NEAR SIDI BARRANI THE ROAD INTO EGYPT ITALY HOPED TO TREAD

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 10

NEAR SIDI BARRANI THE ROAD INTO EGYPT ITALY HOPED TO TREAD

The Italians advanced along the Egyptian coast towards Mersa Matruh by two roads, one by the sea and the other, a little higher, winding through the scarp of the desert platG As it happened, for several months of the winter in 1928-29 and 1929-30, I lived in a Dig Egyptian Government

camp engaged on an important engineering enterprise some 80 miles west of Alexandria, on the rainy coastal belt of the Mediterranean littoral, ana about a third of the way to Mersa Matruh. I made several journeys on the railway along the coast As the train passes Lake Maryut the dazzling elare of the sun on the evaporated fait makes one thankful lor the blue glass of the carriage windows and it ic a relief to get on to the vast arm limestone plateau of the Northern L that aaaaon, whan fnkaw? U the surface of the plateau is.a maSot brimantly coloured low-ftow-ing vegetation. Few, desert growths give out much fragrance, but m th - little bouquets collected we could cern the scent of thyme, heliotrope, and other favourite herbs. Bedouin Encampments

Throughout the rainy season there appear, almost overnight, small ami large encampments of bedouins, with their flat ragged tents made of variegated camel-hair rugs spread over bits of boxes, with their enormous flocks of sheep and goats and perhaps ® tew camels and donkeys , s ° m ® i^ s ° beautiful horses which they sit with surpassing grace. ese , A s^ s V p!.V f-dr patches of ground and get very fair crops of barley, but they never try to grow berseem (clover), universal elsewhere, as it has to be kept watered You may see them, however,, collecting considerable quantities of a buib somewhat resembling a spring onion, for which, when dried, they can fina a good market as a flavouring for ord-

attempts have been made to cultivate and colonise the costal belt between the salt marshes west of Alexadria and Mersa Matruh and Siwa, but from the days of the Romans it was above all the undisputed territory of smugglers until the Coastguard

Camel Corps was instituted. Sixteen centuries ago the .climate

must have been far moister than today, for there are evidences of habitation a good deal farther south of the present arid wastes. The Romans must

have colonised the rainbelt along almost the whole of this, coast,, and the remains of beautiful little temples here and there bear testimony to their civilisation. In one, perched on’a high cliff far away from the remotest traces of cultivation, three successive layers of frescoes can be distinguished, and amohg the debris was found a coin of Livia, wife of Augustus, A.D. 14. From this temple and from one farther west were unearthed the lower half of a delicately sculptured draped female figure and « very good terracotta statuette of our Lord carrying a lamb over His shoulder. Both of these are in the Alexandria Museum of Antiquities.

IBy a Correspondent in the “Manchester Guardian.”]

Further legacies of Roman organic tion are numbers of capacious res» voirs excavated in the limestone fIS! of the desert to collect and preset* the rainfall. These are found, in *! more or less neglected condition aS over the present no-man’s-land C tween shore and sand, and two v/Z cleaned and. emptied of silt for of our camp, the cracks in the walls being carefully repaired with cernem The little channels or catchments W ing into them from all the high* ground in the vicinity were scootw out, and the shaft of each was fitted with a lid and padlock, otherwise ft. nomad Arabs would instantly have availed themselves and their flocks o' this easily come-by supply, and the sut! rounding ground would have become nopelessly contaminated. Desert pasturage is free to even animal, but water sources belong to individual families and tribes and are subject to proprietary rights which are strictly observed and enforced in years when there is a scarcity. The tfomad inhabitants of the littoral number between 20,000 and 30,000. West of the Cape of Sidi Abderrahman the plateau rises gradually to the higher ground beyond the frontier and water is nearer the surface. Indeed, the cultivator has only to scrape the soil lightly with his wooden plough, sow the batley after the first shower, and nature does the rest. During Roman titles Cyfenaica was- the granary of Rome, and to-day the Italians are intent on procuring from these lands a plentiful supply of corn.

Matruh Established Up to half a century ago the harbour at Matruh was only visited by Momen from the Cyclades and Sporades, who came in their small fleets to dive for the sponges along that coast, which are reputed to be the finest in the Mediterranean. The new harbour, developed in the last generation, is i monument to Government interest and energy. It is almost a perfect replin of the harbour at Alexandria, only onethird of its size in length, width, and depth. Its channels have been deepened and a breakwater built for tin protection of small craft. When Sheehan Bey, of the Coast-

guard Camel Corps, was instructed to build a fort and living quarters at i favourable site between Alexandria and Tripoli he naturally selected Matruh, the sole natural harbour on the coast, A well 600 feet deep was first bored and the deepening of the harbour started: next, the fort began to t&e shape; and within a few months the “small but imposing” stronghold was finished, with the crescent flag flpatmf gaily in the breeze. Very soon solid barracks were erected for the accom-

modation of the officers and men, and to these were presently added a smaU wooden church for the Orthodox Greek divers, a mosque over the tomb of Siai Awam (a saint so renowned for hu holiness that even yet contending tribes will come from great distances to emphasise at his tomb .the solemnity of their oath) for the followers of Mohammed, a police station prison, school, hospital,, post-office, and other buildings necessary for the little community. whilst nowadays thera arc shops, private houses for Government officials, an excellent hotel for tourists, and last, but not least, there is the handsome aerodrome by which Mersa Matruh is perhaps best known to-day.