GUARDIANS OF THE CANAL
EGYPT'S DEFENCES FORTRESSES IN THE SANDS (Empire Press Union—From W. T. Massey.) Eastern Egypt, April iAll tho German intrigue in Turkey has not succeeded in getting the Ottoman army to attempt to hold up traffic on tho Sues Canal this season. Even tho misguided Turk must now regard such a scheme as a hopeless adventure. His preparations continue .in a half-hearted fashion; perhaps his prido prevents an opon acknowledgment of inevitable failure, but whenever he does anything substantial, the energy, the resource, and the bombs of our airmen—an invincible combination—scatter the results of his labours to the four winds. Tho Turk has not the remotest prospect of success. Probably he appreciates the impossibility of damaging the Canal, but to keep some Bedouins with him, and, what is more important .for German policy, to endeavour to influence the Arab population of. Asia and Africa, he may pursue a campaign, of pinpricks in the shape of affairs of patrols. Anything in.the nature of a serious attack on Egypt during the 6timnier months is absolutely out of the question, and nobody knows this bettor than the Germans who advertised to the world a scheme which was to "cut the mtun artery in tho body of the-.British. Empire." That vain hope has been dissipated.
Tho Turk is sitting still, or, at least, marking time, but the Egyptian Expeditionary Force pushes forward, and has made the Canal so secure that passengers to the"*-East may sleep as 6oundly rn their state-rooms as in the piping times of peace. Earlv iu March I cabled e, brief account of now the advanced defences were progressing. Since then the works have been continued at a speed highly creditable to the troops, and while the big defences are being' completed positions. are being, taken .up so far out in the desert that there is not much chance of the enemy having the limited satisfaction of.casting longing eyes on tho waterway. A vast system of road and railway communication, as well as of animal transport, is in being, and deep across the eastern side of the Canal, where voyagers were accustomed to look over miles of sand trembling under.tho blistering rays of the sun, with scarco a palm tree to relieve a picture of-utter desolation, ' one sees the civilising influence of military hands. A few months have- indeed wrought a wondrous change Late last year a post here and_ there on' the Caaal banks seelned to indicate that tho highway of the world's ships was to be defended on the water. No one.has that illusion to-day. Scan the horizon with your glasses, and you can pick- up svKleneo that along way ahead towards the enemy',? base an army is making, great effort?, The Wells of Moses, White stone roads are covered with fine nat«il, and are indistinguishable till motor-lorries raise olouds of powdered Jimestone, the rail tracks are visible only when an engine scarcely bigger than a toy winds its load of tiny trucks from bant to railhead, and you get another sign 'of activity when a camel convoy; moving at a siow, untiring pace, shows itself black against the yellow background. But passengers are always seeing these things, aiid they go to tell the people of distant parts how security is being purchased at the price- of much human effort. - The Army 19 making a good bargain for the Empire, but how sound the bargain is only those.know who have been out there along'the whole line won back for, Egypt, the Empire, and civilisation. Having seen what is goinE forward, I believe if thero ever is a battl6 lor. the Canal it will not be fought within sight of ■ the banks. Obviously it la not prudent to givo even a general description of tho-mili-tary works which bring safety to Egypt and the link, which allows the constant flow of commerce between the seas ot East and West. But there are two places which the enemy knows wo have occupied, or he must bo a, very dull fellow. The duties of the Prince of Wales recently took his Fioyal Highness to these two places in one day—a test of endurance about which the soldiers on iluty.oi tuv neighbourhood ' havo not ceased to.talk. It was a proof of physical fitness, entailing, as it did, journeys. 1« train-) where utility is not sacrificed for comfort, and rides over something like twenty miles of hummocky desert in heavy going. The El Shatt' train created a Tecord the day the Prince rode in it by travelling at the rate of twenty miles an hour, but if you ask. the driver about the possibilities of the lino he would probably say the track has still to settle considerably' before a higher speed can be attained. He, being a driver of a Midland mail train in civil life, can form a sound opinion. The driver who took me and a load of wood over .the line thought his comrade would keep the record, for ho could not get much more than ten miles out of his engine.- •.
