WITH THE THIRD ECHELON

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 254, 30 December 1940, Page 8

WITH THE THIRD ECHELON

SECOND-LIET. HULTQUIST'S CHRONICLE EN ROUTE AND IN EGYPT "It seems a long-, long- time since I left Whakatane and yet it is only three and a half months ago that I was there on final leave. Perhaps, the fact that I have travelled many thousand miles since then tends to make the time seem longer," writes Second-Lieu tenant A G Hultquist, M.P., in a comprehensive chronicle daied December 6th,. and received at Christmas. Sec-ond-Lieutenant Hultquist writes from "Somewhere in the Westwern Desert." The letter continues: Ceneorship rules and regulations prevent me from telling more than the smallest fraction of the story and so those. AA'hc read this letter Avill be spared the boring job Oi* digesting a prolonged account of my travels. No doubt it lias long ago been announced that tha third Echelon arrived'safely in Egj'pt. As a matter of fact Ave landed at our final port of call on October Ist. En route avc called at only two other ports and at each place all ranks were given shore leave" .1 am not allowed Id mention the names of the ports but suffica td say that eA'cryone Avas glad to ge;t a spell ashore. Spontaneous Welcome • The troops behaved excellently throughout the whole and- on the occasions ashore. At the first" port aa t c Avent ashore at 11 a.m. and Avere giA r en leave until midnight. To reach the city entailed a 12 or 13 mile journey by rail and all along the route the people came out of their homes to Avclcome us. I have never seen such an enthusiastic and spontaneous Avcltiome giA T en anywhere. The city, too, was pleased to see us and the authorities had gone to a good deal of trouble to arrange for the local people to take the troops on sight-seeing tours and the time slipped by all too quickly. I had a letter of introduction from the secretary of the New Zealand Branch of the Parliamentary Association to his vis-a-vis here, I found him and spent a very pleasant afternoon indeed, meeting all the Cab inet Ministers and I had afternoon tea Avith the Speaker of the Upper House. I Avas taken over both houses and Avliat struck me Avas the simjilarity in the design of the tAVO chambers, Avhereas in New Zealand the two Houses lnrve their own particular design and beauty in constructional details, I Avas- introduced to the Member for the toAV'n I Avas born in. He, 100, is a native of that town. Another interesting connection Avitli the city Avas-that it Avas the place in Avhieh my mother and father. Avere' married and in making mention next day that I had been a visiitor to the toAvn the local press referred to that fact. Not so Good

The other port of cull was quite different in ev.cry respect. The population of the place is much greater than the whole of New Zealand. Without purposely reflecting on the place, but stating Avhat is a fact, I. have never seen a dirtier place in mv life. And smell! Well, least said the better,, but the best vie,w we had of the port was over the stern of our ship as it sailed after a five-davs stay.

We could still smell it some miles out at sea. And lient! We stood in the streets and simply sweltered. I saw some very sad sights at that place. Anyone going; ashore could have bought a real, live babv from its mother (who was possibly a widow of 14 or 15 years of age) for an anna (about Id). I was on leave in the city on two aL';.ernoo,ns and evenings and deliberately set out to see the worst and lowest parts. T did so primarily to see for myself just how luekv New Zeaianders were and I surely convinced myself absolutely that, no matter what one's position is in New Zealand, it can no': possibly be as bad as that of thousands I saw here. I saw children eating their food off the- filthy streets —streets which are known U> be disease ridden.. J saw horribly deformed men, women and children. Poverty, in capita! letters, is everywhere in evidence. I never want to see the place again. In Egypt On nvri Fjiy'it, wc 11«mcdisHcly ]>r<; '-by . vis L! Eastern/1 ind Cairo, to Ei

Maada Camp, about 12 miles south of Cairo. We went into tents for the first three -weeks and immediately resumed our training—on a more comprehensive scale than at Trentham, Wo; were welcomed by ■ Major-General Frcyberg who seems to me to be a grand fellow, thoroughly wrapped up in the Avelf'are of the New Zealanders. After three weeks at El Maada we went into huts. The huts have concrete floors and are built up to three or four feet of briclv, splinter-proof Avails and above that of a kind of sea-grass matting on a wood frame. Tiie roof is a wooden frame covered 'with scrim and plaster. Of course, that is quite satisfactory and wea-ther-proof as no rain falls at Maadi. None has fallen since the arrival of the first Echelon last February, anyway, and I am told that nothing worth speaking of has fallen for seven 3 r ears. By the time we arrived the first Echelon had been posted to special duty in the Western Desert and, quite frankly, -we -were all envious of the fact that they were on; active service in the field, whereas we had to go through a further period of training. Visiting Cairo I took most opportunities of visiting Cairo. I went in on some week nights but mostly on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays after Church parades, and, incidentally, Sunday in Egypt is the same as every other day. The Christian population is negligible. They are mainly Mohammedans and thousands of Jews, Coptics and Greek Orthodox Church adherents. So on Sundays

