Egypt

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 45, 24 February 1915, Page 5

Egypt

FAST GETTING FIT.

GENERAL COOLEY'S REPORT ON

NEW ZE ALANDERS.

A FEW INSI3BORDINATES.

Per Pri iss Association,

dingtou, February 24

The Ministry f or Defence (Hon. J. Allen),has received letters from General Godle’y ; in which he states that he drinks t 1 te Xew Zealanders are doing spleucli j]y. They were doing a trenend.ous lot of hard training, and ■vfl'jld l)o well and fit to go to the war iy the end of February. The disci)line was good. Eight men had been tried by court-martial, and 21 were undergoing detention for offences, chiefly for being absent without leave, md, eases of insubordination; which were usually due to drink. The food mpplies were good, the issue being dightly in excess of the scale, but he loomed it advisable to treat the men ;ery liberally -in view of the hard -raining they were undergoing.

TURKISH FEARS. United Press Association. Cairo, February 23. The abandonment of the Egyptian •ampaign is attributed to Turkish fear chat the British will land in Syria and wit off communications.

LETTER FROM EGYPT.

ACCESSION OF THE SULTAN.

An erstwhile Stratford.resident now

vith the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in Egypt, writes interestingly to a friend in fulfilment of a promise 0 forward his impressions of historic ■vents in which they might take part. The writer says:— The first, and as yet the most important event was the accession of ■iultan Hussein Kamel Pasha. "When 1 say accession, it is the ceremonial dde I am referring to. Prince Hussen was proclaimed Sultan on Friday, December 18th, 1914, in the place of ■he ex-Khedive Abbas Helmy, who md decided to cast in his lot with the Turks. On the Sunday he formally Irove through the streets and took possession of the Abdine Palace, the ndncipal palace of Cairo. It was here .hat we .took our part. Daylight found us well advanced in the matter pf breakfast, and soon we were on the ,vay to Helmiet Station, where we pntrained for Cairo. Arrived at the city, we were formed up, and march’d to our position in the Chareh Vfagrhabi. This and the next street vere lined by the Newi Zealand troops. Having been placed in position the usual long wait ensued, and had it not been for the crowds, which began to , assemble quickly, proceedings would mve been rather dull. One could not lelp, however, but be interested in ;hat strange cosmopolitan crowd. Native Egyptians, negroes from the Lower .Vile, Soudanese, and natives from mtlying districts of the Dark Continent, cheek by jowl, with representatives of every European country—with the possible exception of Germany and Austria. It was a picturesque throng, the flowing dress of the natives throwing into hold relief the sober frock mat of the European. During the wait, our regimental band gave a few selections, patriotic airs, particularly the “Marseillaise,” being enthusiastically received by. the crowd. At last came the order “Attention!” and soon after we presented arms while the procession passed. The order of the procession was as follows:—In the lead was a detachmenet of British cavalry, the Westminster Dragoons. These (vere closely followed by the Sultan’s bodyguard, the Egyptian Lancers, who, in their blue and silver uniforms, with drawn swords, and pennants fluttering from their lances, were indeed a splendid sight; much clapping of hands and shrill cheering marked their progress through the streets. Then came the Sultan himself, attended by his Prime Minister, and drawn in a splendid carriage, with out-riders and postillions. He proved rather a disappointment to ns. We had been expecting an Eastern Monarch, dressed with the splendour of the East, hut, instead, here was the monarch in the ordinary morning dress of civilisation, the only thing savouring of the East leing the red fez he wore. The next carriages contained the Cabinet Minis:ers, followed again by the British officials and General Sir John Maxwell, G.O.C. in Egypt. More British cavalry concluded the procession.. To say the Sultan was received with great enthusiasm -would be incorrect. Undoubtedly there was a little soreness

at having a King chosen for them, without their having a say in the matter. This soreness will, however, soon wear off, and no serious results are likely to arise from it. In fact, a leading English lawyer in Cairo, a resident here for many years, told us that provided they were not interfered with, the fellaheen, as the small farmers are called, would be hard to rouse. Speaking with his knowedge of the people, there should be something in what he said. He thought the one thing that would rouse them would be interference with their religion. There is no danger of this, and the Young Turks’ expectation of a holy war here will not be realised. To return to the procession, our part being finished, we, the Wellington and Otago Infantry Regiments, formed up, and wore soon on the way back to camp by road, arriving home at 2.30 p.m., pleased at having participated in such an event, which will go down in his* tory.