MARCH INTO PALESTINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1917, Page 6

MARCH INTO PALESTINE.

EAPID RAILWAY BUILDING. WATER SUPPLY PROBLEM. How the British troops mustered the difficulties cf the desert and planted steel rails as they advanced from Sues towards Beersheba is told by a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Onv pcoupation of El Ayish and victories at jMaghdaba-a-nji Bah make it permissible to write ,some "amount of the long and arduous preparations mode and the itnlnr.mso natural difficulties overcome before these objects could he achieved with such apparent case and at so little seeming cost.

New wharves were built and improvised along the canal. The Egyptian Labor Corps was increased and organised by British officers, and thousands and thousands of natives were "doing their bit'' as members of it. Enormous quantities of stores were accumulated on the canal bank, which became a big town of canvas and hutments. Meantime at right angles to the canal, shooting out due' east, went a railway, which, since August, has actually grown at the rate of a mile a day, and beside the railway, following it as quickly as possible, went a road, a macadamised road, capable of resisting the wear of streams of threeton lorries, guns, and all other military traffic. Vast numbers of camels had to be found and camel transport of water organised to supply the advanced units with "fantassis"—that is, flat, rectangular metal cases, each containing 12 gallons of water. Twelve gallons of water weigh, roughly, 1201b, and two of these fantassis are accordingly the load for a singlo camel. Even if water could be found locally fit for the horses and camels the transport for the watering of a single brigade _ would thus involve a camel train of nearly a mile in length. When the August fighting was over it was decided to exploit the water resources of the desert itself, because the eventual advance, now accomplished, was alrqady decided on. Among many difficulties the water difficulty was the most acute. This northern part of the Sinai Peninsula is not a waterless desert in the sense that the greater part of the Sahara or the Libyan desert it. On the contrary, the subsoil water is almost everywhere fairly close beneath the surface, varying from 2ft to 20ft as a rule. Unfortunately this water is little more than an extension of the sea or of the "sabkhots," or salt marshes, on the coast These in the summer time dry up into sheets of solid salt as white as snow.

The highlands of this country are sand dunes, rising in places to hills of sand, hills and ridges rising to 300 ft and over, masses of sand that actually move across the desert in course of time. All the conditions were cruel to working and sand exhausted both men and horses that had to traverse it, and its particles blew and mingled with every morsel that man ate. Sand permeated everything, and one came to loathe it as we have loathed mud at home and in Flanders. I have known both, and I believe sand comes only second to mud in producing an intolerable weariness in the human spirit. Snow and extreme cold will kill more quickly, but their victim escapes the long weariness and the undignified diseases which are the handmaidens of the desert sand. Across this country we used to ride out at dawn prospecting for water, followed by a party of Royal Engineers with their apparatus loaded on camels. Then, when a likely place had been selected, came the toilsome job of sinking a tube to the water level. If it was a lucky shot water would be found at 12ft or 15ft, and the hand pump mounted. Samples of water were collected, and as soon as possible a beginning made to return to our bivouacs, for it was important to get men, horses, and camels back to some sort of shade before the sun got too high and the heat dangerous. Then, under the shade of a blanket stretched between stout palm leaves driven into the sand, the portable chemical outfit was produced and the exact percentage of salt was estimated. This was entered on the map on the spot where the boring was situated, ami tabulated in the report as fit for camels only, for horses, or for men—very seldom the last, unfortunately. Thus by degrees the water stato of the whole area of operations was mapped on., wells sunk, and every possible preparationmade for the oncoming army.