ROYAL ENGINEERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 April 1938, Page 10

ROYAL ENGINEERS

EGYPT AND THE SUDAN, Maicr-Gencral A- C. ’lcniperlcyJ ("Daily Telegraph and Morning Post' Military Correspondent) writes:--Policy and strategy have combined to make Egypt and the Sudan a part of the world in which our Army has been constantly engaged, and it has left its mark there only by the blood that it has shed in its protection, binby the prominent part played by the Corps of Royal Engineers m its peaceful development by means ot railways. irrigation, dams, survey, and the like. . . “The Royal Engineers in Egypt and the Sudan" (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, by Lt.-Col. E. VV. C. Saudes, R. E-, is the record ot tlie corps’ achievements there. file uiuthor in a former volume described the military engineer in India- Now comes this work, the military history of Egypt and the Sudan from the time of Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1801 to the present day- . Among the many great men oi the past who carved out reputations on these inhospitable sands, the names ot Gordon and Kitchener, both Royal Engineers, at once suggest themselves.

’Phe two men. so utterly differing in character and outlook yet so united in their devotion to the countries . and their people, caught the imagination of the British nation in a. way that perhaps no other soldier has done, since the Duke of Wellington.

As one reads the- story one is also conscious -of the tact that, though the Army gave of its best to Egypt and the Sudan yet it received much in returnAs the old battles flash by, Tel-el-Kebir, El Teh, Abu Kleai Atbara. Omdurman —mere names to : the rising generation—one realises what a magnificent training ground it was lor the .Army. Under Sir Evelyn Wood, Grenfell and Kitchener as Sirdars, the Egyptian Army attracted the cream of the keenest officers', and they gained priceless experience of responsibility, of almost .continuous active service under most varied conditions, and of civil administration. England was to benefit, in the sterner trials that awaited her, by this wonderful school for future generals. The author has compiled his history after immense historical research and consultation with a large number of brother officers. In the result we see both sides of the work of the Royal Engineers. There is first aji accurate account of all the campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan up to and including the Great War, special prominence being naturally given to the contributions of the R.E. Part 11. deals with the civil work of the Corps. It'may be imagined .how immense this has been iu the Sudan, a country but recently rescued from barbarism. All the construction work was done by the Royal Engineers, --as in the early days after the reconquest no contractors were employed. We thus find comparatively youthful R.E. officers building railways and becoming railway managers; alcting as civil en- ‘ gineers with irrigation and drainage problems; building harbours and a telegraph, system; or carrying out a survey of a completely mapless country. It is an impressive record. The story opens with a charactristic foreword by Gen. Sir Francis Wingate. There .is no man. living so well qualified to. comment upon such a. history. He. first went to Egypt in 1883,, wa's Lord Kitchener’s right-hand man for many years, Sirdar of the Egyp-

lian Army, and Governor-General of the Sudan for 17 years, and High Commissioner of Egypt for four. lie has constantly helped' the author, chapter by chapter, out oi the wealth of his own knowledge and experience. His assistance must have enhanced the value, of the work, and his imprimatur is a guarantee ot accuracy over the period in which he was in positions of responsibility, especially in the historic events ■, in which he played so prominent, a partIt. was in March. 1800. that the first engineer officer. Captain Lacy, appeared in Egypt at the head ot a rabble of ’Purks and Arabs, sent to evict Gen. Kleber, who had been left at the head of the French troops by Napoleon on his departure irom Egypt. Lacy had been sent, to this army from Constantinople by our Ambassador.

The force- was severely defeated by Kleber, though we learn how the French were eventually ejected by Sir Ralph Abercromby at the head' of an expedition from Gibraltar. It was a classic instance of the correct use ct sea power combined with an army. No British troops appeared in Egypt again till 1.882.

It. is interesting to learn that M. de Lesseps seems to have bort owed the idea, oi the Suez Canal from an R Eofficer. ‘('apt. James Vetch. R E., in 1810, proposed a scheme not essentially different from that eventually carried oti£, and published a work on the subject. He laid his work before tlie Government, in 1816: but Lite attitude of Lord Palmerston, was so absolutely opposed to the. policy of the canal between the two seas, as one fraught, with danger to British interests that Captain Vetch was unable io proceed further.” ARABI PASHA.

