EGYPT'S DEFENCES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17192, 12 June 1916, Page 3

EGYPT'S DEFENCES.

FORTRESSES IN THE SANDS.

WAITING FOR THE TURK

(From W. T. MASSET.)

EASTERN EGYPT, April 4

All tho Gorman intrigue .in Turkey has not succeeded in getting the Ottoman army to attempt to hold up traffic on the Suez Canal this season. Even the misguided Turk must now regard such a scheme as a hopeless adventure- His preparations continue in a half-hearted fashion; perhaps his pride prevents an open acknowledgment of inevitable failure, but whenover ho docs anything substantial tho energy, tho resource, and tho bombs of our airmen—an invincible combination—scatter the results of his labours to the four winds. Tho Turk has not the remotest prospect of success. Probably ho appreciates the impossibility of damaging tho Canal, but to keep some Bedouins with him, and, what is more important for German policy, to endeavour to influence tho Arab population of Asia and Africa, he may pursue a campaign of pinpricks in tho shape of affairs of patrols. • Anything in tho nature of a serious attack on Egypt during the summer months is absolutely out of the question, and nobody knows this better than the Germans who advertised to the world a scheme which was to "cut the main artery in the body of the British Empire." That vain hope has been dissipated. " , The Turk is sitting still, or, at least, marking time, but the Egyptian Expeditionary Force pushes forward, and has made the Canal so secure that passengers to tho East may sleep as soundly in their state-rooms as in the piping times of peace. Early in March I cabled a brief account of how tne advanced defences were progressing. Sinco then tho works have been continued at a speed highly creditable, to the troops, and while the big defences are being completed positions are being taken up so far out in the desert that thero is not much chance of tho enemy having the limited satisfaction of castins longing eyes on the waterway. A vast system of road and railway communication, as well as of animal transport, is in being, and deep across tho eastern side of the Canal, where voyagers were accustomed to look ovei miles of sand trembling under tho holering rays of the sun, with scarce a palm tree to relieve desolation, one sees the civilising influence of military hands. A lev, months have indeed wrought a wondrous change. Late last year »p«* b^efended tod r tan theTorLon with your ,h 2s and von can pick up evidence effUl ' tS - WELLS OF MOSES. White stone roads are covered witu fine sand, and are indistinguishable tilt motor-lonies raise clouds of limestone, tho rail tracks are y siblc only when an engine scnreelj Jiggci than a toy winds its load of from bank to railhead, and you get an other sign of activity when a camel convov moving at a slow, untiring pace, shows itself black against the yellow background. But passengers are Sways seeing these things, and they go to tell the people of distant parts how secur v is being purchased at tho price of much human effort The Army « making a good bargain lor the Lmpne, .but how sound the bargain is only ti.osc Cow who have been out there. n mjg the whole line won back for Egjpt, t i,„ ),•■-,;■•, •• ' civilisation. Having forward. I believe if \- n . ~••;• y , . [tie for the Canal it will not be fought within sight of the ' a Obvkmslv it is not prudent to give even a general description of the military works which bring safety to Egypt

and the link which allows tho constant flow of commerce between the seas of East and West. But thero arc two places which tho enemy knows we have occupied, or he must be a very dull fellow. The duties of the Prince of Wales recently took his Royal Highness to these two places in one day—a test of endurance about which the soldiers on duty in the neighbourhood have not ceased to talk. It was a proof of physical fitness, entailing, as i*. did, .journeys in trains where utility is not .sacrificed for comfort, and rides over something like twenty miles of hr.mmockv desert in heavy going. The El Shaft train created a record tho day tho I'riitce rode in it by travelling at the rate of twenty miles an hour, but if you ask Ihe driver about the possibilities of the lino he would probably say the track has still to settle considerably -beforo higher speed can he attained. He, bc ; ng a driver of a Midland mail train in civil life, can form a sound opinion. The driver who took me and a load of wood over the line thought his comrade would keep the record, for ho could not get much more thai! ten miles out of his engine. Oyun Musa. where the Prince spent some time, is interesting, not merely For military reasons, but because of its historic associations. If tradition has not noiselessly misled later generations, here is the Elim of old and the Wells of MoscSj where the great Lawgiver and the Children of Israel drank of the sweet waters after crossing the' sea. "And they came to Elim. where were twelve wells of water and there score and ten palm trees, andthey encamped there by the waters." Thero are to-dnv the twelve wells to suppert the belief that Elim and Musa are one and the same place, and it would he difficult to imagine so strange a phenomenon as two places in this desert with twelve wells. Anxious to obtain further corroboration, nn Army chaplain counted the palms, and has declared the threo score and ten are "all present." Possibly the padre tallied only the tops of the venerable trees, some of which .suffered in lastyear's locust visitation, and allowed his eve to pass ever the younger palms which add to the. beauty of this refreshing oasis. INDIAN SPADE WORK.

