CAN THE ENENY TAKE EGYPT?

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2381, 10 February 1915, Page 6

CAN THE ENENY TAKE EGYPT?

j THE TURKISH ADVANCE i WATERLESS WASTE BARS THE WAY LIFE IN A HUGE INDIAN 1 CAMP. (Melbourne "Age" Correspondent.) ■ Sinai Peninsula, January" 3. •' The'mau'in tlte'stree.t.'.in .Egypt, ask- • ed if the Turks can attack the,narrow' waterway that links the East with the ■ West—lndia, . Ceylon, Australia, New i Zealand, and the Pacific Islands witb 1 tho Motherland—shrugs,his shoulders ■ and shakes-< his head; Usually' lie answers you in French—as the official language still—and, spreading out his -Lands, says, "Monsieur ce n'est pas • possible." ■ Thereupon you take your i map again and study it. You read of . tho. massing of the Turkish armies at i Maan, at Gaza, at Jerusalem, and yon : begin to realise then some reason for : tho delay in the expeceted advance of ;• tho German-deluded Moslems. But,not ! till you actually see something of the i country of the Sinai Peninsula can you realise that' geographies are not-strictly' < accurate, or that at least they are very ; inadequate, and leave out so much that ' is vital in the present position. If ! you would understand what this prob- ■ Jem really means you must get the h : best physical geography that isobtainI able; 'Never mind about the caravan i routes, but look at the map broadly— "at the mountain, chains, at the ravines, ; at tlie'- waterless watercourses of that : desert, at tie- plains that lie between ! the border of Egypt and .Turkey and { the Suez Canal. I heard the country •, described by, a' British officer who has I just come from India as identical country with the north-eastern frontier of h "They may try,", remarked his ; friend;, "but look .at the problem they have to solve. It is a race to water • for water." Then you look at the thin stream of deep water that runs i- througK the desert and through 1 the {'1 shallow lakes from the Red Sea to .the i Mediterranean, and no longer you won- ' • dor at the lines of trenches and forts, - ' at tho posts and pickets that you havo { passed when your ship sailed in perfect calm and unruffled security-through tho r" canal... i lvhave referred to this before and t. its : significance to Australia. Recent movements in the Turkish forces, and j future movements anticipated} have in- j ; the interest for the people of i the Commonwealth. Our/troops are |V. training'in Egypt, close-to the. canal, alongside masses of British trooos. They were sent there for training, but' al6o , for "war purposes." - Only just this I r week" there has .arrived-at the seat, of | .operations on.. the,;peninsula. a.isection ! of ouri engineers; -: Thus early in l the' 1 . . year .our. troops are coming- into' close i ■■ touch with the enemy. ' 7 Roughly speaking, there we're 90 : miles of Canal to defend when Turkey i threw in her; IoV with the , common , f. enemy. The boundary -line of Egypt , was 150 , miles away across the "desert, r, and was'hundreds of miles in length, i The Allies-held, as they , hold still, the S-. -conunand 1 of the seas.,: Turkish shipi : ping had' Seen .destroyed in the Red Sea' i and.ttalGiilf.of Akaba, and Suez was safe from .by water! The Moslem fleet (including the German Goei' ben) .was bottled up in the Dardanelles, while the-'Austrian.' ally could not obtain an exit": from'thol Adriatic. ' 'So ;Port Said was'safe from an attack. ' Therei fore invading armies could but come . across the peninsula. Now, the Canal, which, asfar,as the strategical position is concerned, is the'peninsula, may be; divided into four, parts. The first ! reaches from Port' Said towards Ismai- ! lioh. On the Turkish side stretch the plains of Tinch. • I hare written before of the flooding-of- these-plaihs i- Of its ; extent I had no idea until it was point- ' ed out. on the map... There, are .about • - 300-square., miles- of. the plains ihat ; have -teen-covered -with from • three" to ,•: live feet, of water, an. operation performed by simply cutting the banks of the Canal and letting in,the Mediter- :.. ranean. Obviously, therefore,.this -sec- ! tion has been rendered inviolate. The second section one saw in a railway . trip, from Port Said to Suez/ for the ! . Tailway runs right along tho bank of ! the.Canal, and has as its centre Ismailieh, of which I shall speaks of later. I It links on to the third section where > tho.Canal runs through the centre of a ! chain of lakes./' For the same reason | that they can 'have no' boats nor, bring' | materials to build bridges : across the j floded plains, so the Turks are foiled in any attempt to. concentrate" at this point ;. in their attack. The last remaining I section is that round Suez.

