WITH OUR MEN IN EGYPT.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15222, 9 March 1915, Page 8

WITH OUR MEN IN EGYPT.

THE SECOND REINFORCEMENTS

ARRIVAL AT ALEXANDRIA

(FTom Captain C. E. BEAN, Official Reporter with the Australian Expeditionary Force in Egypt.)

OCopraiGxtT.)

.(Rights Specially Secured by "The

Press.")

ALEXANDRIA, February 1. The second reinforcements were expected at Alexandria on Saturday, and the military landing officers were all down there waiting for them. On >- Saturday evening, when we arrived by g ihe late train from Cairo, we found a ir small improvised mess already at the o big hotel in Alexandria. Twenty offi- >- cers, more or less, were chosen from c different Australian and New Zealand o corps and sent down there to supervise :- thb landing. They had obtained a c long table in the dining-room, and 0 there they were, with their pockets s crammed with lists r>{ the transports , to arrive, ti>« troops .in each one, their f h-orso ivjiygons and other pnraphernalia, a and the railway station where each let _ whs to be eventually deposited in Cairo. Late that night two of us took a cab and drove down the streets of a low mediasval Greek town, finally t through a native town, much the lowt est of nil, with houses of rather odd - 'Tooms piled on one another, much as ! - you would pile old trunks and boxes I "in a crowded box-room. We ham- _ !W.-»d on a big Cnstomhonse gate. 1 j which ultimately blocked the end of ; J ouo of these alleys, and clattered • through it on to the great, silent, half- • empty wharf. A SILENT HARBOUR. Thero was n big Messag«ries steamer there from Marseilles, apparontly discharging packing-cases for fruit or tomatoes. There was a bid Red Cross strainer, the Union Castle intermediate liner, which, under her old name of the C-iaiLfrimi. was arrested by n German merchant cruiser at the beginning of the war, and afterwards released with all her passengers. There she lay opposite the long white hospital train* all ghostly in the moonlight. There were the dark hulls and funnels of all the captured German and Austrian steamers, eighteen or twenty of them, on this side of tho harbour, and eighteen or twenty German and Austrian sailing ships on tho other sido. They had congregated in tho mouth of the Suez Canal at the beginning of the war until tho British Government decided that they were undesirable there, whereupon they were given notice to quit, and as coon as they did so were taken in charge by warships waiting for them, and brought round to Alexandria. The Prize Couri at Alexandria has been dealing with the difficult law on the subject ever since. One had learned long since that in war the only sur© way of making quite certain of the whereabouts of anybody is to go and see for yourself, and so we drove half a mile around to the wharves, at which we ourselves had arrived two months before. They were almost all empty. Across the enef'of I« tho pier was a cargo steamer. We h drove up beneath her side and address- f ed a solitary figure which we could ccc B against her white upper works, leaning ° over the rail. "Have you 'seen any wo shouted. "No, Ino I see 'em," came.back a pleasant voice si from above. "I hear dere voe come 6I comin , die afternoon, but I not seen ?; none." We finally came to the con- 1} elusion, which was right; and support- *". Ed by the landing officers whom we 5 arterwards saw at the hotel, that tho tJ transports had not left' Port Said, and ?; would not arrive that night. *' . TILE FIRST SHIP. "

Iμ fact, it was not until just after noon nest day that one saw a large ocean steamer far out, making for tho harbour entrance. She had a funnel and two masts, and one conld faintly make out on her side fore arid aft a wiiito square. It was the first of tie "new lot.' She came in first, then tire others. As they each came elowly up the big crowded to the rigging with troopers, t&ere were very few to appreciate tie sigfcfc. On© or two policemen and two or three Austeafian landing officers had the hnge empty wharves all to themselves. The snip ewTing slowly round, and moved *? to j ° woarf side. A dozen sentries Slipped down the gangway anietataoned themselves nnmd the qtey. A smafl ragged crowd, of natives, as many as COU * c^ ap * T . * c Pofcce. swarmed around the sfltp'e side. The landing officers and tie major commanding the wan* on boaxd. TAat was all xhe'eocond contingent had arrived

A MHE TOS&GE. Etew had as good a voyage a& wo nad, tney say: Theße wasunot one rough ■* ay n^° m tie beginning to the end of "S ~?*y lQst « as far ne ia known, only a little orer fifty horsee. They lost more men than we did owing to an emdenuo of measles in cO me ahros wluc& was, in certain eases, followed raded fetaßy in about a dowsn cases. Hie deaflw m the case <rf the first force lave been in almost «wecy case dne to pnOTmoma foflowinK on mfltjenza. Tho moet mterofftang ittcadent of €he voy^ Two two funneb seen jnst above the. horizon. « *?** akH5 S parallel thJJ??! 06 *' an L at * te very top of make o«t, throngh strong glasses, the w*tcL. would neither ewer flag nor wire Jess siijnals, and the officer commanding ffa e Escort ordered a JTin™%Z**» when the stranger at lZ turned m;rards, and came up on the S.W* k T r i? r &c tp »«> of thconvoy also knew of Jj^r.

IN CAMP. t;£S W the second {orcc has arrived a large proportion of Australians wrfl bo ixaimng with the New Zealand! ere. Jiiere aro now cam nod at Zoitonn. where General GodW s If 3 » re .' the 4th Australian Light Horse Kngade T and tlie neu-lv-arrived 4Ji Australian Infantry Brigade. The 2nd I., B ht Horse Brigade, which goS to Mandi camp, from which the Ist Light Horse Brigade has just mored, will probably bt> under General Birdl wood-s direct command. The depot has now been established under Colonel Scllheim in Cairo. One of its functions is, of course, to deal with all reinforcements which come forward The first reinforcements, just arrived with the second contingent, have "one into camp at Abbassia, near Zeitoun north of Cairo. ' BEHAVIOUR OP TROOPS. An article in which I stated that the .Australian troops were not responsible

for certain rowdiness in Cairo some months ago, but that it was due solely to a smail percentage of unsuitable men, seem to have been so twisted and misquoted by a certain newspaper or newspapers as to appear to be an r.ttadc on the Au3traiian troops in Egvot, that is to say. exactly the opposite of what was written by mc, or intended. Readers of my articles and cablegrams know that the condition ot the Australian force in Egypt, the way in which it has carried through its strenuous and tiring training, and the conditions in which it is emerging from it, are such as would make Australians, if they could only see it. very proud indeed. The article alluded to also contains sweeping criticisms on the whole of tho officers, who were never mentioned in my article, and which are fluite unjustified. Such offences as took place were military offences. Nothing else occurred which does not ha?>i>«i in Ai>< r:i:::>-; :-;ui other cities* every day. The article referred to omits the fact, which I was careful to state, and which it is immensely important not to omit, that all men returned to Australia are not unsuitable, but- that a large proportion consists of men whose health has broken down, often through hard work and exposure, and who are bitterly disflppouued at not being able to go on.