TROOPS IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2387, 17 February 1915, Page 6

TROOPS IN EGYPT.

ADMIRABLE TRAINING GROUND

DRAWBACKS OF CAIRO

London, February 10. The correspondent of "The Times" at Cairo writes: —

"There are few countries where military training is carried out more easily and cheaply than in Egypt. The whole of the east bank of the Suez Canal, and the west bank, from Ismailia to Suez, the illimitable desert east and west of Cairo, the sandhills and desert of the coast strip east of Alexandria, and the Hariut steppe west of Alexandria are all admirable training grounds for large bodies of troops. Adequate water is obtainable from Cairo to Alexandria, along the Sweet Water Canal, enabling masses of troops to move anywhere. There are scattered obstacles for the guns and field transport in the high blown dunes, .but a manoeuvring area without obstacles would be unsuitable.

"Canals at tho edge of the desert and tho Suez Canal itself are giving the engineers practise in negotiating water obstacles. There is every kind of soil for the exercise of skill m trench digging. _ Ideal rifle and artillery ranges abound in the desert round Cairo, which is full of hollows and dry watercourses, whero troops can lie unseen. The desort is a no nian's land, where manoeuvring is inexpensive. ' "Cairo has certain disadvantages. The population includes a parasitical element that exercises its 6narp wits at the expense of visitors. The terms of the capitulations always prevented the Anglo-Egyptian authorities from taking sufficiently drastic measures against foreign owners of grog-shops selling sheer poison, and against the keepers of disorderly houses. "The early arrivals amongst the colonials suffered from these pests. The keepers of many bars and restaurant-s, unable or unwilling to replenish their stocks of beers and spirits, supplied the troops with drugged and adulterated drinks. The military doctors discovered men seriously ill after t'he.y had taken insufficient alcohol to .do them real harm normally. A single glass of beer had almost, poisonous effects. Analysis revealed startling doctoring. The beer was coloured with an extract of Indian hemp, whisky was adulterated with fusel oil, copperas, arid other poisons. .Prompt .and successful steps were taken to deal with this evil. Wet canteens were instituted at camps where tJhey were previously unprovided in deference' to the prohibitionist sentiment. The men were warned of the dangers they were incurring in the city. A number of bars were placed out of bounds, while General Sir John Maxwell ordered others to olose. These were the only drawbacks against Cairo as a British training centre. "Thanks to. inoculation, typhoid so far has been rare. British Territorials havo suffered somewhat from dysentery, and thero are several cases of pneumonia amongst the colonials. The health generally of the' army, however, is good, and is likely to improve. '