"ABDULS."

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

"ABDULS."

TURK CHARACi'EEISTICS. INFLUENCE OP A FOREIGN HOST. A GERMANISED ARMY. . Gaba Tepe, 30th August. It is rather to bo expected that, after practically five years of continuous warfare, certain reforms might have suggested themselves to the Turkish Army (writes tho Melbourne Age correspondent) . But I think when the official facts ' become known —if they arc ever revealed from the vaults of tho palace of the Sultan—it will be found that the driving power lay in the hands of the Germans. The Turkish Army to-day is a Germanised army to the very heart, as is seen by the system of spliting up trained units and'forming units with untrained recruits, the supply of machine-guns, the use of the artillery, and the general routine orders that reveal something of the inner working of the army. But rather than unskilfully traverse this side of the enemy, I want to give some idea of the Turkish soldier as our- men know him. It is seldom that you hear the Turks referred to by an Australian as anyone but Abdul. A man may have seen a number of "Abduls" going across an open space, and he may even have managed to bring down a few. That is regarded as so many Abduls to his list. But why Abduls? Simply because, as in Mohammedan Egypt, so in Turkeythere is little variety in the Christian name. If it is not Mahomet, or Achmet, it is bound to be Abdul. The troops ,learnt the names from hearing tho Turks chattering in their trenches, and sometimes the Turks would call to one another, and so reveal their identity. So, for the purposes of this letter, I am going to adopt the popular name, and will try to reflect the attitude of the troops to the foe without, perhaps, always quoting some soldier's words.

ABDUL'S SPLENDID PHYSIQUE. All reports to the contrary, there is no denying the fine physique of Abdul. I have watched 600 prisoners pass through Anzac and, apart from everything else, there stood out the bigness of the men. They do not make an appeal as being smart men, rather the contrary; and that idea is due entirely to their rather shambling gait and the loose baggy trousers that they wear for a uniform. Again, the full stature of the captured Abdul is often not realised because he is badly off for boots and wears his native thonged shoe, bound to his leg with an indifferent kind of puttee. For the most part they have black, stubby beards on their chins and wear a rather greenish rough kind of khaki jacket. The cap is of grey wool with two points, and can be pulled down over the ears. Some of the men wear a red fez, others a white cap. Many prisoners are wearing just a simple turban made of a handkerchief: Officers wear a. khaki helmet of the German pattern and have broad red or blue stripes down their baggy trousers, besides a patch on their jackets.

GANGS OF LABOUKERS. One has only to watch the manner in which the Turks cover the countryside with trenches to realise that they must have organised regiments of labourers. This belief is confirmed when you see the men brought in with the prisoners; they wear no uniform, are of the build of coal lumpers and show every sign of having been till quite recently working in the fields. No attempt has been made to give these Abduls uniforms, and they are badly off for footwear. You will sea them picking up any stray boots by the way the men are marched in. Soldiers and labourers alike always have an immense length of cloth bound about their bodies and legs. Abdul's putties are a sort of khaki sheeting, but he wears outside all his other uniform a long piece of cloth, which he commences to unwind until you feel that it is something like the magician's endless ribbons.

ABDUL BELIEVES IN COMFORT. The recently captured trenches and the country which has been gained give further proof of the comfort which Abdul likes to enjoy. There is all the evidence of the old campaigner about the camps that I have seen. The mia-mias he constructed for himself had beds of boughs covered with grass, while the officers' bungalows were roomy and as comfortable as most dwellings of this nature even under peace conditions. The officers travelled with a large amount of literature, and from books I picked up on the battlefield I find that their spare time was often used to learn French by reading stories. In a trench was found a bottle of eau de cologne, and the Turk has proved time and again his love of writing letters. Few of the letters are written to men. The soldier Abdul—and this is a direct lesson from the utter "breakdown of the commissariat during the last Balkan war —has his figs and date 3 and his supply of fresh meat. You have only to look at him to see that he is a contented man. I saw a number of German officers' mia-mias, and in each there was a groat amount of clothing, white overalls and riding boots, and supplies of one kind and another, abandoned in the haste of departure, to say nothing of what each must have imiwiged to take away with him, The Turkish and fferman officer will never walk where he can ride, and a beautiful Arab pony, ready saddled, was captured on the left during the swooping movement by General Monasli.

IS ABDUL CONTENTED? Abdul has become so used to vaiv, that with cries of "Allah" and "Kismet" he accepts it as his fate, though many of the troops expected ere this to be back in their homes. Yet I find no reason to tli ink that the majority of the prisoners are glad to lose their freedom. In a measure this may be due to the belief that they were to be ill-treated by (lie English, according to the reports spread among them by their officers. It is known, however, that in order to get men to remain in dangerous parts of the trenches, Abdul has had to be offered promotion, and men in the tunnels in certain sections of the lines are at least made corporals. One would never say that the general tone of the army showed a great spirit. There must be considerable difficulty for the German element scattered very thinly through the army in conversing with the Turks. Most of the Turkish officers speak a little French, and some speak remarkably good English. They are an intelligent lot, judging by a group of nine I spoke with recently, but they are as keen as any true soldier lest the enemy gain any point from questions that may be put to them. They are inveterate gamblers, and the prisoners spend the greater portion of their time playing » o»«ob. ihtt "sembleß whist.

ABDUL IN THE TRENCHES. I have already ■written at considerable length of Abdul in the field, of Ids bravery aud determination as a soldier, and hia heroism in facing the terrible shell lire to which he is so often subjected. But you see Abdul at his best in bomb-throwing. He takes a fiendish delight in this method of warfare, in which lie is indeed an expert. Until he was shown that his ways were open to being defeated Abdul was inclined to be what the men called "pert," not to say rather a braggart. It was with no little scorn that the Australians riddled a board that Abdul hoisted above hia trenches, bearing the words, "Warsaw 'as falle'." Then the wily Turk threw messages to our trendies —nice easy distances of twenty or thirty, wirds—and whon our troops went to pics them up they threw bombs on top of the message and the men. But only once. The notes contained pressing invitations for our troops to desert. Our men entering into the spirit of the "joke," threw bul-ly-beef across to Abdul, which Abdul treated as a luxury, and held up his bauds to catch. Shortly after he was catching bombs instead. Our men then heard the cries of "Allah, Allah," and for long afterwards there was chattering in the Turkish lines. But yet another device Abdul conceived, following, I believe, the example lie had learned in a section of our lines. The bombs as soon j as they came, were picked up and hurled back. That was better than letting them remain to burst in the trench. A young subaltern conceived the idea of giving Abdul the surprise of his life. So it happened that one afternoon many unexploded bombs fell into the Turkish trenches. They were a bad lot, those bombs. Abdul was delighted, and promptly relit them with sudden and disastrous results. ► So this bomb warfare is continued harder after each defeat of the Turks, and for every lesson Abdul tries to teach the Australians they have so far taught him two. Our superiority over the Turks in this bombing is undoubtedly due to the courage of our throwers. They are magnificent. Abdul will not face the Australian bayonet, and, sharpshooter as he is, he retires before our parties. Abdul is getting meeker as he learn 3 these lessons. You see it every day. "He'll eat out of our hands soon," said a bushman to me. "He'll be not a bad chap then, aud he's played the game up to the present like a good sport,"