What the Camel Corps do in Egypt.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 15 June 1917, Page 2

What the Camel Corps do in Egypt.

We don't get into the papers perhaps as much as our good foocy pal. in France, but my word we do se« life, death, sand, sweat and sorrows For genuine bone commend me to a New Zealand Company of tbe Imperial Camel Corp on a desert trek. Take he used to carry 14 stone of good meat on his frame; he is nine stone Bix at this instant and the col mr of a worn saddle. The camels are so poor that when you look at them end on they're like one of the first defimtions in Euclid—a line has length without breadth. There's a certain disciplined pallishness between officers and men very stimulating on a day that is say 121 in the shade at 8 a.m., and I've seen a real Lieutenant offer his water bottle to a mere trooper, so that'll tell you. Even SergeantMajors have been known to come down from the high horse and accept half a biscuit from a bugler. What hits me most is that we New Zealanders, who in most cases had hardly been off the home farm until a couple of years ago or less, are pushing the noses of our camels into sacred spots which our Sunday School teachers surrounded with a halo of romance. Its exceedingly quaint to fiod a horde of dirty devils chattering over a worthless bit of "Brum" rubbish on a spot rendered sacred by conventions 1 Biblical history, and as far as I can see although the Britisher and other has imposed modern engineering oa people who often awake at daylight to go to sleep till sundown, the Mosiac pattern of life still dominates tho situation. If you peel your eyes you'll see the flock of sheep* (often a* many as 25 head of wool and bone thufc would cause deep scorn at Ranfurh) following the good shepherd—a gentleman attired in one ridiculous garme: himself perfectly innocent of anointing oil we. heard so much oi '... Sabbath Seminaries. We expect to be disappointed-w-. Jerusaleum, which reads very well Y books, and we understand that"Cook '-.- ran excursions to Joppa, motor boaion Gallilee and trams in Beihieb*Romance gets it in the neck on th t excursions with a rifle in the hand .= half biscuit in the haversack, 5..c.-v stinking water in the water bottle stuii a soldier's prayer book in tbe jacket, pocket. The idea that a soldier is baying a h«ll and a half time because he's" in France is an excellent one, but he c-n easily have two combined hells bv just being on the desert away from any oasis. Funny thing to me is ti at he's just as dead when he's pipped in tbe head after six months of desert trek as if he was woodened out wit'i a Johnson shell after two • minutes in Flemish trenches; but perhaps I don't know. I can't quite understand why this country was chosen for the birth of Christianity, although its an ex cellent country to breed flies and a deadly kind of double actioned scorpion. There are dark two-legged scorpions male and female kicking round this country who would leave a man's bones cleaner than an M.P'a conscience. I love the camels; they're bo humorous. A real good bull in the mating season with you on his back can be guaranteed to kick your hat off while you're on top of his hump. He's fitted with a stink too and a deadly scream; also he bites worse than an Auckland bookmaker at Cup time; but in school books he's the ship of' the desert and the friend of man. One dirty sod of a soiled white colour was so fond of a chap in my troop that he ate a pieca out of his shiulder.

Thera bas been trouble with our officers. An officer's body servant (all N.Z. papers call them Orderlies as if it was something frightfully fighting) i Ijst his master's manicure set and the Colonel threatened to court martial him. You see the nerves of the troops gets frayed to blazes on sand rations and the sanctimony of the Holy Land. Its the religious aspect of the show that tickles me up evury joint of my vertibrae, but 1 suppose a chap may cut the jugular vein of a Turk with a Soldier's Testament in his pocket if he wants, to. They say if you die in Palestine you go toheavsjo Is that true? Let me know if Itis sx