To get to Musa a motor-boat flicks a trail across a summer sea in the Gull jof Suez to permit you to roach the new railway at the quarantine station. Jf you are an officer passenger you are privileged to sit on a garden scat bolted to a trolley attached by the simplest of couplings to the engine. BeJiind you are trucks laden with wood, water and rations, on ton of which some Indians rid'e more or less easily. The driver says ycu will reach the wells in half an hour. Ho is an optimist. He knows the engine's trick of shedding its load, the incurable habit of the trucks of jumping the points, and the litrlo pleasantries cf mules who. in hauling forage trucks in sidings to allow you to pass, show their snirit by overturning the hales. The engine is better ballasted than the track, which is fortunate, for she rolls, bucks and sags l:ko a tramp steamer in a gale, and every time she jumns you sit hard to avoid being pitched" on to the track. You arrive at railhead' —revising the timetable on tho way—and the amusing, trials of tho journey arc forgotten' in your amazement at what thew and muscle have done to save Oyun Musa from tho taint of enemy touch. Of all the trenches in tho Canal zone those of Ovun Musa are the most orderly. It is duo to the. soldier toilers of other parts to say this is because tho sand hereabouts is wet. and thero is no drift when the khamseen blows. But Nature deals cut her trials with an even hand, mid here, when relieving the commander of sand' difficulty, she gives him what other commanders sigh for and caunot get —water. There is water trouble at Musa. It comes just where ifc is not expected. Dig a hole lit a low level and not a drop percolates into it. That is jitst where a trench is not wanted ; on or about the ridge is where the ground must be opened. There, two, spades deep, the water bubbles up with abominable energy. The more drainage is arranged' for'tho more copious is the flow. That necessitates a new device.; biTt war has sharpened man's cunning, and the new scheme has much to recommend it. A battalion of Indian:;, wonderful men who, coining from France a remnant of its former self, with a V.O. as proof of high soldierly qualities, have spent three months in making Musa impregnable They have worked wonders' not merelv where there was water trouble, but in other parts, about which I will be silent, and they are so modest thev endeavour to hide their handiwork from inquisitive eyes. The Indians have sandbagged and excavated fire trench, communication trench, support, trench, .dug-out and gun emplacement with infinite perseverance and' skill. Thev have tunnelled under strata, of reek to preserve the strongest of head cover. Thev hewed long and hard to cut throucrh stone which blunted pick and ruffled the temper, and then they sought the aid of the Territorial engineer, for whose short way with the obstinate crust of Mother Earth thev have profound admiration. It is not less gratifying to hear tho Territorial bestow warm praise on his Indian comrade. There is between them tho bond of hard work equally well done. One will defend the honour oi the other against all comers. But they do long for. an opportunity to strafe the enemy together. "When will he come?'' is n' question of second importance to "Will he come?" WILL THE ENEMY COME?

The Indian? c!o six hours' hard labour a day, and troop ofl : to that remarkable relaxation for tired soldiers —fulltime football. Their matches are frequent. Inter-company competitions are interesting, but they lack tlie full flavour which comes of heating a regimental team. When I was with thorn the battalion awaited an answer from another Indian regiment to an invitation couched in true sporting language. The match would be arranged"; the terms of the invitation admit of no doubt of that. The officers who form part of the team say the men play the game, and just as they imitate the Tommy, who set the fashion of wearing a cigarette behind his ear, <o they cony the white soldier's example on the football field. Gebel Murr stands some ten miles north of Musa, a gaunt, stern sentinel guarding the approaches to the Canal on a far-flung line. It is the Gibraltar of the southern end of the zone, a mass of red stone as hard as granite, and with a Surface polished by the sands drifted across it through the ages. With the assistance of fifty blasts a. day arranged by skilful English miners* and quarrymen, Indian soklisra have prepared that inhospitable top, and their officers are satisfied the fortress will stand the tests of war. An enemy marching westward must come through one of two passes, from which he would debouch in full view of Gebol Murr, who rears a head nearly 400 ft above the sand, yet looks low and uninrposing compared with the jagged ridges of Gebel Raha nvrn-v to t'io west. Through, the slits of Raha the enemy must come forth. Even when the setting sun illumines with a delicate pink glow the rough saiv-liko fringe of that stony upland, Gobel Raha is forbidding. _ But the garrison of Gebel Murr wish for nothing better than to show the Turk and "his Hun leaders that that desolate crest is as Paradise to the hell that awaits them on the rolling bosom of the desert sand. Gebel Murr will tako toll of any column that issues from the passes, and would welcome as soft music the bursting of high explosives against its face as a preparation for infantry attack. " "\\ ill ho come?" Do not say ho will not to anyone on

Gebel Murr, or the monotony of months spent in carving rooms and underground passages in the toughest stone will bo unrelieved by a hope which has almost become tho prayer of the patriot.