FROM THE WILDERNESS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2992, 1 February 1917, Page 3

FROM THE WILDERNESS

RETURNED SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCE. OF SINAI, A GLIMPSE OP r ENGLAND Sergeant W. E. Houghton, of the Wellington Harbour Board's staff; who returned from England by the Maheno, will recommence'work with the Board to-day. Sergeant Houghton went to Egypt with the Main Body, and saw a good deal of; service'at'Gallipoli until he was shot in tho. leg-at Walker's Ridge. He was invalided to Egypt, and, after recovering, was attached to the New Zealand troops which were operating in the Canal zono about the middle of the year. "I often wondered what tho wilderness was like that is ; referred to. so much in the Bible," said Sergeant-Houghton. "I know now. You only want to be out there in Sinai to know what it is. Sand ridges as far as, the eye can reach, furrowed like the'waves, of the .ocean, with the sun blazing down at a temperatureof 110 to 120 degrees.in,the shade.. It was so hot that we had to chango the order of things. Owing; also, to the fact that to advance we had to climb over the tor) of the. sand waves, and so become plainly, visible from • the Turkish observation posts, it' was necessary' to alter our system. ' So we went to, sleep during; thcyday tinreyi.ind■began to work at 6.30 in the eventing, gradually working forward with the railway,.: which led .right back- to the Canal," and on which we depended not only for our food supplies and ammunition, but , for', the'stone to. build the permanent way of-the railway, a work that, last/year- was advancing at...the late of a mile .'a ■ day. • There were at ]past a thousand natives engaged on the railway-last August, each .of. whom; was being paid lo^piastres'a day.v'.The' nsual rate of pay in Sgypt for such; labour is,five piastre's*a day, so they're doing all right." It is tho onlv way to' operate in this country, and will eventually bo the means of getting.away up to Jerusalem,' in Palestine."

It was during this campaign that SfirEjeant.Hought.cm was stricken down with enteric and dysentery . After a

spell in Cairo lie was sent on to England, where he gradually recovered- his health and strength. ' The returned man remarked to a Dominion reporter how different everything in England was to the conditions existing here. Ho believed that Eugland was now thoroughly awake, and everyone was trying to do their bit. The women at Home were simply wonderful. They were tackling all sorts of work, and making a success of it. "You don't see able-bodied men driving taxis or acting as tram conductors now," said Mr. Houghtori. "That sort of work is all dono by young women, and it's surprising how efficient they are! As good'as men?—they are better. Smarter, more polite and attentive, more alive in their job. -When a wounded soldier gets in a crowded 'bus, it is the girl conductor who says "Who'll give lip their seat to a ' wounded soldier?" And she makes them give it up if no one responds. She doesn't need to ask the women. They get up at once, but some of the men don't, ,and it's those she gets on to. But it?s not. only on the cars and. 'buses. The women are cutting in everywhere. Near Betlinal .Green, there are five miles of munition factories, and between 4000 and 5000 in England and Scotland, and the majority .of .th*e.,«mployees are women." .