THE ARMY IN TURKEY.
Bulgaria, 13th July .1864. SIR—Having observed that of late you have been able to open your co- lumns a good deal to correspondents, and that military ;natters are discussed
in your paper, RS i
wall as n others, with less distaste than formerly, I beg leave to call attention to a few of the minutim in our service which admit of improvement. I must premise, that we all feel that it is the intention of the Queen and the country that the British Army in the East should be most liberally supplied with all things necessary for comfort; and I need not say that the Army will take care' should they have an opportunity, to show that they are not ungrateful for this liberality. But we also Teel Una these in- tentions are not carried out so fully as they might be, and, as the people of England are led to suppose. The cause exists in the inefficiency of depart- ments ; and the great difficulty which we experience is that of bringing our wants to the .notice of those who pan put things straight for us. It is there- fore from no feeling of disrespect.to tbeauthorities that these „remarks arise, but from my total inability to Wag Widcr,UOtice what I see and know to be wrong. A little while ago, the press made a great parade of the large supplies of comforts in the shape of ale, porter, rice, sugar &c., which were to be sent out and sold to the troops at moderate prices. We were all delighted, and said we never heard of such liberality. Now, how stand the facts ? The division to which I belong, though only fifteen miles from Varna, with a capital road, havenotaeen porter, ale,.ar any other commissariat supply than meat, bread, sugar, and coffee, since the 3d or 4th July, because the sommis- sariat cannot move their stores. The result will be, that at the end of the war, the enormous accumulations of beer and other stores which we ought to have used and paid for, (and which we would gladly get now at almost any price if we could have them retailed to us,) will be sold dirt cheap toanyper- son who will take them. Surely, in a friendly country, with good roads, there should be no difficulty in letting us have these things, so near the sea-coast.
If we shift our camp five or six miles tomorrow, and on the line of march I break my leg, from a kick of a horse or in any other way, the doctom have not the means of carrying me into my-new camp. How should we get on if men were dropping round us, wounded by the enemy's skirmishers Are all our wounded to fall into the power of the Aussiana as a matter of course ? or is it supposed that we are invulnerable ?
At this present moment we cannot shoe our horses. There are plenty of farriers, English and native, all paid enormously, but able to do nothing for want of tools, iron, and coal. I doubt whether they can shoe the chargers ; I know that there are at present no Meant, of awing the baggage animals.
It is a fact within my own knowledge, that an officer who has accom- panied his regiment here from Malta, being desirous to send money to his wife, who remained in that island, could find no means of doing so either by private arrangement or through the commissariat. A private soldier may pay his money into the public chest here, and his wife may get the amount wherever she happens to be ; but no such adyantages_are extended to the officer.
It happens on service, that the pay of officers accumuletss a consider- able amount, white on the other hand the demands on their purses are sud- den, irresistible, and often very great. I have saved tosaelf in pay ana field-allowances, with a little surplus money that I started with, as much as 40/. I have no means of keeping it. The private soldier can, put his forty pence into the savings-bank, and the public pay him interest on it, and profit by the transaction. But the public will not receive mine, and I must keep it in my tent, where I have no security whatever for it. I have there- fore, as a personal favour, got a bill and remitted it to the agents. If the agents fail, I lose the money, and further I run a great risk, that when, by the death of my. horse' loss of ray baggage, or any other accident, I most re- quire money, I shIll be in a place where I cannot possibly get any. Quo would think that the Government would be only too glad to receive here what money they could get, so as to diminish as far as possible the amount of remittances. Why should officers be denied the use of the savings- bank ? Some of them are poorer than the private in their respective ranks, and have therefore more need of assistance.
One more instance and I have done. There are in every regiment several lads too young to bear arms : these boys do duty as drummersand musicians, enabling us in that way to bring more firelocks into the field. They expose their lives on service as much as the biggest grenadier ; still more so if they happen to be buglers. Yet, until they attain the age of eighteen, their period of service is of no use to them in getting good-conduct rewards or pensions. Of two lads enlisting at the age of fourteen, one shall commit every species of blackguardism short of being tried by court-martial, until he becomes twenty-one years of age, and then, if he will keep out of the guard-room for two years, he will receive a distinguishing mark, and extTa pay for good conduct, on the very same day that the other lad (who for example's sake shall have behaved irreproachably) will receive the very same reward for his good conduct. There are in the Army many examples of the well-behaved lad, though there are few of such sudden reform as I have sup- posed. Is it not hard, and absurd, that good conduct from fourteen to twenty-one (the most perilous period of a man's life, when, generally, the question is decided whether he will become a good and useful soldier or a gaol-bird) should be of no account in obtaining the honourable distinction of good-oonduot ring? A CAPTAIN OF A CONPANT IN THE EXPEDITIONARY FORM.
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