A PALESTINE TREK.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1918, Page 3

A PALESTINE TREK.

MUD-BESPATTERED CAMELI EPS

(By Trooper Bluegurn.)

I NEAR JERICHO, April 21. . “Go to Jorieho!” So said the G.O.C. And we went. The Camel Brigade was resting at Rafa. After the stirring events of November, culminating in the capture of Jerusalem, tho C'ameliers were withdrawn from the front line and sent ] back to recoup and reorganise. Their ; poor, overworked mango-stricken camels j were turned out to graze on tho luscious ; self-grown crops of Southern Palestine. ; And the men made merry. They held | a big sports meeting. There were camel races and foot races, and tugs-of-war and wrestling on camels, and horse races and military competitions, bayonet fighting and team shooting, and concerts and football matches, and a few couirts-martial. The Fighting Firsts won tho pennant campionship, and all went merry as a marriage bell. Then the G.O.C. said “ Go to Jericho!” Tho first part- of the trek was most

enjoyable and exceedingly interesting

Hero and there the road was littered with tho shells and cartridges and smashed waggons and all the impedimenta, jettisoned by Abdul in his retreat, and inland among these mute evidences of war were the beautiful flowern of Palestine. Despite the war, the spring rains had been gracious, and the whole countryside was carj petod with flowers. Hillsides wero abj laze with poppies painfully red like ! great splashes of blood. Oh, Flora was never niggardly in her treatment of the Holy Land. With bountiful hand she strews the path of the warriors with a thousand blooms. On every hand are golden buttercups, white daisies ,pink clover, wild lilac, blue lupines, bright tulips purple anemones, scarlet pimpernels, rich corn flowers and ft wealth of beautiful flowers that wo had never seen before. Hero bloom the Rose of Sharon, the lilies of the field, the Resurrection Flower and gorgeous purple, violet, and heliotrope orchids. What a gracious contrast to sun-baked Sinai.

Swinging up past Gaza—no longor the lion in our path—the league-long Camel Brigade meanders over the fertile fields of southern Palestine. Here the land is just like Riverina; farther on it is tho very counterpart of the. Darling Downs. Looking northward from the hills round Julis, a magriijficV'nt panorama is presented. As far as the eye can reach stretch the rich at e-soil farm lands bounded here and there with serpentine wadies and dotted with tiny villages. With their houses clustering round the hillside, these villages look quaintly romantic, but a close inspection reveals the saino dirt and filth and squalor as all Bedouin and Egyptian villages. The Jewish colonies, (however, oflor a pleasing contrast. These are an experiment by Rothschild and other Europeans and already dozens of such villages peopled by Jews chiefly from Poland are scattered over the Holy Land. With clean, red-tiled houses, well-tilled fields, and fruitful orchards, they presago a hopeful future for Palestine.

Having rested for a day near ancient Lucid, tho oameliers swung, east to Bethlehem thence via Jerusalem and Jericho over the Jordan to Amman. There never was such a trek. None of the I.C.C. will over forget it. Down came tho rain in torrents. The

beautiful black soil plains became a morass. The alleged roads became a quagmire. The unfortunate camels slithered and slid all over the place. They bogged hopelessly and helplessly and drenched soldiers knee-deep in mud, had to off-saddle to get them free; then saddle up again; Now and then a camel would sprawl headlong, pitching its rider into the mire. Every such adventure was the signal for Scornful laughter from the. victim’s comrades, even though they knew their turn might como nuy minute. Camels struggling up the slippery sides of a wadi would flounder and pitch their rider into the muddy stream. At last every man dismounted and led his camel as best he could. There was no march discipline, no formation, just column of lumps. A few camels broke their legs and had to ho destroyed, but, marvellous to rebate, practically the whole brigade won through Bethlehem. But what a footsore, mud-bespattered unshaven, ragtime army it looked. The general stood on tho Jerusalem road and,marched them in. Their cheerful optimism was a thing to swear hv. They wore not. great guns on discipline, but they were great fighters, which after all is tho main thing.

At Bethlemen we scraped the mud off us and shaved, and bathed in Solo- ‘ man’s pools, those three groat reservoirs which after a lapse of centuries stand as a marvel of engineering enterprise. Then much more sedate in demeanour than cameliers ordinarily ure, wo visited the ancient city of Bethlehem, made pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity, and saw the spot where ITo was visited by the wise men from the East. At high moon wo saw shining in the heavens tho alleged Star of Bethlehem. Thero may ho many other places where stars are visible by day, but I leave this for meteorologists to explain. Let it suffice that on the hills round Bethlehem the cameliers congregated, and with tho sun high in the sky they saw and marvelled at the daylight star. Then we went into Jerusalem, the city of David, the sacred city of Christian and Jew and Mohammedan, tho city that may yet prove tho pivot of tiie world’s peace. But there was no time for the curious cameliers to inspect the ancient city. The General’s order had been,“go to Jericho.” All wo got was a glirnse of tho outer city, and the Jaffa Gate, and Mt. Zion, and the Damascus Gate, and the Mount of Olives and Calvary. We jogged round the old walls and out past Bethany and on to Jericho.

We found it very cold at Bethlehem, which is 2500 feet above sea level. But tho Dead Sea is 1292 feet below the level of tho Mediterranean. So in a couple of days we jumped from winter into summer. Tho ancient Jericho of Joshua has departed, hut the prescntda.v Jericho or Eriha is built close to the old ruins. Seen from the ranges above it is a beautifully picturesque town. But once inside its streets the usual attractiveness is mot. with. Go we did not tarry. Following in tho wake of the Light Horse, the Camel Bri gade crossed the plains of Jericho- in long, parallel snake-like columns, and then we crossed the Jordon.

German machine-gunners and Turkish snipers barred the crossing. Retiring before tho Anzao horsemen, .the enemy had blown up the bridge at the

Ghoraniyeh, so the British had to throw pontoons across,- and establish bridgeheads at Ghoraniyeh and Malthadot. At the latter ford the Anzae engineers found the Jordan in flood, and the thick undergrowth along the batiks full of snipers. The job ahead was a tieklist one. The engineering difficulties were themselves formidable; hut the lurking snipers made them ten times as difficult-. It-needed a power-1 fill swimmer to cross the Jordan flowing at such a rate. It needed skilled

engineers to throw the bridge across. But all these tho Anzae engineers,po.s----j sessod, and they got their bridge in : position for the army to cross. But it ' eosL them several valuable lives. ! So tiie British Infantry and the ! Light Horse and the Indian gunners and the Cameliers and the Scots artili lory all swarmed up the Anti-Leban-i non mountains, drove tho Turk out ■ of Es Salt, and blew up the railway at i Amman. ■—.