Crimean texts
[Transcribed by Megan Stevens]
On Thursday evening Mr. PEEL proposed, and the House agreed to, a supplemental vote for the Commissariat services in the Crimea amounting to 2,568,335l. As this is the department in which the chief embarrassments occurred last winter, and as the supplies thus provided for are of infinite consequence to the comfort of the individual soldier and the general efficiency of the army, our readers will, no doubt, be desirous of understanding more particularly the exact nature of the expenditure referred to and of the provision thus made for the contingencies of war. We have explained on former occasions that the Commissariat Department is charged with the duty not only of victualling the army, but of providing the means of transport, and it is accordingly under the principal heads of provisions, transport, and forage that the great bulk of the money now voted is to be disbursed. Altogether, if we combine the original with the supplementary votes, the three items abovementioned appear to stand for 1,355,335l., 1,000,000l., and 1,080,000l., respectively, to which certain smaller charge are afterwards added.
With regard to the supply of provisions, we learn from Mr. PEEL’S statement that we shall now, by means of these disbursements, get the security of depôts of reserve, or establishments in which large stores can be amassed for future consumption. Arrangements have also been made for varying the daily rations of the soldier, by the issue on certain days of the week of fresh meat and bread, instead of salt meat and biscuit; and one of the minor charges to which we have above referred will also be made instrumental to improving the ordinary diet of the troops. Nothing was more commonly complained of in the camp last year than the scarcity of fuel, the want of which, besides imposing a vast amount of labour on men already overworked, was a fatal impediment to anything like wholesome cookery. The soldiers, when exhausted with duty, were compelled to cast about in all directions for such firing as they could find in the shape of roots or shrubs, and the consequence was that their rations were too often either ill-dressed or not dressed at all. To obviate such sufferings for the future the charge for fuel and lights, originally standing at 22,000l., has now been liberally raised to 100,000l.. by a supplemental vote of 78,000l., and Mr. PEEL, in alluding to the subject, remarked, with a well-deserved compliment to M. SOYER, that the services of that accomplished artist had been effectively applied to the improvement of the military kitchens. These precautions appear to have been judiciously devised — in fact, they are addressed directly to the weakest points of our former arrangements, and we hope that, with the aid of good depôts, abundant fuel, and M. SOYER’S instructions, our troops may be relieved for the future from privations so severely felt.
The transport service, as will be easily understood, is of the most vital importance to the efficiency of the army — indeed, it depends directly upon the means provided in this respect whether the troops are or are not in a position to take the field. Our requirements in the Crimea, notwithstanding the invaluable assistance of the railway, are still enormous. On the 26th of June last there were already, according to Mr. PEEL’S statement, 7,000 animals with the army, and the number has been increased very considerably from that time. Spain and Sardinia seem to have furnished the principal supplies of these useful beasts, but some have been obtained from Sicily and others from Syria, the whole force being under the direction of Colonel M’MURDO. It is owing to the large augmentation of the transport corps, as well as the increased numbers of cavalry and artillery now in the Crimea, that heavy additional charges are incurred in respect of forage. A former vote of 294,000l. was accordingly extended by a supplemental vote to the amount of 786,000l., making in the whole 1,089,800l.
Besides the main items to which we have referred, a vote of 102,000l. was also taken for the miscellaneous services included in the department. Under this head is comprised a charge of 24,000l. for the current expenses of the Balaklava Railway and the wages of the men required to keep it in proper working order; another of 54,000l. for Croat labourers employed as scavengers, road-makers, &c.; and a third of 24,000l. for the coal-mines of Heraclea. How largely the wellbeing of the troops and the objects of the war may be promoted under each of these heads we need not stop to explain. The railway has already economized the toil of both man and beast to a vast extent, and has virtually, indeed, annihilated those six or seven miles of space which proved so great an embarrassment to us a few months ago. To the precautions which have been unremittingly taken in the way of scavenging and cleanliness may be probably ascribed, in no small degree, the present health of the army, while the want of roads has already cost us too much to permit any repining over the wages of roadmakers.
We trust the supplies thus liberally voted by the House may be turned to such purpose as to secure the army from any such sufferings as those of last winter. It was here, and not in our inability to take Sebastopol, that our misfortunes occurred. Now that the true nature of the operations in the Crimea is understood, it will not appear surprising to any one that works of such strength as the Russian lines, defended by a prodigious artillery, and garrisoned by an army incessantly reinforced, should have been so long maintained. We achieved, in fact, a substantial victory in our descent upon the Crimea, and in our occupation of Russian territory against all the efforts of the enemy. We held, as we still hold, the ground we won against all the legions of the CZAR; and, if we had not suffered from the defects of our own arrangements, there would have been little to complain of. War, to be vigorously prosecuted, must be carried on by operations in some field or other, and there is no place where it can be carried on with so much advantage to ourselves and disadvantage to the enemy as in that province of his dominions which is the most convenient for our communications and the least convenient for his.
The recapitulation of the supplies necessary to give efficiency to the Commissariat service is enough of itself to show how much injustice may be committed in the measure of responsibility attached to Commissariat officers. It is quite true that when an army is ill-fed and ill-provided with transport the Commissariat Department may be said to have broken down, but this result may evidently occur not only without blame to the officers engaged but in spite of their most zealous efforts to remedy the mischief by personal devotion. In appears to us, we are bound to say, upon an impartial review of the case, that Mr. FILDER, who is now, we believe, on his journey home, deserves far greater credit for what he accomplished than blame for what, perhaps with no means of doing it, he may be thought to have left undone. He seems, at any rate, to have foreseen evils, if he could not always prevent them, and we are much disposed to think that the Commissariat Department would have provoked little complaint, had his instinctive sagacity and indefatigable devotion to the service been equalled by the means at his command.