NEWS FROM EGYPT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 237, 13 November 1940, Page 5

NEWS FROM EGYPT

SOME INTERESTING DESCRIPTIONS LETTER FROM LIEUT. (HERB) Lieut. H. W. Brabaxit„ of Wha-> katane, in a letter to his parents dated 22nd October from El Maacli Camp, Egypt,; writes: "It' is eiglit o'clock at night and I have just been censoring a". batch of work. Each, officer handles the outward mail of his own men. It is a boring job and when I conic to writing my own letters I can-think of very little to say. T often wonder if I have told you the-news in previous letters- or just read it some* where while I have been censoring. We-'are still in camp a few miles from Cairo, so close that we can see the outer buildings of the city. I have been into Cairo quite a; number of times, both by car on a road running close to the Kile, and also by desert train which travels at about 70 miles-per hour. Egypt is a queer place,: a strange mixture of the old with the new. Wonderful modern buildings almost side by side with dirty hovels. The people outside the towns live mostly by agriculture on small plots of land irrigated by Avaters of ;tjhc Nile. Their houses) are small,, camels;, water buffalos and donkeys are in close proximity. In many cases the houses have no roofs which after all is not to be wondered at, as there is no rainfall here. Close to the Nile the crops of sugar cane, maize, tomatoes, etc. look wonderfully green* but outside the narrow strip of irrigation there is nothing but a desolate Avaste devoid of all vegetation.

Our camp is on the desert anil there is not a particle of growth to be seen. The ground is mostly a mixture of dry earth, Hint,, pebbles and pumice, covered with a coating, of sand and thick dust. We sleep in very big tents supported by two centre poles. These tents are sunlt into the ground about two feet anil the excavated earth piled outskle the tent for protection against air raids . In addition we have A short >- trenches or "funk holes'* constructed outside, to which we can retire in moments of danger; At night every vestage of light is covered up so that the camp shows a complete blackout. We have had our first dinkum raid and quite a number of warn ings. These happen ata. V times during the night. I am post-* ing home a few pieces of bombs which I collected after the raid. You will notice the queer grain in the steel, keeping below the level of the ground is the only protection as the pieces of bomb 11 v far and wide. Only a direct hit can then do damage.

Cairo is a city of about one and a half million people, electric trams, quite a few nice shops and' theatres, a wide variety of dance halls, decrepit old taxis and hor.sedraAvn Vehicles something like phaetons which ply fov hire. The population consists of almost every race, Arabs, Egyptians (nicknamed wogs) Italians, French, .Turks, Syrians, Greeks and English in the minority. Arabic and French are the principal languages. The camp food is definitely poor. We have beef all the time, butter, is second grade and the bread always dry. tflilk is of the dried powder variety and there is very little fresh fruit. The water which probably comes from the dirty Nile is heavily chlorinated against germs, although it is clear When we get it, the taste is not at all palatable. Nile river water, is normally the colour of coffee. The climate here i? very hot but not as oppressive as that of Bombay, I am so browned off now that I am almost the colour of an Arab. Our dress is usually short sleeved shirts, short trousers, bare, knees, boots and puttees. The officers .always wear their belts and pistols loaded.

I often wonder what you are all doing at home. Your time is about nine Hours ahead of Egyptian time. Noon here is nine p.m. New Zealand. When writing send letters by "Air Mail" only,, the other way* takes several months."