EN ROUTE TO EGYPT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 5, 6 May 1915, Page 2

EN ROUTE TO EGYPT.

AT CLOSE QUARTERS. I M LIFE ON A TROOPSHIP. The life our boys are leading on j their way to Egypt is described as 10l- I lows in a letter from a Stratford man |with the third New Zealand reinforcements ; 1 I Everything is close handy here, on Ih.M.N.Z.T. No. 19 (U.S.S. Co’s. Aparima.) The dining room is next door 'to the bedroom, the bathroom is next to the dining-room, the canteen lis next door to the bath-room, and there is a great deal of nextdoorness about everything. All the men sleep in the after hold—Mounted’Kifles and two platoons of infantry on the first floor, and three platoons of infantry on the second floor—counting downwards. (One of our platoons is on one of the other boats). In the centre of each floor is,, the mess-room, the bunks Idling up the rest of the space. The bunks are three deep—three men sleep one above the other. There are about five hundred men on the boat, and though we often feel cramped, the fact remains that on Sunday morning the whole of us can get on the forecastle head without difficulty for divine service. The arrangement for messing makes for more sociability than was the case in camp, where each tent messed together. Here we all sit at the same tables, and by the time the voyage is over will have sat next at table to nearly every man in the company. At Trentham we were living close handy enough in all conscience, hut at the same time there was a tendency for the tents to form separate 1 cliques, and for a man to mix little but with the men of his own platoon or of the other platoon in his line. On the ship one is thrown more among men of other platoons, and the result is that he makes a good many more friehds than he would in a camp. The horses (about 500) occupy the whole of the top deck and a fair number are below decks, in the after part of the ship are situated the cook-house, bakehouse, butcher shop, fruit store, etc., and these, with the horse boxes, take up most of the deck. A couple of narrow alleyways run fore and aft, but are not favorite places of promenade. Many nervous souls object to the closeness of the horses, one side of the alleyway being adorned with a row of equine heads. When they came on board first the horses were inclined to nip at promenaders, but they are now well settled to their somewhat wearisome life and show no fear of passersby. Feeding time for the horses is a noisy one. The horses see the preparations for feeding them, and at once each and every one of them commences to paw with his fore feet and the noise is deafening for a time. The noise dies away gradually, however, each horse holding his feet steady as soon as In’s feed arrives. In front of each horse is a bar about three inches wide and seven deep. Quite a number of horses have almost eaten through these, probably not so much because of hunger as from having nothing much else to do. The soldiers parade on. a deck laid on top of the horse boxes, and the 250 infantry are easily accommodated aft, the M.R. doing their drill forward. A section of the deck is set apart for each platoon and more or less the men keep to these spaces when off duty, though there is no rule to that effect. The officers occupy specially erected deck cabins amidships. In the bath-room there are fine salt water shower baths, but a more popular method of bathing is provided in two large canvas tanks on the top deck near the stern. In addition to the usual delights of bathing one can here enjoy having the hose turned on him or enjoy turning it on some fully-dressed person. To jdate we have lost only a small number of horses (live or six, 1 think), which seems an excellent record in view of the stuffy weather we have had round the Equator. We have had a few decent concerts, but a lot of “the talent” is still shy. Taking it all round, the life here is enjoyable enough, though it becomes sligthly wearisome seeing nothing hut sea day after day. Last night (March IT) we saw a ship four or live miles away, but that was really the first we had seen at sea on the trip. We have a reasonable amount of work to do, hut are not called upon to sweat unduly. At the same time I think we will ho glad when we get ashore and can once again enjoy the privilege of leave for the night.