NEW ZEALANDERS IN EGYPT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 24 May 1915, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDERS IN EGYPT.

INCIDENTS AND OBSERVATIONS.

Lieutenant H. D. Williams, of the Auckland Regiment N.Z. Mounted Brigade, and a son of Mr W. Williams, of Meremere, in writing from Zeitoun Camp, Cairo, on the 4th of April, says, inter alia: —We do not expect to stay here long, for the main body has already got marching orders; eigiiteen trains of men and gear moved out last night, and the same number will tro1 away every day now, but it will take ten days or even a fortnight to move them.all, for there are nearly three hundred thousand men in Egyr>t. and ; we are to.be the.last",tp move. Thetin-. fantry have been promised two dayfe' sailing, and then three days' solid fight-^* ing, using the boats as their temporary base, so it looks as if we are to attack the Turks in co-operation with the battleships at the Dardanelles. I would like to get in with* the first lot if possible, and I am trying hard to do so, but I am afraid there is not much chance.

We are camped in the desert, and dust and flies are almost unbearable, especially the flies,' which make for one's eyes. I have seen Norman and Hedley Arthur, Railton, the Murphys, and Snowy Winks and Tebbutts, besides a great many others, whom you would not know, and they are all right. Cairo is an awful place. I think it must be the most immoral place in the world, and after having seen it once you' do not want to see-it again, for it is simply disgusting, and -things which we Would look down upon in New Zealand are quite a matter of course here. Even the higher class of people, who would be . respected in New Zealand, when judged from our standards are quite beyond respect; but they all seem to be the same, high and low alike, and the lowest* are ten times worse than dogs. ' It makes one appreciate little New Zealand. It is no wonder that the men get out of bounds sometimes.

The country round the Nile is magnificent and there are hundreds of thousands of acres, just like market gardens and of beautiful color. This country is worth from £150 to £200 per acre, but they get three crops a year off it. The locusts are bad this year, and sometimes the sky is covered with a great cloud of them, and. they make it look as if there was going to be a thunderstorm. The natives frighten them off the fields with tins.

We made a record this time with the horses and only lost a total of 1 per cent, of the whole lot. The boat I was in made a world's record of only half per cent., and those died through poison in the feed.