pleasure. The village Fellaheen is usually 
a tall, well developed man. It is said even that they can 
march any European army off their feet, but the fighting 
spirit is absent. If a rifle is lired amongst them they get 
cold feet and want to go home. In the Russo-Turkisli 
war they were sent home with contempt. In the Soudan 
they were always well backed up by British troops. They 
are not ashamed of being cowards. In certain respects 
they resemble the Bangalese, as distinct from the fighting 
races of India. The same remarks apply very much to 
the Turkish soldiers from Arabia and Syria. 
The Best Soldiers. 
The best Turkish soldiers are the peasants from 
Asia Minor. They have the fighting spirit. They would 
never stand being treated as cowards, nor tolerate the 
bullying drill to which the Prussian submits. An official 
Commission of leading Turks sent to report on the failure 
of the Turkish army at Liluburgas, attributed it largely 
to the want of faith in their religion ; and were probably 
right in so doing. The cry of " Victory or Paradise " to 
men who beUeve it is a powerful incentive to good fighting, 
but I do not believe that it would have any effect witli 
the Turks now. The Turkish peasant, however, lives in 
the open air nearly all the year round, does very little 
work even in the fields, rarely has anything to eat except 
^^•holemeal bread with occasionally a little sheep's milk 
cheese, and in autumn an unlimited quantity of grapes. 
He is healthy and fairly strong but has Httle stamina. On 
long marches a great number fall sick and seem not to 
have the power or even the wish to recuperate. 
Kurds, of whom there are about fifty thousand in 
the Turkish army, are stronger men and of more endur- 
ance. By Turkish law after the Revolution of 1908, 
Christians were for the first time taken into the Turkish' 
army. Of these the Armenians were the most numerous. 
The Armenian peasant is a sturdy and fairly well fed man. 
He is accustomed to harder work than the Turk. According 
to Shevket Pasha the Armenians fought excellently on 
the side of the Turks in Adrianople, but the treatment that 
the\- have recently received probably makes the Armenian 
section of the army a negligible quantity. 
The Greeks, mostly those of the peasant class, who 
were taken into the Turkish army, promised fairiy well 
and did well on three or four" occasions, especially under 
Shevket Pasha, but the insane policy of the Turkish 
Ctovernment during the last three years has alienated 
the whole of the Asiatic Greeks so that their aid can not 
be counted . upon. The testimony of those who have 
fought against the recent Turkish army is that they 
cannot stand being shelled. 
It is beyond doubt however that the discipline to 
which the army has been subjected by German officers 
during the last "three years has greatly stiffened it. Now, 
as at all times, the question of leadership has been of 
prime importance, and during the past century the Turkish 
soldier has always shown himself at his best when acting 
on the defensive. The most brilliant work of the Turkish 
army in 1877-8 was in the defence of Plevna since dogged- 
ness and stability of character backed up by his fatalistic 
belief enables the Turk to endure and fight on vvh,en behind 
earthworks or other defences, to the end. He is not a 
soldier to be despised. From all the information which 
has yet come to hand it would seem that the best.regiments 
in the Turkish army have already been destroyed, those 
which have been sent to the tront from Syria bcin^ 
imdoubtedly inferior. 
" THE GERMANS IN ENGLAND." 
To the Editor of L.WD .\nd W.\ter. 
Sir, — In your brief review " The Germans in England," 
by Ian D. Col\-in, which appeared in your issue of November 
27th, it would appear that the author of the work in question 
gives to Queen Elizabeth the credit of having first suppressed 
the privileges so long enjoyed by tiie m2rchants of the Steel- 
yard. If such be the author's contention, it is altogether 
erroneous. On this point I may be permitted to cite Dr. 
Lingard— by far the most accurate of all British historians : — 
" Mary may also claim the merit of having supported the , commercial 
interests of the country against the pretensions of a company of 
foreign merchants, which had e.xisted for centuries in London, 
under the different denominations of Eastcrlings, Merchants of 
the Hanse Towns, and Merchants of the Steelyard. By their 
readiness to advance loans of money on sudden emergencies, they 
had purchased the most valuable privileges from several of our 
monarchs. They formed a corporation, governed by its own 
laws : whatever duties were exacted from others, tho'y paid no 
more than one per cent, on their merchandise ; they were at the 
same time buyers and sellers, brokers and carriers ; they imported 
jewels and bullion, cloth of gold and of silver, tapestry and wrought 
silk, arms, naval stores and household furniture-; and exported 
wwl and woollen cloths, skins, lead and tin, cheese and beer and 
Mediterranean wines. Their privileges and wealth gave them a 
supenonty over all other merchants which excluded competition, 
and enajaled them to raise or depress the prices almost at pleasure. 
In the last reign [that of Edward the Sixth] the public fceUng 
against them had been manifested by frequent acts of violence 
and several petitions had been presented to the Council complaining 
of the mjuries sufiered by the English merchants. After a long 
investigation, it was declared that the company had violated 
and consequently had forfeited its charter; but bv dint of 
remonstrances, of presents, and of foreign intercession, 'it obtained 
in the course of a few weeks, a royal license to resume the traffic 
under the farmer regulations. In Mary's first ParUament a new 
blow was aimed at its privileges ; and it was enacted, in the bill 
of tonnage and poundage, that the Easterlings should pay the same 
duties as other foreign merchants. The Queen, indeed, was induced 
to suspend, for a while, the operation of the statute ; but she 
soon discerned the true interests of her subjects, revoked the 
privileges of the company, and refused to listen to the arguments 
adduced, or the intercession made in its favour. Elizabeth 
followed the policy of her predecessor ; the Steelyard was at length 
shut up and the Hanse Towns, after a long and expensive suit 
yielded to necessity, and abandoned the contest." 
To Mary likewise belongs the credit of having con- 
cluded the first commercial treaty between England and 
Russia. 
Ballyorley, Ferns. c. GouGH. 
/D iT^^f ^'^ ^"^"^ Authors, translated by Else C. :\I. Benecke 
I c' ^'^^P^'^'l' Oxford, 3s. 6d. net), is a volume of stories 
by four Polish authors, of whom one, Sienkiewicz, is already 
known to English readers. The other three are leading Polish 
novelists, and the general level of the work in this book is 
well above the level of current fiction. Sienkiewicz's 
bartek, a story of the Franco-Prussian war, embodying 
the experiences of a Polish conscript who fought on the German 
side, IS probably the most striking item of the collection, 
but all are of value, tending as tliev do to a clearer under- 
standmg of the merits of Polish literature 
16 
