BACK FROM EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 176, 21 April 1919, Page 4

BACK FROM EGYPT

TALES OF THE N.Z.M.R. THE NEW ZEALAND HORSES Mounted men who had seen every phase of New Zealand's share of the fc'utten campaign, irom Gallipoli to Jerusalem, wei'e among tho troops brought to Wellington by the Kaikonra on Saturday. These "five-bar" men fought tho Turk during four strenuous years. They took part in battles that are now famous and in scores of minor "scraps" of which the Empire at large has heard scarcely anything. They saw the failure, or apparent failure, ot. Gallipoli retrieved by Allenby's decisive victory, which definitely and finally wrecked tho military power of Turkey, and left Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia as prizes in the hands of the Allies. The veterans of the New Zealand Mounted Brigade can tell many thrilling stories. A certain politician, a year or two ago, suggested in public that tho mounted men from Egypt ought to bo "sent to France to relieve the infantry. That remark, with its implication that tho N.Z.M.E, was having a soft time in n safe place, was read in thrce-month-old newspapers by men who were enduring heat, thirst, fatigue aud malaria as they pushed the Turks back across the desert and cleared the way for the big efforts of the campaign. "Wo passed the paper round the squadron and wished that we had tho chap with us," said one of the troopers on Saturday. "At that time we were well into tho desert. \\ e had a bottlo of water a day for each sec-tioit-a quarter of a bottle per man. Each luirse was allowed a gallon a day. Our tongues used to swell and our saddles slipped on our poor, lean horses. There were tremendous marches to be made over the sand, with a jwisoned well as the goal of a- inarch. When the lurks stood up to us, there was no question of digging in, bringing u'l> artillery, and so forth. We had to push on, .mounted troops across open country against rine and machine-gun fire. The wounded generally had to go buck on horses or camels, and they might have to ]>e tossed and shaken for days before they reached hospital beds. I am not saying that the job was any worse than the infantry's job, but it most certainly was no picnic." Turk Not a Sportsman. The Turk has been called by some a clean fighter. The mounted men are not disposed to endorso the tribute m any general sense. They admit that the luru can ii"ht well under his own conditions. Tie often fought well even in the closing weeks of tho campaign, when Alleiiby s swift-moving brigades were harrying tlie scattered remnants of the enemy armies. But he'is more than suspected o illtreating prisoners and the wounded; lie has poisoned wells and he is villainously cruel to animals. "The Turk night be a better man fighting his own fight than ho is fighting for Germany under German officers," was the verdict of a group of returned New Zeulanders We found him under German rule, and he did not impress us as being a sportsman, borne of the things he did were black crimes. Our men were less inclined to take prisoners in 1918 than they had been in 1916,. though the smashing of the enemy armies forced us to Hood our lines with prisoners last year." , - The fate of the New Zealand horses left in Egypt and Palestine is a subject on which the returned nen sneak with anxiety. Ihej are not satisfied with the official assurances that the future of these animals is being guarded. Several troopers remarked that they thought all. noises not required for Army purposes by the Imperial authorities ought to have been shot. If tho animals are going to be sold to civilians-and it appears that some of them have been so sold already-there can be no real assurance that they mil, not eventually find their way into the hands of the natives. And the natives wn-T of handling horses makes a_ Neiv Zealand boy's blood boil "ThpBUB"". keep their horses short of both food and water and they drive with the whip and not with the reins," said a trooper wearin- the 1914 ribbon. "They use a long wliip, and they can reach »g'>V' oun ' horse's head .to the shoulder. They k ep tho whip going all the time. It is the cruellest thing I havo ever, seen in nil life for there is no end to the nam and frigh I have punched a black driver Wake him drive properly, and have forced him to abandon the whip for a time But the fellows .can't drive without thTwhip. Tky have no other system, ind the? have got the horses into such T% ritless ami broken condition that the poor brutes, slacken down directly they are out of pain. I saw in Cairo an trooper shoot a horse in the street with us revolver. He said it i a»i Ws old horse, and .he had found it; being riven bv a native in the sort of vehicle that does duty for a cab there. I know we"glad whenever an order came to shoot hoSs after the armistice, though it was miserable work. - Future of Syria. The troopers have- gatheredl some| impressions regarding/ tho political future of tho lands they helped to'conquer. The men who have given attention. to ths Sweet will be "keenly <l!«tVl Syria and Palestine are allowed to tall back into incompetent Lands Millions of pounds have "been spent by Britain on roads, railways, and waterworks that, intended primarily for the eemec, of the armies will be of permanent benefit to tl o ountries. The men ar.e convinced that tho Eastern lands over which they have fought are capable of enormous deXment. and they are profound T m* (nistful of tho coloured mane ohJib to rule himself or anyone else T hißy Ml sider that already a mistake has been made in giving extended authority to the Sl"of M'cca oyer portions of Syria. IS are political matters that do no. como within the domain of ,the Air >>. hut thev have nrerested some «/n° New Zealand bovs. "Britain and AmeJfca are° the"only 'countries that can manago protectorate properly, they sni. "and if somebody does not take Sjna and Palestine in liand properly there wi be nothing but muddle and oppression Tt does not appear that any.of tho soldiers are anxious to take a hand m tne Sliding of old lands. , New Zealand is good enough for them.