ALEXANDRIA AS A WAR BASE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 144, 11 February 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

ALEXANDRIA AS A WAR BASE.

By SYDNEY MOSELEY.

(Accredited Correspondent with the Mediterranean Forces.) Alexandria as a war ba6e had a peculiar interest of its own. In the lirst place it was transformed out of all recognition. The Alexandria I had left two years since iiad bulged with military importance. It boasted of having added much to its English vocabulary; and its public hoarding* and private signs were written so that the vast crowd of its new khaki-clad inhabitants might read a* they ran. Not that they ever ran. The big crowd of soldiers—invalids, convalescents, and recovered, ns well as those who had yet to see the fighting -across the way"—sauntered with carefully measured strides along the main street (and Alexandria possesses many main streets), stopping, in crowds only, at tobacconists, a brasserie (sometimes), and bootblack parlours—which to us in England would be accounted a luxury. The crowd off tramcars, after a splendid run on an open-air car from the suburbs, where many of the camps, hospitals, and open-air convalescent homes are situated—Mustapha, Carlton, Ramleh, St. Stefano, Victoria, Then they cut heir way through the Rue do Ramleh, and branch off until they reach the Square. .Mohammed Ali Square became the recognised haltingp'ace of the uninitiated visitor. "Whar go, sir?'' asked the garry driver (nobody ever called it "arabeyeh"), and you promptly answered "Square"—or most often tha question was unnecessary. "Square, yes," said the man, and drove iff, confident but unanswered.

In the b : g square you could buy any. ting and everything, from an Egyptian mummy to a green water melon. Thero was the big Bourse, imposing and important—but nobody ever took any notice of that except to refer to it as a landmark. The big outfitters were more interesting. In the ordinary course of events they would be offering you white linen summer suits, white helmets, and white shoes. In these days white is given complete'y over to khaki tunics, helmets, etc. Everything you had lost in the ligh' on the Peninsula—even your regimental badges—could be picked up here; but that did not exhaust the attractions of the Square by any means. It was its proximity to othpr places of convenience that made it " Alexandria" to the troops. In the narrow, busy turning running at right angles to the Bourse was the Base Post Office, perhaps the liest-organised department of the Army. It is a sort of a Lourdes to the wounded. AM roads lead to it. A letter or two handed over its counter effected most wonderful cures. Men with leg wounds bounded down the steps of their carriages, to whirl away to a quiet place where they might read. Irritable men became patience itseu, waiting at that counter while search was made. Fe'lows with their hand* wounded easily grasp the leters and stow them away quickly as a priceless treasure —or in case the postmaster may want them back. Letters follow troops everywhere—from home to camp, from camp to transport, from Mudros to linbros, from Imbros to the Peninsula, from there to clearing hi pit at, from there to Alexandria, from Alexandria to the hospital, and any subsequent place where you may have shifted. Of course this takes time, but a surprisingly short time, and the letters eventually got to you. Everybody I came across would one day or the other exhaust the subject of letters; but I heard comparatively few complaints. Parcels? Well, that has nothing to d» with the Post Office. The last mail consisted of 1,050 bags, each containing letters and newspapers of one to two hundred. In less than a day they were ready for distribution. Another important rendezvous in Alexandria is the paymaster's and the military banker's! Occasional visits of officers and men bring back smiles and a fuller nurse. Those whimperers who p'ace the gloomiest interpretation on figures would put a litt'o less reliance on statistics if they came to the commercial statists of Egypt. Around the numerous cafes are crowds of "sick" soldiers eatjng rich pastries and ices in quantities which wou'd bring envy to their dyspeptic sympathisers at home. Everybody meets some day or another at a fasuionable tea-place in highway or town. There is none of the absurd fussiness with which the unhappy soldier is met when he reaches home. * No crocodi'.e tears are shed over him by strangers. He takes faia misfortunes* in a manner becoming British soldiers and men of the world, and when he recovers, as he does in a very short while, he goes over to u. Peninsula and "carries on" again. To be sure, I came across the inevitab'e soldier who is "glad to get away." The gloomy have taken care to meet him in London too. They probably greet the soldjer with a sickly sentimental smile, and say, in a voice of heartfelt sympathy: "I suppose, poor fel'ow, you've had enough of it?" One day I talked to some of the men at length on the seriousness of this tendency. "You're fully-trained men," I said. "You're all volunteers. It has taken months and months to tiring you up to the pitch, and now you tell me you'd rather go home?" Said one: "Of course, it's only fun, you know. I wouldn't miss seeing the end of this for worlds." And I believed him. It was onlv the suggestivencss ot "good form" that had led him and others to a dangerous degree of affectation