NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITIONARY FORGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 14, 19 February 1915, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITIONARY FORGE.

An Interesting Letter. Writing to Mr 11. Melvill Crispe under date of December 24th last, Lieut. Haeata, now serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt, and who is well-known in the Mauku district, gives an interesting account of the voyage to Egypt and the landing of the troops. After referring to the earlier stages of the trip Lieut. Etaeata goes on to

say : " I suppose the lied Letter Day of cur voyage was on tho 9th November, when we received wireless from the (Joeo3 Islands, which wo hid just passed, tliht a foreign warship was in the mouth of the harbour and sending a party ashore probably to wreck the wireles- and cable stations. This mossago was immediately followed by the distress signal ' 5.0.8.' On receipt of this the Melbourne ordered the Sydney to fight this foieigu warship. At 10 a.m. we receive! wireless from the Sydney saying that after engaging the warshin for half an luuir she had forced her to beach herself to s ive from siukiog. and that the name was the Ernden. On receipt of this message naturally there was great rejoicing, as we had besn speculating if we should meet the Emdt-n at all. " We passed the Equator on 13th November at 10 a m., and of course held the usual ' Neptune's Court.' "On waktrg upon the 15: h November we saw our first glimpse of Ceylon, an i at 9 a.m. e.ittre:) Columbo. In the afteirocn all officers wire granted leave to go on sho.e, ard of coirse I availed myself of the opportunity, and in com;,ary with several others saw a lot of the sights. On the following day all the men weie allowed t on shore, bii'i I was detai.'eJ by our Colonel as officer of t>e picqtl.t to . coll. ct and fcrirg back all stragglers. By 11 a.m. next morning 1 tad tolltcted 150 men who had missed the boat. At roll call that mornirg it was discovered that sie were still 18 men short, so 1 went on shire and discovered them, penniless, friendless and only too anxious to get back to thi boat. At 11 am. that morning we set sail for Aden. "At 6 a.m,, 25th November, we sailed into Aden. "On the 28th November we heard definitely that we were to land in Egypt, so day tnl Eight cn the transports we were sharpening swords and bayonets and getting gear ready for disembarkatiun. "On November 30th we commenced prcbatly the most interesting part of our voyage, that is, through tha famous Suez Canal. All along the banks of the canal were camps of Indians, Gurkhs, Sihks and English troops, to guard against the Turk?, and they che red us a3 we went past, especially the Indians. We arrived at Port Said on at 4 a.m. on Ist December. Leaving Port Said at 2 pm. we reached Alexandria on the following m-rning. Here we received our linal disembarkation orders. "The Auckland Mounted Regiment landed and were entrained for Zeitun camp cn the 6th December, but as I was on special duty I did not leave Alexandria fir another week. "Alexandria is a cosmopolitan seaport of 380,00'J inhabitants. Here one sees practically representatives from all nationalities in th-> world. Like all Eastern cities it 13 divided in o two parts —the European a r d the native quarters. The former has fine buildings and everythirg is clean about them, while tha latter are nrty and mud houses, The Egyptian has not altered his m :de of living fur the last 1000 years; ha is still content with a mud hovel, and with crude, old-fashioned implements. "Cairo is a large city, having a population of 680,000 inhabitants, and the New Zealanders are camped at a very pretty suburb called Htliupolis, while the Australians are camped out at the Pyramids. The whole British force in Egpyt are under command of General Sir J Maxwell. The New Zealand boys are bahaving splendidly, and in a letter to the troops General Maxwell said that the New Zealanders were the best trained, disciplined ard organised troops in Egypt,"