NEW ZEALANDERS IN EGYPT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 8 February 1915, Page 8

NEW ZEALANDERS IN EGYPT.

MARCH THROUGH CAIRO. The following account of the New! Zcalanders' march through Cairo is given by the Egyptian Mail of December 23: In these stirring times we are becoming somewhat accustomed to martial spectacles. A street with half the men walking along its pavements clad in khaki is the rule rather than the exception. Even in comfortable, peaceful old Cairo, we are getting familiar with the clash of arms. In the last two months we have thrice been privileged to see troop by some few of the many thousands of gallant soldiers whose mission it is to uphold the honor of Great Britain in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen. First the Indians, then the Terriers, and now the New Zealanders. Comparisons are notoriously odious—excuse the platitude—and we will there, fore draw none between the various fine Tiodies of'troops that have marched by us of recent (lays. Giant Sikh, stufdy Gurkha, stocky Terrier, stalwart New Zealander —they are all one, serving one King, fighting one cause. All Cairo was out to see the march through its principal streets this morning and all Cairo was not disappointed with .what it saw. For an hour and a-half Lieutenant-General Sir John Maxwell, comanding the forces in Egypt, sat on his horse at the junction of Sharia Bulac and Sharia Kamel and took the salute from as fine a body of men as can be found anywhere. Close on twelve thousand .there must have bi'<'ii—hnrae, foot, artillery; Auckland Wellington, Otago, all the towns of the Dominion of New Zealand have given of their best to the Mother Country, and gladly she has received them. THE CAVALRY. First came the cavalry, and among the various Australasian regiments were, it should be noted, the Queensland Mounted Rifles, their hats adorned with emu feathers. Regiment after regiment of cavalry rolled by, horses and men all as one. The horses were magnificent and seemed to quite understand the dignity of the occasion-; only at times did a steed become restive at a particular loud outburst of cheering on the part of some enthusiastic group of spectators There seemed an endless number •of horses: would they never stop going by? Regiment after regiment rolled past, interspersed with signalling and machine gun detachments. Then came the field artillery; very murderous and businesslike the dull colored guns looked. THE INFANTRY. At last the cavalry had gone. While the hoofs of the last horse could still be heard reverberating, the cheery strains of "Tipperary" burst upon our ears, and the first of the New Zealand infantry came into view. Headed by their bands, the various regiments marched excellently, and went by with a swing and rhythm that caught all eyes. Attached to one regiment were two hundred of perhaps the smartest men on parade—the Ceylon Tea Planters' Rifle Corps. Their khaki helmets and dark green facings showed up well in contract to the slouch hats and plain tunics of the rest of the troops. Ceylon nns not yet sent many of her sons towards the trenches; only two of the nine hundred odd men comprising the Tea Planters' Rifle Corps have come, though all were ready and anxious to do so. But those two hundred are as fine an example of Colonial troops as one could wish to see; one is only sorry that all their comrades are not with them. The procession passed; gradually the last file was reached. We had stood for an hour an a-half—rather weary work; but it was worth it, and we went away even more convinced of the union of the British Empire and of its strength .-after having seen such specimens, of the troopg the Colonies are sending to the Mother Country.