A ROARING DITCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 9

A ROARING DITCH.

4 PASSAGE OF ITALIANS. SCENES IN SUEZ CANAL RICH HARVEST FOR TRADERS. (By LAURENCE STALLINGS.) SUEZ, August 21. The Suez Canal is alive and roaring with activity as Italian troopships pour their youth and treasure through these the cross-roads of the world. Not only men, but pack animals, are being hurried by Italy to her Red Sea colonies. To-day I saw the steamer Confidenzia on her way to Eritrea with a cargo of hundreds of Missouri mule& picketed at her rails. The lesson learned by artillery and transport officers during the Great War, that these are the best animals for dragging field guns over difficult terrain, is evidently well remembered by the Italians.

The Praga, a Genoa liner, which has been pressed into service for the purpose of convoying battalions of regulars to Africa, is in the Canal. I could see the troops 011 board; they were mostly young boys who looked, in the main, like peasant lads, and their age appeared on the average to be about twenty. They were all dressed in new khaki. Jubilant Merchants. The military quartermasters from the. ship went ashore to-day, and were engaged in buying sun helmets for the troops 011 board- One shop' here, I heard, has sold 15,000 such helmets in the past two months. That will give some idea of the pressure at which shops are working here just now. All the merchants in the Near East are jubilant at the turn events are taking. They are, of course, convinccd that war will break out, with a corresponding trade boom.

Some of the shopkeepers have been trying to keep as far as possible n:i accurate account of the numbers of troops which have been going throng. 1 Suez, and at a conservative estimate they reckon that 80,000 men have passed through the canal during the last t.\v > months. Hundreds ot American motor cars have been collected in the dock here, no doubt with an eye to sales further south in the near future. It is difficult to describe the enthusiasm of the Italian soldiers when they first catch sight of Africa. Thunderous cheers go up from the transports, mingled with the strains of the Fascist song, "Giovinezza," and cries of "Duce, Duee. Duce!" until their shouts give one the impression of coming from a hord-i of howling dervishes. Without Precedent. Ships returning from the Italian lie 1 Sea colonies carry home a number of officers who will act as instructors t. > fresh brigades ordered south. Yesterday the Italian authorities refused to lan ! the bodies of 17 men who had died of fever during the voyage up the lied Sea, while they were being invalided ho inc. Well-informed opinion here discount; the rumours of abnormal losses from disease suffered by the Italians. It i< understood that nothing more than tin? usual ratio of deaths from disease i* occurring and it should be remembered that Italy now has over 150.000 troops stationed practically in tropical districts. The canal is accustomed to soldiers, but there is no precedent for the mass of troops which are now going through. Traders here say that arms smugglers are using Scandinavian and German merchant vessels in an effort to sell to Ethiopia munitions of war, but I saw no evidence of this and there has been no increase in the number of such ship-i passing through the canal. —"Star" and N.A.N.A. copyright. AUCKLAND , vjgUOLIC