THE SUEZ FAILURE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 221, 27 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SUEZ FAILURE.

TI.RKS HIT HARD. ATTACK WELL PLANNED. It i- difficult for people her.' in England, snys a London paper, to look ; fc tho recent Turkish attack on the Suez Canal in its true perspective and see all that the decisive defeat of its objects means to the Ottoman nat on, says a eorrespondent whom the London "Times" describes as "neutVi." This attack was no half-hearted £>: tack, but an expedition carefully planned and executed; a military mowment on which the Turk> placed great store. That they did regard it in th - light is hilly borne out by the fact tha: their preparations were even more carefully made than those lor tt.. equall? ill-fated expedition of la>t year. When the attack was bum: planned tho who'-: country, from north to south was overrun with Germans, and tlu Bagcial ra>'iwav was t ix«-d to the rtmost.

A railway now runsTrbm Constanti nople through Aleppo with 'wo hrca At one point. Mamirrt. there is a hre.ii: in the uncompleted hn.* of twenty-sx mile< where aii goods and -tores had to he taken over tie Anianus Mountain?. From Haidar Pa-ha recently 1 saw over nfty great pontoon? taken each rn a s-parately constructed lik--a lit: gun carriage wilh :: riigu box sea*. Each wagon needed a team of eight oxen. Tl;e-e \\v\' i\i? pontoons to l)> fur the second crossing «f th» ■ an.-il when the troops < onquered the Brit-sh tioops in the desert. Ihey were -olidly-lniiit !>oat.s oi considerable lieam. and were obviou-ly constructed so that they con Id he if-ed either for brijge building or a- boats for ferryin i.

GATHERED KEROSENE CANS On the first attack the Turks Had nnde pathetc effort* to gather to -.ether al Ithe kerostne cans and patrol tins along the coast. A systematic search for the-e was made, and it was stated that th.-y wove to he used in tlie'nr-t place for the tran-po'l of ivn'.'r on camels, and then would oe u-ed ■• making bridges across the canal. Largo quantities of galvanised Ton were tarred down from Constantinople and fashioned into romrh-and-reailv boat*. These were clumsily huilt. and would have hcon of little service, for a shot from a rifle would have torn th • r sides open. Everywhere there were German tronps and «ome Au-trian-. One of the most strikTh" feature* i ' all the preparations was the fact lliat the Germans never to the -I:; litest decree fraternised with the 'forks. The Germ in so'di'M's were well fed and clothed. Their was run on thorough I'russi.an lines, and the men wanted for nothTng. They hail plenty of medical stores and doctors lo look after them.

With their unfortunate allies it w.s exactly the opposite. Their stores weio always low, and they had almost entTrei'y run out of drugs and dressings, and'al medical necessities. Tn this respect they were, and still are, in a desperate' plight. The Geimans did nothing to help them, either with stores or men.

Their two systems of supplies wer; run on entirely separate lines, and none if tho medicines so badly wanted bytha Turks were supplied by the Germans, •vho had more than enough lor their own uses. The same thing was noticeable with the commr'ssariat.

OTTOMAN SOLDIERS RAGGED. The Turkish troops made a strange contrast to the Prussians. The Ottoman soldiers were many of them in rasr« and without any semblance :.'■ uniform. They wen provided with one good article of equipment in the shape of an aluminium water bottle covered with felt Their rifles, too, wer good, rnd of the usual Turkish patterns. .Many of the men went down without boots, and some had no headgear at ■all. The majority of them, however, wore the cloth helmet that has two strings to tie beneath the chin. This was said to have been designed by Envoi 1 , and is called the "Eiiverm." The German and the Turkish camps might have been at opposite ends of the ear:h as far as any communication between the two was concerned, ihe Germans never mix with the Turks, m.d any attempts at familiarity arc strongly discountenanced bv them.

Tho state of the people ol Syn : a is past all ifelief. and many hangings have taken place. They are not exactly hanged, but suspended from a frame with their toes on a stool, which thev often kick from underneath them. There is a new terrorisation of tho Arabic-speaking Moslems. It is estimated that from 00,1)00 to W,OOO have died of starvation Tn northern Syria. The process of Turkifying this country is being earned out with great thoroughness. The unfortunate people who are deported are made to give up their holdings, and the Turkish Government then sells the land and promises them that they will have simihr allotments granted to th'am in the norVi or in Angora. They are then transported and sent to Sivas or some similar town, where they find that the Turkish Government has'done with them. This has been tin ■rooeduro in thousands of cases, an 1 tho depopulation of Syria is fast pr>ceeding. In some of the villages there are. none of the Arabic-speak.ng Christians left.

The typhus epidemic everywhere gains new impetus, and a great number of the Turkish army doctors have succumbed to it. Many of the civilian prisoners, mostly British, have contracted the disease, and at least twelve Englishmen were ill with it, but recovered.