"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 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 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 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."