The Water Famine as a Defence. To ' prove that "this "point is just as least. likely-to be attacked as the otherIwo protected sections, 'one has to prox>und the rather curious paradox that : it is the absence of water —fresh water • —that is giving the necessary security. The whole situationis one of water sup. ply for the army, and the strategical -aspect is indissolubly bound up in this problem. Only two routes can be attempted across the desert and plains rand mountains from Turkish territory. One commences from Maan on the east, and the other from a point somewhere in the vicinity of Gaza, on the shores of tho Mediterranean. For ordinary caravan purposes, January and February, the winter months -of ; Egypt, arc regarded as the most •favourable for v travel. At this season the wells that are to be found along : tho routes are full and flowing. But in saying this it' must be added the supply is strictly limited. In the first place, the!wells are long distances apart; and secondly, they are very small. The flow is little, more than :a 'trickle, and: a • dozen camels and men are sufficient to exhaust the immediate supply, and one (has to wait perhaps twenty hours for the wells to all again. Yet tie German ■officers, who are stated to be in the Turkish army corps assembling, are determined to make the attack. Various estimates, are given as to the number of these • officers; some say 300, other : travellers believe them to be more numerous. The Turkish troops are given in some quarters as 80,000, in others as 200,000. Twenty thousand camels are said to have been collected to help in tho raid. Trevelling,at the fastest, tho march to the Canal of this army must take, ten . days; and, assuming that sufficient , water can ,be carried for this journey, :-the Canal would have to be stormed, •taken, and crossed in a day or a night. -And, after seeing the troops on the Canal and the trenches, it must inevitably mean that the invading host would he tnmed back into the desert with a journey of ten days before they can 'reach water* That is why. the attack on Suez is-'as hopeless as it must be at any other point, for to Suez the march wotild be farther. -. ' The Ways and Means af the Enemy. Indications point to the Turkish atare assuming now that the venture is maturing—being made from Maan. • Besides the 20,000 camels, there are large numbers of Bedouins, who have ranged' themselves with the Moslem forces.. News has leaked through that a railway that, runs to Maan is being .extended" across "the -desert, but the "enormous engineering difficulties must' barr its progress'very far: Even were . tiicro..but- deisert. .plains to cross, tlm difficulties of. water supply would be enormous; but there.- are, besides, rugged- mountain? raaiges and- dried up-ivater-couxses to> surmount and span. Napoleon commenced to lead his army across this peninsular in. the opening war of tho nineteenlJfiricentixrj. He l.rouoiwt by the eear-iotrts. lmK-

ging tlie coast of tho Mediterranean Sea. But his progress was aggravntingly slow, aud he hinisell in the end abandoned his troops. It had been necessary that advances should bo mado in small parties. Coming to a well, a depot would be established, and this gradually increased,. until the whole army could be brought up. And in this work he was unharrassed; he had but 20,01)0 men, and lie had besides a largo hase to work from. It seems that the Moslem plan is to mako a swift raid on the canal, and in oue swift, shai-p action reach the opposite bank. They are reported to have a huge gun, which is to bq brought and placed at a great distance from the waterway. They are intending to hide it in the mountains.-With this gun they hope to make a. breach in the, canal banks: How they intend to cross tho flooded desert, or even the canal, in the absence of material to build rafts or pontoon bridges is not clear, but such is the reported plan. And at what point would this attack be directed? . Their ■ nearest and most direct point is Ismailieh. Like all Egyptian towns, Ismailieh lias its European and . its native quarters. It is situated on the north bank of Lake'Timsali, and is therefore not on the banks of the canal itself, but some few miles distant. It was from this point that operations were directed in the building of the canal, and, naturally, since, '.the completion of the work the town has declined in importance. It is very picturesque, for irrigation has brought cultivation to its immediate environs: It is calm enough now, like other' cities in Egypt, though some believe it to be tho objective of invading hosts. I suppose that there are far more troops than natives in it now, and it wears all the appearance of a garrison town. But in this respect it is like other villages and towns along the banks of the oanal. It is full of rumours of an attack, it has been found to contain natives hostile to. the .British, who i have been, tried and sentenced. Quite lately there have been spies who have attempted to swim the canal, have been detected, and have been fired on ,by the Indian, troops.

