COLONIALS AND GHURKAS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 15 February 1915, Page 6

COLONIALS AND GHURKAS.

"A LITTLE EXCITEMENT." "A LITTLE EXCITEMENTS' Ciiristcliurc.'], February 11. That the New Zealanders in Egypt are having a little excitement in conflicts with tile native population of Cairo has been apparent from what has appeared in letter? from soldiers. The following account of one of these little troubles appears in a letter received by .Mr, E. W'bitcombe, of Linwood, from his son at Zcitoun camp:— "The Churkas and our fellows have been mixed up in half the rows in Cairo lately. They amuse one, do the (jhurkas. The bigger Sikh never gets into rows, but stalks along as if lie owned the place. Tile majority of the little beygars can't speak English much, but tln-.v can iis c tiieir hands pretty well. The other night three other cl'iaps— two of them Australians —and. I went wandering down a low class native street, and met a fellow who insisted upon taking us into lus shop ami showing us silk handkerchiefs, rings, scarves, caps, etc., Then he accused us of 'pinching' some handkerchiefs.

"Well, We argued the matter, but the more we talked, the more abusive he became, and finally he had half the nigger population in and around the shop and not only niggers, but respect-ably-dressed and thievishly-inclined •lews, Turks, (Jreeks, and all sorts all talking and waving their arms at once. Things got pretty warm with us, so we began to shove off. That started the fun. These 'dagos' and half-breeds blocked'the way, and refused to let us out. so we took to them and set a pretty mill going. "'We easily got the Worst of it—the odds were too big—hut we got out and bolted, the gang on our heels. Our luck held, and we appeared to have made a clean get-away when we ran right into a bevy of native police. Wc tried to dodge, by, but the crowd behind called out, ami the police grabbed us. We fought like wild cats to get awav, and were still going strong when about a dozen of the little Olhurkas came bolting clown the street and gave us a hand. The result was that we wiped the floor with the police, and then set upon tile crowd indiscriminately, taking especial care to deal tenderly with the hooknose, 1 rascal who began the rumpus, lie bail enough, so we chivvied him into his den again and went in after him, while some kept the door as free a:i possible.

'•Notwithstanding our [Torts, a l>:g lot of tile general public got in, ami the shop got sort of upset. with tlfc. mult tlii'.t our friend found lii* r.toc': of silk jroods rntlier depleted. T guess lie won't try his get-rk'li-cjuick tricks again in a lmrrv."