business goes en as usual. Cairo is a fascinating citA* in many, respects and its population includes representatiA'es of eA r ery major race —all languages are spoken. I met a seven-year-old, Amenian avlio could speak five languages fluently. . '

Transfer On November 15th I was transferred to the First Echelon, in the Western Desert, being appointed second-in-command "of the Signal Section attached to the 4th Infanttry Brigade. That meant leaving Cairo that night at 9.30 p.m. and travelling via the Nile. Delta, Alexandria and the Western Desert to a | point about 15 miles West of Alexandria, on the Mediterranean Coast. The whole journey was done in complete black-out so I saw little, or nothing, except on the latter part of the journey. At last I had the clian.ee of service under active conditions and while there: are no real fireAvorks up here, one is doing a specific job all the time. (Note: This letter Avas writ ten only a few days before the British OffensiA'e began. It has been stated in cable reports that NeAV Zealand transport and signalling units were engaged. Ed..) I am camped right on the beach and have had a swim or tAvoi in the blue Avaters of the Mediterranean. That is the oniy Avay to get a bath. Fresh Avater >s too scarce to be mentioned. To Avest, south and east sandy Avaters stretch as far. as the eye can see and then some. We arc not very far from the Italian Libyan Frontier . We are Availing for the Italians under Gra/.iano, to advance, as, he has so long threatened to do. I doubt if he will. We arc all keen to do the ourselves but its ours' not to reason Avhy,' etc. (Note; The Avish Avas soon fulfilled, Ed.). A Strong Position Still, that.is the position. We are occupying a dcfensiA'e area and are well entrenched and, believe me, in mv particular job as signal officer; I have opportunities to see for myself just how ready Ave are either to make or repel an attack. I think 'Mjusso' must know that Ave are fairly strong in the present position. His planes conic OA'erhead when the moon is full or thereabouts.

AVe are all well provided for in the way of slit trenches and our tents are dug in Avell below the ground level so we are safe from anything- but direct hits. "!l niiiy seem callous to say so but we are all dead keen to get| in to a scrap. I suppose that months of train ing makes us like that. Perliaps we will g-pt all we want in time. Every day is the same here. A job to do and then bed. Black-out is strictly observed and there is nowhere to go when work is done. It is the same at the week-ends, too, so we do not apply for week-end Icpve. InsUvnl 10 p ;i r e^ 11 !, of the (Continued loot next'colainn) ,

week. That means we get sieven days leave every ten weeks, weather and Italians permitting. My leave is elite in January and I hope to go to Palestine and see as much of the Holy Land as I can in the time allowed.

Meeting the Boys I have met a good many Bay of Plenty lads over here and some Whakatane boys. I' met and spoke to Lieutenant-Colonel Prideaux, recent ]y promoted, several times in Maadi. Each time I met him in the shower house there. I also met and had a chat with Herb Brabant but X only saw C. F. Thomas once to'nod to. They all looked well although I heard recently that Lt.-Colonel Prideaux had been in Helwas Hospital. He lias now recovered and is on the mend again. I never knew until I came over here what a welcome thing, a letter can be and only those over here can realize the thrill of receiving a let-' ter from N.Z. There is no sadder sight than that of a soldier who does not £et a letter when the, mails arv - rive. Apart from the letters! we receive the newspapers, which come over rather irregularly and we healvery little news of New Zealand. From the political point of view, then, I know little of what is happening ap home. From my knowledge of the people in the Bay I. am sure that- they will not hesitate to express their opinions, of the political situation, even during my absence and I* have noticed that they have done so recently according to copies of the T3FiAOOi\ T which ,my wife sends m: regularly. 4 But I must conclude. It is getting late and I am tired. So wishing every one at home a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and peaceful 19-11.. I will say Au Bevoir and Good Luck/