PLUNDERING ARABS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1545, 2 May 1916, Page 4

PLUNDERING ARABS.

ISMAELS OF THE PLAIN.

METHODS OF WARFARE,

WILY AND ELUSIVE FOES

The representative of the British Press with the Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia, Mr Edmund Chandler, sends the following estimate of the character and powers of the irregular Arab cavalry fighting against us :

“The mobility of the Arab cavalry, who ride light and are unsparing of their horses, is something beyond experience. On approaching a Turkish position to reconnoitre, our scouts will often see a horde of Arabs emerge from the dark masses and spread in a fanlike movement over the whole horizon. These irregulars are eternally swooping about for no apparent reason, unless it be bravado or the instinct of the kite, in complicated movements and figures of eight. Drop a shell in front of them and they will swerve like a. flight of teal, make a wide detour at full gallop, and appear on the other Hank. “The atmosphere is most deceptive, and in the haze or mirage it is difficult to tell if the enemy are horses or foot, or to make any estimate of their numbers. Everything is magnified. A low-lying mud village becomes a fort with walls 20ft high, a group of donkeys a palm grove. Camels appear on a near horizon like huge dissipated compasses. There is' not a cavalry regiment with the force which has not at some time or other mistaken sheep for infantry. All that is gained in scouting by the flatness of the country is discounted by the eccentricities of the mirage. Otyen in a. reconnaisance the enemy are within 600yds before the spuadror) commander can distinguish whether they are mounted or on foot. “JAKE JACKALS IN OUR REAR.”

“Apart from the mirage, the country affords title or no cover, save the mud banks of an occasional dry irrigation channel. These are high, and in the distance might be taken for the walls of a city. The disused water channels look as if (he channel had beep carried above the level of the surrounding country. The low, isolated sandhill is a snare which draws artillery fire and leaves an exposed flank on cither side. “In no theatre of the wav is our cavalry so essential, for the Arabs make up a kind of irregular arm for the Turk. They are always hovering on our Hanks, ready to take advantage of any accident or confusion by the why, and (hey follow like jackals in our rear. 'Two jibbing ponies in a Jaipur transport cart have to be unyoked and the cart abandoned. The Arabs arc down on it before the rearguard has passed on 800yds. After this the nondescript herd closes in, emboldened by tlje loot.

“They are frankly plunderers, and murder is merely the preliminary to pillage. They kill their prey before they strip it. A battlefield is haunted by them for days. They leave the dead stark, and have been known to dig up graves. Yet, to see their prisoners clamouring for food and water and attention to the wounded, you would think they had been trained in the comity of nations. It is on record that they have sometimes spared the wounded but only on occasion when some responsible person has been by—an influential Sheikh, or a regular Turkish officer. FEAR*OF CAVALRY CHARGES.

“The Arabs, of course, melt away whenever our cavalry charge. We can never get in among them. They are light, and carry little kit, and seem to be independent of supplies. Their horses look thin and poor, but are hard and well fed, and they do not mind using them up. Our chargers arc handicapped with their six stone of accoutrement, rifle and sword and ammunition, water-bottle, cloak, two blankets, emergency rations, a day’s grain for the horse, and generally a heavier man to carry. The Arab horseman has his bag of dates, a small ration of grain for his horse, and nothing else save his arras and ammunition. These are of no regular pattern —a rifle always, Mar-tini-Henry or Mauser, a dagger, or sword, or both, waist belt, and bandolier of annnunitnon, and occasionally, especially among the Muntafiles, a lance, a broad-headed, formidable spear like an assegai.