The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
force subsequently reduced to about 250 men. That evening Admiral
Seymour was informed that the Khedive was in danger. The admiral
dispatched the _Condor_ to lie off Ramleh; and there we lay all that
night, rolling heavily, with a spring on the cable to enable the guns
to be trained upon the sandy lane down which the soldiers must advance
if they intended to take the Palace.
It was arranged that, if the Palace were attacked, the Khedive should
hang a white sheet from a window, and I would at once take measures to
secure his safety. The night went by without alarm; and next day
Tewfik, escorted by a guard of native cavalry, went to the Ras-el-Tin
Palace, where he was received by Admiral Seymour and a guard of
Marines. Commander Hammill (who afterwards performed excellent service
on the Nile), with a landing-party of 250 bluejackets and 150 Marines,
had already taken possession of the Ras-el-Tin Peninsula.
Upon the same day Captain John Fisher, H.M.S. _Inflexible_ (afterwards
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, O.M.), was ordered to
take command of the {191} landing-party whose business was to secure
the outer defences of the city. Captain Fisher, having occupied the
lines, had a zone of anarchy, incendiarism and chaos, comprising the
whole city, in the rear of his position. He at once made application
for an officer to be appointed provost-marshal and chief of police,
suggesting my name for the post; and the admiral gave me orders to
assume this office. As a narrative written at the time owns a certain
intrinsic interest, I make no apology for transcribing further passages
from private letters.
"CHIEF OF POLICE OFFICE
HEADQUARTERS, ALEXANDRIA
THE ARSENAL, 25_th July_, 1882
"... I landed on the 14th July, armed myself, got a horse and a guide
and an escort of about thirty Egyptian cavalry, and started to overhaul
the town, and see how I could best carry out my orders to 'restore law
and order as soon as possible, put out fires, bury the dead, and clear
the streets.' I never saw anything so awful as the town on that
Friday; streets, square, and blocks of buildings all on fire, roaring
and crackling and tumbling about like a hell, let loose Arabs murdering
each other for loot under my nose, wretches running about with
fire-balls and torches to light up new places, all the main
thoroughfares impassable from burning fallen houses, streets with many
corpses in them, mostly murdered by the Arab soldiers for loot--these
corpses were Arabs murdered by each other--in fact, a pandemonium of
hell and its devils.
"I took a chart with me and arranged the different parts of the town
where I should make depots and police stations. The admiral could only
spare me 60 bluejackets and 70 Marines from the British Fleet; but he
obtained a proportionate number from the foreign warships. By sunset I
had 620 men in the different depots, mostly foreigners.... I had only
140 men to patrol the town, to stop the looting, to stop the 'fresh
burning' of houses, to bury the corpses, and to protect the lives of
those who had come on shore. By {192} quickly sending the men about in
parties in different parts of the town, and by employing Arabs to
inform me when and where certain houses might be burnt, I often managed
to get a patrol there just in time to stop it, and the people thought
there were 600 police in the town instead of 140. For the foreign
bluejackets were ordered to occupy their respective Legations and not
to take any part in restoring order. This was of course in the first
seventy-two hours, during which time neither myself nor my men slept
one wink, as at 12 o'clock on two occasions an alarm was sounded that
Arabi was attacking the lines, and all of us had to peg away to the
front, where we had to remain until daylight, expecting attack every
moment. These alarms lost many houses, as the mob set them alight
while we were at the front; however, it was unavoidable.
"On Monday, 17th July, I was sent 400 more men (bluejackets) in answer
to my urgent appeal to the admiral, as so many fanatic Arabs were
coming into the town, ... but on Tuesday the 18th the bluejackets were
all ordered off to their ships and 600 picked Marines were sent in
their place.... After I had planned to get the town into order on the
Friday (14th) I went to the Arsenal and wrote a Proclamation....
"I went off to the admiral on the following (Saturday) morning, and
submitted that I should be allowed to post the Proclamation throughout
the town. Sir A. Colvin and the Khedive were strongly opposed to the
Proclamation; but the admiral approved of the scheme. Some of the
authorities suggested that if I shot anybody it would be well to shoot
him at night, or in the prisons, and then no one would know, and there
would be no row. This I stoutly refused, demanding my own way for
restoring order, and saying that a fair honest Proclamation was the
proper line to take, as all persons would then know what would happen
to them if they committed certain specified acts. I carried my point,
and the admiral supported me, and on Saturday night (15th) I had the
whole town proclaimed in Arabic, stating that persons {193} caught
firing houses would be shot, persons caught looting twice would be
shot; all persons to return to their homes, etc., with confidence, and
anyone wanting to get information or to lodge complaints to repair
instantly to the chief of police.