We are now swiftly taken to Arabi Pasha's rebellion in 1882. An expeditionary force hud been collected to help the Khedive, and,with fine strategic iUfSight Sir Gurnet. Wolseley left Arabi and his army near Alexandria and landed his force at Ismalia on the Suez Canal. But surprise was lacking, for "according to Lord Cromer a warning had been given to Arabi by a certain Mr Wilfrid Blunt (unfortunately an Englishman) that he would be attacked from the direction of Ismaiia.”

i Tl\'tn followed in quick succession the midnight charge at Kassassin and the. victory of Tel-el-Kebir—names iwhich thrilled us in our boyhood—‘and Cairo was soon in our hands. * Sir Evelyn Wood was appointed Sir!dar to reorganise the Egyptian Army, land we read that Captain Horatio (Herbert Kitchener was appointed i second-in-command of a cavalry regi- ' rnent.

- “Thus the famous K. of K. enters 'this history in the surprising role of la. leader of light cavalry. Whatever ■lns deficiencies as a he was equal to any, and superior to lUQ.st, in endurance, subtlety and courage. Commanding in presence, inscrutable in countenance, Kitchener was designed by Nature to impress his personality on the Eastern mind and' to unravel its secrets ■ . He was possessed seemingly of an inborn understanding of the Arab mentality.”

A very just appreciation. The scene then, shifts to the Gordon Relief Expedition, in which Kitchener that other great Royal Engineer, took his life in his hands disguised as an Arab and, we learn, carried a' bottle of poison on him after witnessing the torture and execution of another spy at the hands of the enemy. As the force gathered at Korti, tin news from Gordon became more serious, and Lord Wolseley decided to

divide it into two columns, sending one across the desert under Sir Herbert Stewart, to meet Gordon's steamers at Metemmeh and another by the Nile.

After tlw battle of Alm Klea. in which Sir Herbert Stewart was wounded and the gallant Col. Burnaby killed, the command devolved upon Sir C’lftirles Wilson. R.E. He met Gordon's steamers am,- wailed to refit them. Lord Walselcy wrote: “He might, have started on the afternoon of January 21, and did not. start, til] the morning of the 24th-" “Wilson stood condemned.” says the history, "ami as events proved, delay was fatal- Yet if he had started on equipped and badly engined steamers, would he have reached Khartoum?” There- is a. haunting chapter on Gordon in Khartoum, wherein we see something of this wayward, difficult and deeply religious man. with his great, military ability and his uncanny power over others. (; ORD O N A V JAN GE D. For the last time Kitchener takes the field again and- with very modest resources, paves the way for the advance first to Dongola, then Atbaru, and finaly Hie crowning triumph of Cmdurman. (Jordon is at last avenged. This history wisely uoes not attempt to give any detailed accounts oi the battles, as they have, been presenter! so often before. But an exception is made in the case, oi Omdtiriiiait. Jt is extraordinary to realise what risks were being run and how very near the Khalifa came. 10 inflicting a. severe cheek, to say tlie least of it. upon the Anglo-Egyp-tian army.

We assist at tlie drama which unfolded itself at Fashoda. where Lord Kitchener found four gallant French officers under Gen. Marchland, who bad crossed Africa, to establish themselves on the hanks of the Nile. The situation was never da’ngerous locally, as the two commanders behaved with great tact and good sense, yet this incursion brought, us very near to war. for complete surrender on Hie part of the French Government was the only alternative. Incidentally, if Kitchener had not destroyed the Khalifa's army on September 2, nothing could have.- saved Marchand’s little band from destruction.

The military portion of the book closes with a. carefully written account. of the campaigns in the East and in the West of Egypt during the Great War. One will never knowhow we came to spend something like 22,000,000 sterling in the campaign against the Senussi or to lock up so many troops in such a minor operation.

The description that the author gives of the achievement of the R.E. in creating the framework of civilisation in the Sudan is of interest far beyond the £orps itself. It was an opportunity for engineering on a. big scale, which not a, lifetime of normal routine in the Army’- could' have provided. Egypt and the Sudan gave the Corps a magnificent technical training ground. 'The monument of their Woi;k is to be found in this fine history.