Oyun Musa, where the Prince spent some time; is interesting, not merely for. military reasons, but because of its historic associations. If tradition has not hopelessly misled later generations, here is the Elim of old and the Wells of Moses, where the great Lawgiver and the Children of Israel drank of tho swe&t waters after' crossing the sea. "And they came to Elim, whero were twelve wells, of water and three score and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by tho waters." There are to-day the twelve wells to' support the belief that Mm and Musa are one and the same place, and it would be difficult to imagino so .strange a phenomenon as two places in this desert with twelve wells. Anxious to obtain further.corroboration, an Army chaplain counted the palms, and has de. clared the three score and ten are "all present." Possibly the padre tallied only the tops of the venerable trees, some of which Buffered in last year's locust visitation, and allowed his eye to pass ovei thß younger palms which add to the beauty of this refreshing oasis. .. Indian Spade Work. To get to Musa a motor-boat flicks a trail across a. summer sea in the Gulf of Suez to permit you to'reach the now railway at the quarantine station. \lf you are an officer 'passenger you are privileged to sit on a garden seat bolted to a trolley attached by the simplest of couplings to\the engine. Behind you are trucks laden with wood, water and rations, on top of.- which some Indians rode or more less easily,. The driver says you will reach the wells in half an hour. Ho is an optimist. He knows the engine's trick of Shedding its load, the incurable habit of the trucks of jumping the points, and the little pleasantires of mules who, in hauling forage trucks in sidings to allow you to pass, show their spirit by overturning the bales. The engino is' better ballasted than the track, which is fortunate, for she rolls, .bucks, and sags.like a tramp steamer in a gale., and every time she jumps you sit hard to avoid being pitched on to the track. You arrive at railhead—revising the time-table on the way—and the amusing trials of tho journey are forgotten in your amazement at • what thew and muscle have done to save Oyur Musa from the taint of enemy touch. Of all tha trenches in the Cunal zone those of Oyun Musa are the most orderly. It is due to the soldier toilers of other parts to say. this is because tho sand hereabouts is wet, 'and there is! no drift when the khamsecn blows. But Nature deals out her trials with an oven hand,' and. here,, when relieving the commander of sand difficulty, she gives him what other commanders sigh for and can not get—water. There is water trouble at Musa. It comes just whero it is not expected. Dig a hole at a low lovel and not a drop porcolates into it. That is just where a trench is not wanted; on or about tho ridgo is where tho ground must be opened. There, two spades deep, tho water bubbles up with abominable energy. Tho more drainage is arranged for the more copious is the flow. That necessitates a new device; but war has sharpened man's cunning, and tho new scheme has much to recommend it. .A battalion of Indians, wonderful men who, coming from France a remnant of its former self with a V.C. as proof of high soldierly qualities, have spent threo months in making Musa impregnable.
They have worked wonders,- not merely where there was water trouble, but iu other parts, about which I will be silent, and they are so modest they endeavour to hide tlieir handiwork from inquisitive eyes. Tho Indians have sandbagged and excevated fire trench, communication trench, support trench, dug-out, and gun emplacement with infinite porsevorance and skill. They have tunnelled under strata of rock to preserve the strongest of head cover. They hewed long and hard to cut through stone which blunted pick and ruffled the temper, and they sought the aid of tho Territorial engineer, for whose short way with the obstinate crust of Mother Earth they have profound admiration. It is not less gratifying to hear tho Territorial bestow warm praise on his Indian comrade. There is between them the bond of hard work equally well done. One will defeud the honour of th» other against allcomers. But they do long for an opportunity :to strafe the enemy together. "When will'he come?"'is a question of second importance to "Will he come?" Will the Enemy Come? The Indians do six hours' hard labour a day, and troop off to that remarkable relaxation for tired soldiers—fulltime football. Their matches. are fre. queiit. Inter-company competitions are interesting, but tbey .lack the full flavour whioh comes of beating a regimental team. When I was with them tho battalion awaited an answer from another Indian regiment to an invitation couched in true sporting language. The match would be arrangod; the terms of th • invitation admit of no doubt of that. The officers who form part of the team say the men play the game, and juat 09 they imitate the Tommyi who set the fashion of wearing a cigarette behind hii) ear, so they copy the white soldier's oiarople on the football, field. Gebel Murr stands some tea nubs north of Musa, a gaunt stern sentinel guarding the approaches to . the . Canai on a far-flung line. It is the Gibraltar of the southern end of the zone, - mass of red stone as hard as granite, and with a. surface polished by tho sands drifted across it through the ages. With the assistance of fifty blasts day arranged by skilful English miners and quarrymen, Indian soldiers ■ have prepared that inhospitable top, and the'r officers are satisfied the . fortress will rtand the tests of war. An enemy marching westward must come through one of two passes, from which he would debouch in full view of Gebel Murr who rears a head nearly 400 ft. above the sand, yet looks low- and nnimposing compared "wit lithe jagged ridges of Gebel J?aha away to the west. Through tho sifts of Eaha the enemy -must come forth. Even when the setting sun illumines with a delicate pink glow the rough saw-like fringe of that stony up land, Gebel Raha is forbidding. But' the garrison of Gebel Murr wish'for no thing better than to show the Tark and his Hun leaders that that desolate crest is as Paradise to the hell that awaits them on the rolling bosom of the des'ett sand. Gebel Murr will take toll of any column that issues from the passes, and would welcome as soft music the bursting of high explosives against its face as a. preparation for infantry- attack. "Will he come?" Do not' say ho will not. to anyone on Gebel Murr, or the monotony of months spent in carving rooms and underground passages in the toughest stone will be unrelieved Dy a hope which has almost.become the prayer of the patriot.
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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2837, 31 July 1916, Page 11
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2,034GUARDIANS OF THE CANAL Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2837, 31 July 1916, Page 11
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