"By Wednesday (19th) I had perfect order in the town, and all firing of
houses had been stopped, life was comparatively safe, looting nearly
stopped. By Friday the 21st, one week after taking charge, all the
fires were put out, all the corpses buried, and things were generally
ship-shape. I could not have done this unless the admiral had trusted
entirely to me, and given me absolute power of life and death, or to
flog, or to blow down houses, or to do anything that I thought fit to
restore law and order and to put the fires out. I only had to shoot
five men by drumhead court-martial sentence, besides flogging a certain
number, to effect what I have told you.
"I had a clear thoroughfare through every street in the town by Monday
(24th), and all _débris_ from fallen houses piled up each side and all
dangerous walls pulled down. These things were done by organising
large working parties of from 100 to 200 hired Arabs. At first I
collected them at the point of the bayonet and made them work, but I
paid them a good wage every evening, and the bayonets were unnecessary
after the first day, when they found that England would pay well.
"I also collected all the fire-engines I could find, bought some, and
requisitioned others, got some artificers from the Fleet and got the
engines in order, had a bluejacket fire-brigade, and also a working
party of Arabs on the same footing as the road brigade. These worked
exclusively at the fires, and not at patrolling unless at urgent
necessity. Besides these I had a sanitary committee, which buried any
bodies we might have missed, burned refuse and remains of loot about
the streets, and reburied any bodies which might not have been buried
deep enough, besides enforcing cleanliness directly the town began to
get a little bit shipshape. There was a corps of native police to work
under {194} my patrols, and when I turned all the affairs over, I had
260 of these men.
"I disarmed all Europeans found in the streets with revolvers, and by
so doing saved many a row in the town, as the class I have mentioned
returned in thousands after the bombardment, and they treated the Arabs
as if they, the Europeans, had silenced the forts and policed the town.
I put many in irons for looting, and for shooting at inoffensive Arabs.
"The greatest triumph was the formation of an Egyptian court to try the
serious cases I had on hand for life and death and long terms of
imprisonment. Not only did tret the court formed to try what cases I
chose to bring before it but after sentence of death I insisted on
Egyptian authorities making the Egyptian soldiers (the loyal ones)
themselves shooting the prisoners whom the court sentenced....
"I had four gallopers and four Marine orderly gallopers, in default of
whom I could not have done things so quickly in the many different
departments, nineteen horses, and a telephone to each station. I paid
all the carts requisitioned in the town for carrying my men's
provisions, loot, etc. etc. The officer using them signed a chit
stating the hour he had taken a cart and for what service, and then the
man came to my office to be paid, which he was instantly. By this
means good feeling was established between the people and the military
police. Each depot had two interpreters attached to it to avoid any
misunderstanding, and for explanations when trying prisoners and
interrogating witnesses....
"The Marine officer thoroughly investigated each case, examined all
witnesses, and then placed the evidence on a regular charge-sheet,
stating whether he believed the prisoner guilty or not guilty, and his
reason for that opinion. If it was a serious case, I again tried it
myself and judged accordingly. There were several cases of
blackmailing at first, but these were soon stopped....
"Besides the courts held at the Police Depots, courts were {195} held
at the Tribunal Zaptieh and the Caracol l'A'ban, at which Egyptian
officers acted as judges. In each court were three shorthand-writers,
each placed behind a separate screen, and under the charge of a
sergeant of Marines, to prevent collusion, who submitted their reports
to me, in order that I should receive three independent accounts of the
proceedings, upon which I could intervene if necessary, in order to
prevent anyone being shot if there were not the clearest and most
uncompromising evidence of his guilt. If there were any discrepancy in
the reports, I had the prisoner retried. I did this in three cases.
Another case, in which the circumstantial evidence, though very strong,
was not conclusive, I reprieved."
The following troops assisted the British forces in restoring order:
125 Americans, about the American Consulate; 30 Germans, about the
German Consulate and Hospital; and 140 Greeks about the Greek Consulate
and Hospital. On the 16th July, Captain Briscoe (a son of an old
Waterford man who hunted the Curraghmore hounds after the death of my
uncle, Henry Lord Waterford) of the P. and O. _Tanjore_ volunteered his
services, and with 20 Italians of his crew, did excellent work. Other
volunteers who assisted me were Mr. Towrest, a member of the Customs,
and Mr. Wallace. Major Hemel, R.M.L.I., and Captain Creaghi, R.M.L.I.,
were appointed magistrates. These Marine officers performed invaluable
services.
I had special reason to be grateful to Mr. John Ross, a British
merchant of Alexandria, who gave me every assistance in his power. He
knew every yard of the place. He gave me invaluable advice with regard
to the organisation of the city, obtained interpreters, and helped to
supply the troops, placing his stores at my disposal. He would have
dispensed with receipts for articles supplied, had I not insisted upon
his taking them. Mr. Ross supplied the whole Fleet with coal, fresh
meat, and all necessaries; his help was quite inestimable, his energy
and patriotism beyond praise; {196} but although he must have suffered
considerable losses, he received no recognition of any kind from the
Governnment except the naval medal.
Mr. Ross gave me great assistance also in parcelling out Mehemet Ali
Square among the country purveyors of produce, each of whom received a