A French officer who took part in the fighting in North China last year, has just published some far from complimentary observations on the behaviour of the British troops. With the exception of the Goorkhas, he says, the Indian soldiers were a very poor lot in everything but appearance. During the attack on the railway station at Tientsin on the 13th July, the sikhs were several times on the point of giving way.
At Peit'ang @ company of Sikhs absolutely refused to charge when the command was given. The British captain in command shot two of them with his revolver, whereupon the others simply ran away, leaving their officers to look out for themselves. As for the English soldiers and sailors, the French critic says they were wanting in just the one quality expected of them—sang-fraid. Their sentries were continually—taki fright. and giving false alarms. This nervousness was so marked that the other international detachments objected to have the British for neighbours. The English showed plenty of tenacity under fire but were devoid of dash. The training of the men seemed to be—left entirely to the nou-commissioned officers. The critic concludes renurking that the War Office would be well advised tu carry out its reported intention of complet ising British army. His views are entirely in cord with those of other French military experts and seem to he put forward in good faith. Whether he is correct in. his facts or not, his observations show how greatly British prestige has dwindled in the eyes of thu French, who do at any rate take military mutters seriously.
The Empress Dowager's Tent.
The Army Museum hus come into possession of an interesting relic of the China campaign, in the shape of a large tent said to have belonged to the Empress Dowager. In form it is an irregular oblong, the top resembles a truncated cone and the material is bright yellow silk, very richly embroidered in red, blue and gold, the clawed dragon being much in evidence.
cording to the official version the Empress used the tent during the first part of her flight from Peking, but it was left behind on the way and, when the French troops reached Kichou on their march to the Imperial tombs, the tent was handed over to them by the sub-prefect. The French commander, fearing that the tent might he regarded as booty, tried to induce the sub-prefect to take it hack, but he declined to have ai thing more to do with it, and it was conveyed to Yangtsun, where it was put on the railway, brought to Tientsin. and shipped to Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.