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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2379, 8 February 1915, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS IN EGYPT EXCITABLE MOSLEMS (From a Correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald.") From Alexandria we travelled to Cairo by troop trains, and all the Australians are not yet in camp. Mena, behind the Pyramids, is the infantry camp. The artillery and engineers are also there. The Light Horse .are at Macrda camp. Tho New Zealanders are at Heliopolis. Alongside the New Zealanders there is the East. Lancashire Division. There are Manchester regiments on guard at the citadelle, and there are also many Territorials in various barracks in Cairo. Mena camp is in course of construction. Traction engines are used in making roads, and the tramway from Cairo is being taken into the camp. The men and norses are very fit, not more than 100 men being in hospital, where the Australian army nurses are in charge. Mena House is resumed for the divisional headquarters.' When the large population of Cairo is considered, the garrison is not too big. There are nearly a million people here, a very cosmopolitan population. Riotous Moslems. The prospect of a rebellion is not so much with the population of Cairo as with, the dervishes of tho deserts, but the Moslem element in Cairo is very subject to i riots. It is easily worked up to the fever-heat of fanaticism. For instance, when tho equestrian statue was erected in one of the main streets Cbaria El Kamil to Ibrahim Pasha, some "holy men" discovered that the horse's tail pointed to Mecca, which, they said, was insulting and sacrilegious. A great excitement and a mob was worked up over the question. The authorities had to take a firm stand, for it either meant the horse's tail pointing to Mecca, or Ibrahim. Pasha turning his back on the whole thoroughfare. So when the mob they found that the police and the military were drawn up, and after a lot of noise the fanatics went home. Even as late as Kitchener's time there was a difficulty about the removal of certain sheikhs' tombs which were in the middle of the street, and trams were being laid down. The matter was settled by removing the tombs during the night, and having the polioe there on the spot in the morning to answer' questions. For the most part the population of Cairo is peaceful and prosperous. ' Sinoe British occupation the population has increased enormously; the people have been attracted by the security of British rule from distant and Je'ss settled places. ' Refugees in Egypt. Cairo is now full of refugees from Palestine. All the missionaries and most of the well-tc-do Christians have come to Egypt for safety. Egypt itself is at war with the' Turk. Tho political boundary on tho east is between Akaba and Eafa. At Akaba there has been fighting.- British airmen have flown over the Sinai. Peninsula, and report that there is no enemy there. It is now assumed that it would bo impossible for a_ hostile army to cro6s the desert and violate the region of the Suez Canal. Some harm may be done by roving bands; of Bedouin i, but probably the Turks will have enough to do to repel the southern advance. of the Russians from Erzerum,'"and the northern ad-, Vance of the Anglo-Indian force along the Euphrates Valley. So that the chance of the Australians seeing any fighting here is remote, but it is an excellent training ground, and in 'winter Egypt has an ideal climate. Things are so disturbed in Syria, where the Turk is* at his old game of loot and outrage, that it is said in the local Press that even the German colonists would welcome a British expedition as liberators. Camp by the Pyramids. The Australians are hard at work putting the camp in order, and when they are on leave they climb the Pyramids or dash along the streets of Cairo 'in motor-cars, carriages, and oh donkeys. A Cairo paper says that the Australians and New Zealanders are "superior people; and the young men seem to bo of good family with plenty of money." Verily this record is true, but they will have less money when the Arab traders have done a little more business with them. A dry canteen is being started in the Mena Camp, and various buildings of timber and. matting, where the chaplains and Y.M.C.A. agents will hold meetings and concerts, are being erect.ed,'and by-and-by there will be less inducement for the men on leave to visit tho city. The people, here admire our horses very much. On ■ the other hand, we greatly admire the Arab horees used in the carriages of Cairo. For the most part they are well fed and splendidly groomed. But there'is nothing equal here to the strong and quick horses we have in our artillery and transport. It is wonderful to us, however, to see the great weights carried and drawn by the camels, mules, and donkeys. Both officers and men hire donkeys, but it is somewhat unmilitary to see "Khakis" racing along on donkeys with natives running'behind and using sticks to make'the donkeys go at the pace demanded by our soldiers. There is a charm about Cairo, in spite of its narrow dirty nativo streets and its broad, deep, and all pervasive smells. To go out in the tram to our camp at night and see the lights reflected in the waters of the Nile; to Ipok down the historic river from the great bridge (built by a German company) i 6 an experience. By day the journoy is equally interesting. Tbore you see the strange native craft with enormous, sails and masts sailing upon the river, you notice the ancient Egyptian water-wheels. lifting tho water as the oxen, blindfolded, go round and rourld on a perpetual circuit, and iii the yellow desert of Sahara on one side you seo the smaller Pyramids, on tho other the edge of tho Libyan Desert, and the mystic majesty of thn Gi/zch Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Belgian Enterprise. At the brief twilight tho colours are weird, a gloaming made uj> of approaching night and encompassing dust. In this misty, half light you suddenly see a miniature flock lod by camels laden with maize, donkoy carts piled with straw,, and behind tho email flock of long-tailed sheep Arab shepherds and farm labourers, muffled up in their long and sombre robes. Then a motor-car with great lights rushes past you. It may contain veiled Egyptian ladios or gontlemon wearing tho everlasting tarboosh. All Government officials, oven British, wear tho tarboosh. Tho British oflicors of tho Egyptian army woar it. 1 A sort of modified tarboosh with different colours for different regiments is worn by Sudanese regiments. Thoy are manufactured here at the citadello by Government employees. Tho Egyptian railways are vory good. Tho permanent way is vory solid; limestono is abundant, and tho trains travel steadily. Most of tho locomotivos nro Fronoh, Tho trams are Belgian, tho motors were made at Charloroi. Belgian capital and skill are vory noticeablo in Cairo. A Belgian company built and owns tho splendid tramway to lleliopolis. 'Tho plctfaiiro grounds and tho rosiclences of lloliopolis aro owned by a Belgian company, and when you gazo at tho beautiful si,roots of houses and hotels, wlion you see tho beautiful Greek church, a small roplica of .Sancta Sophia at Constantinople, you cannot, but wish that tho architectural and engineering skill of thoso brave/ peoplo may soon he utilised in the rebuilding of I,heir own ruined cities. May I,tip future beauty,-of these cilici' lift i)C(u|jJ U) tit# Hei'tilM Ot tlifllf defend .