ELUSIVE ARAB FOES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2747, 15 April 1916, Page 7

ELUSIVE ARAB FOES

'■ HORSEMEN WHO MELT LIKE A , . MIRAGE WAR SKETCHES FROM MESOPOTAMIA '(By Edmund Candler, in the "Daily Mail,") . Sheikh Saad (on the Tigris), Jan. 11. ►-The mobility of tho Arab cavalry, who ride light, and aro unsparing of their horses, is something outsido experience. On approaching a, Turkish position to reconnoitre, our scouts will often see a horde cf Arabs emerge from $ho dark masses and spread in a fanlike movement over the whole horizon. These' irregulars are eternally swooping about for no apparent reason, .unless it be bravado or , the instinct of tho kite in complicated morements and figures'of eight. Drop a shell in front of them and they,will swerve like a flight of teal, make a wide detour at full, gallop, and appear on the Other flank. The atmosphere is most deceptive, and in the haze or.mirage it is difficult t-6 tell if the" enemy, a re .horse or foot or to make any esti,nip.te of their numbers. iEvorything is magnified. A low-lying mud. village becomes a fort with walls twenty feet high, a group of donkeys a palm grove. Camels appear on a near horizon like huge dissipated compasses. •There is not a cavalary regiment , with the force which has not at one time or other mistaken-sheep fgr infantry. All that is gained in scouting by the flatBess of the country is discounted by the eccentricities of the ■ mirage. Often in. a, reconnaissance the enemy are within six hundred yards before the squadron commander can distinguish .Whether thoy are mounted or on foot. ' Apart from the mirage, the country Uffords little , or no cover save the mud banks of an occasional dry irrigation channel. These are high and in the dis-tance-might be taken for the walls of a city.' The disused water channels look as if the channel had been carried above the level. of the surrounding country. The.low, isolated sandhill is,a snare which draws artillery lire, and leaves an exposed flank on either side., ! Cavalry Essential. In no theatre of the war is our cavialry so essential, for the Arabs make up a kind of irregular arm for the Turk. They are always hovering on. our flanks ready to take advantage of 1 any accident or confusion by the way. And they follow like jackals in our rear. Tiro jibbing ponies in a Jaipur , trail-' sport cart liave to be uiiy'oked and the cart abandoned. The Arabs down on it before the rearguard has passed on eight hundred yards. After this the nondescript horde close in, emboldened by the l<Sot. . They, are frankly plunderers,;; and murder is merely the preliminary to pil-. lage. They kill their prey before they strip it. A battlefield ic haunted by them for days. They leave, the dead itark and have been known to dig up graves. Yet to see their prisoners clamyuriiifc; for food and water and attention bo the wounded ■ you would think they bad been trained in the comity of nations. It is on record thaf they have sometimes spared the wounded, but only on occasion when some responsible person lias been by—an influential Sheikh or a'regular Turkish officer. ' Nomirfelly they are fighting for the Turk, but they are the most uncomfortable allies. Their Islamic sympathies, are but skin-deep, and they turn on their friends aud'murder and- loot, them,-, too, if opportunity delivers them into their hands. The Turks use them, but-'put 110 trust in them. That good sportsman, Saif Ullah, once commandant of the pompier' brigade at Constantinople, expressed our mutual - case against the Arab when he became our prisoner at Amara. '■ ' "It would be better," he said, "if

Ire could join hands and make an end of these scavengers. We could settlo our own , differences later."

This afternoon a chaplain rides up to tho colonel of an Indian Lancer regiment with whom I am talking, and nsks for an escort to a battlefield throe miles'in tho rear to bury the dead. "Three sowars will be enough, sir," the padre says apologetically. "I ivouldn't trouble you, but it is orders." The colonel has been in tho country fourteen months. Ho sends out a British officer and two troops. It is only three miles out from Army headquarters, yet two gunner officers had nearly been scuppered tho day before while inspecting an abandoned trcnch. Entertaining impudence. Tho impudence of the Arab i 6 some-; times entertaining. At, All Al Gliarbi I saw'a motley rabble of unarmed villagers, old men and boys, attempt to pilfer a limber wagon as it was leaving camp and a sowar scatter them to the .four winds by gentle prods with his lance. ; The Arabs, of course, melt away whenever our cavalry charge. Wo can never get in among _ them. They aro light, and carry little kit, and seem to bo independent of supplies. Their horses look thin and poor, but ore hard and well fed, and they do not mind using them up. Our chargers aro handicapped with their six stone of accoutrement, rifle and sword and ammunition, water-bottle; cloak, two blankets,'emergency rations, a day's grain for the horse, a. heavier mail to carry. The Arab horseman has his bag of dates, a small ration of grain for his horse, and nothing else save his arms and ammunition. ; These are of no regular pattern--a rifle always, Martini-Henri or Mauser —a dagger or sword, or both, waist-bolt, and bandolier of ammunition, and occasionally— especially among the Muntafiks—a lance, a broad-headed formidable spear like an assegai. They fire from the saddle for choice, and employ no dismounting tactics. Each man holds his own horse, and stands or kneels firing: , Their tactics are always to surround,a smaller force, shoot the horses, and close in, or to lead our cavalry on "to an infantry ambuscade. They fear ambuscades themselves, aijd are chary of following us up. They are'naturally more formidable in a retirement, when they wait uiitil our cavalry 'are mounting, and get in their fire before'they take up another position. They will only attack small bodies when tho odds are 5 or 6 to 1.