EGYPT SAFE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 301, 16 September 1919, Page 6

EGYPT SAFE

Ci '"NEWS BY THE ELLENGA. .. -''According to.those who arrived back, ■ from;,the'! ( tianal by the Mlenga—tho last' of ithebNew .Zealand' Mounted Rifles to 'cbrne/rrbm.,abroad—matters wore fairly : quiet' in Egypt after the big upset. .From the soldiers' point of view the whole business was a "wash-out." Tho "Gippos" certainly ran omuck for a fp.w days, but they did not know tho why or wberefor. In the main they were a poor, ignori ant tot, easily led or misled. • A few of •them had to be shot, and some of them ,r flogged, -as'/an example to the others to einimer down, but thero was no ohance • of : them asserting any authority, and it would probably he the worst day for Egypt if thoy could. While they were out on. the loose- the "Gippos" tore up bits of the railway between. Cairo and ••Port Said,;' but it was not very long be- ' fores', trains wero running again and the ■; re iders punished.

■''.•'••When the Ellenga left Egypt, there were ? puiy some half-dozen or bo New Zealand •/troops';left'to clean up affairs after the fdeparture of the-last draft. Major-Gen-eral Chaytor was still there, and made a light, railway hat was built between the Island (fheyeamp at Ismailia) before the troops ombarked. It is of interest'to yea it. that during the last two years the light railway that was built, between the Canal, .across the Sfaiai Desert, and Palestine to Jerusalem, has been replaced by a heavy : woight , permanent track, and there is now a regular through service from Cairo to Jerusalem. It will 'be a great day for the Near East when this line is linked up with the Constau- ; tinoplc-Bagdad-Basra line.