A Camp of the Indian Troops. At one point is to be seen an encamp-' ment where there are assembled various Indian troops. They are magnificent troops, these, and we have read how their fighting qualities have already been proven on tlie battlefields of Europe. The Bakanir Camel Corps incident, when a party of 20, under Lieutenant Chope, beat off 300 Turks and Bedouins in- a running fight on tho •plains of Tineh, has aroused the fightin" spirit' of the men, and they are only anxious now for the attack to develop. . Some of the wounded I saw in ■hospital at Cairo, and they pointed with flashing eyes to the bullet wounds and sabre cuts on their arms and necks. A' number" have returned again to the lines. The men live in low, darkcoloured canvas huts, or tents, three or four-'sleeping together in a tent one .would have thought would only accommodate one soldier. Each race of the army is strictly divided, for each has its own customs. Where a British soldier will lean an Indian , will 6quat, and it is reminiscent of our own native tribes to see groups of these men squatting round holding animated conversations. They are all clothed ,in khaki, with cotton and woollen jackets to protect thorn from the cold, though a great number have come from the hill districts', and are standing the comparatively cold nights of Egypt splendidly. They have puttees and short knickers, which leave the knees exposed. For hats thrt'y have either turbans or Ehaki, or; as in the case of the Ghurkas, a hat not unlike the Baden Powell scout 'hat. ' .

" It is the custom of tie Sikhs never .to cut their ■ hair, and their beards are thick but grow in rolls round their clieeks and chin, wbilei their liair tucy roll up 'in a >knot under .their turbans. There are other troops who shave a portion of their head. The Gurkhas are rather smaller in build ( than the Sikhs (all nearly six feet in height), but are' very smart, and look enormously strong in physique. _ In all these-corps the officers are British, and the commands are all given in-English. One is struck in the camp with the flock of sheep that are constantly bleating. These animals have'to be kept for the races who are strict in their customs and who will not touch tho food which they have not themselves killed. It is a oommon sight, therefore, to see •live stock being weighed by. the simple method of tying an animal by the feet ( to a'scales which is attached to a beam. This pieoe.of wood is then held up at either end" by. natives: ' , By this, time the troops have become accustomed; to the whirring of the aeroplanes overhead. One watches two or three of them sweeping round in overincreasing circles before they dart off like a hawk flying high over the dosert. The men who - are in the trenches hear them, and perhaps a head adorned with a great .brown turban may be stuck for an instant above a sand hummock, and then as quickly disappear again. So the troops are watching and waiting, their rifles ready cocked by their sides. They cook their food in the trenches ; they never leave the line of defence. A field telephone runs back to headquarters, and one watches a Gurkha in bis large sombrero hat talking in sharp, precise tones into an instrument that' appears to be connected with the bowels of the earth. Occasionally bodies of .men insmall squads can bp seen moving over the sana rises, but they disappear suddenly as if swallowed up, and the desert resumes its forsaken appearance, for out in the outpost line there is little to' indicate the presence of the defending army. One only stumbles on them in Vhe. sand, as one might come suddenly to the mouth of an ancient tomb exposed amongst the ruins of an Egyptian burial ground.