FOXTON BOY ABROAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1924, 9 January 1919, Page 4

FOXTON BOY ABROAD.

(Continued from Page 1.) .there. Tire sailors were telling us Unit in one week the harbourmaster and eight pilots were lined up against the wall and shot, and from that time on (here were not so many disasters round Colombo. All the. port ollieials are darkies, and the coloured people seem to be causing - bother to our troops in all the zones, for .their greed swamps the little bit of morality (hey are gifted with when the tempter gets to work. “Our desinalion with the transport was Sue/., and we dually reached there at (lib beginning of June, just in time to catch a nice dust storm. We had been sleeping on the decks for about n month, and considered we knew what hot weather was, but a dust storm in Egypt is not to be forgot ten. The dust is (pule yellow, just like powdered ela.v, and up it rises in clouds as the hot blast bears down on yon, and it seems to penetrate anything. The heal registers from 115 to f‘2s (hiring these visitations, so you may guess it is not too pleasant. When a gust eomes along yo.ii would imagine a furnaee was just being opened up if you were led out into it blindfolded, and your mouth and throat would feel as if you had been mixing lime. To keep (dean there was an impossibility, for we not only drilled on the desert, but slept on the sand also, with a blanket for a maltrass, and a coat or bag for a pillow. Dysentery and kindred ailments soon made their appearance, but although a very big percentage were in Suez hospital, three only died. Considering we were only there live weeks it was <piite enough, but bad we stayed mueh longer half the reinforcement would have been on the sick list. “Food is very scarce there, as practically even thing had to be brought from other lands, and sealed up in tins, 100. What with the heat, the scarcity of food, the tilth and dirt, and the (lies, it’s a wonder j! wasn’t more severe, but we all Jo.-t any superfluous weight we bad picked up mi the boat. 1 was two shme lighter than when 1 went on (lie boat, and burned almost black with the sun, but that was the worst that happened to me. I could spare the llesh I lost, anyhow; what do you say 1 “We dually got out of there about the middle of July, and I lie ride on the train through the night was quite an experience, but not one I would care to repeat. We rode a ill ordinary (rucks, about thirty (with baggage) to the truck, and those eleven hours were something io remember, I believe the wheels of those old trucks’were square, tor I he shaking fairly made our ribs rattle, and the remarks that floated out on (lie night air were both numerous and forcible. We finished up in Alexandra, at six in Hie morning, and glad enough we were to get onto our boat and settle down into (omparatively clean quarters once more. Our transport was a line big new boat, having been commissioned only nine months, so we laid a splendid run through the Mediterranean Sou under ideal weather conditions. The only eonse Lor complaint was ibat we bad to work, eat end sleep with a lifebelt and a tilled water hot lie lied round our bodies, but one soon learns to get used to anything in the army. Afler lour days we finally reached Taranto, in southern Italy, and stayed at a big res! camp there until night ; at midnight we were once again on our wav, this lime in cattle trucks, and after the experience in Egypt wo didn't relish the idea of a week's journey in them, as you may guess. Anyhow, it had to tie done, and considering ihat thousands of others had survived it we didn't see why (he New Zealand boys couldn't. After ibe first night we soon ’got used to ii, and slept like little children rigid, through all the rat He and noise. The scenery was compeusaHon for almost anything by way o! hardship we had been Hirongh up to 1 hen, for one has to go through Italy and Southern 'France to realise what beauty is, especially in (ho harvest time, as we struck it.- Every square yard is cultivated in those countries, and oven alongside the railwav. the beans, tomatoes and grapes tilled the spare corners. “We were alongside the Adriatic Sea for some days, and it was really beautiful, but when we got across jo San lieino, Mentone, Monaco, Nice. Monte Carle, and those places, the beauty of our surroundings fairly made one gasp. All Hie buildings are of dazzling white marble, decorated in the richest of colours, ami set in the most beautiful surroundings one could imagine. Each of (hose towns or cities is snugged away iu its own little blue bay, ami the buildings go up right from the

white seashore, each above, the other, so that one had to look right up into the sky to see the topmost hotels, etc. The gardens .surrounding these huge hotels were quite in keeping with the rest of Hie places, and taken altogether it was a sight that one could never forget, and never describe, either, “At Cannes we had a spell of an hour or so right alongside the sea, and it, didn’t take many minutes to get into that water, 1 can assure you. Hundreds of nuked bodies were soon glistening in the sunshine, and it took more than one blast of the whistle to gel us out, for good sparkling water like that was 100 good to leave after the waterless desert of Egypt. “From Cannes we began to go inland, and from then on the country took a complete change, from the world’s most fashionable pleasure resorts, with everything modern and up-to-date, we got into little villages that looked as though they had been pul there centuries ago and then forgotten. Some of the ruins must have dated back thousands of years, and bow they were built is a question that rises to one’s mind first thing. One old monastry seemed to lie part and parcel of the cliff that it overlooked, and the outer walls seemed to be just a continuation of the face of the cliff, hundreds of feet up. There little villages, were in all sorts of odd corners, and they gave you the impression that they had nothing to do with this wicked world of ours. One wondered if the inhabitants knew there was a war raging at the other end of their country that was shaking the foundations of the world. (Concluded in next issue.)