War Notes From Egypt.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 19 February 1915, Page 3

War Notes From Egypt.

With the sth Otago Mounted Rifles.

Zeitoun Camp. Cairo, 13,12,14. At Albany the New Zealand transport took in coal and water. Very few of the Now Zealanders got ashore and after a stay of about a couple of days we again put to sea. At Albany we picked up the Australian transports —2B in number —so that with the 10 N.Z. transports there wee 38 altogether. The Australian fleet also came on with the transports as additional escort. From NZ. to Albany we had a good escort of British and allied cruisers. Shortly after we left

Albany we got our second dose of innoculation against, typhoid The innoculation consists of the injection

of serum into the breast. The first injection is made in the right breast, and after an Interval of at least ten days the same'-Operation is performed on tbe left breast. Soma of the men

were pretty ill from the effects of the innoculation but the great majority felt very little ill effect. As far as I can gather Ihe benefit derived from i ■- nocu'ation is veryconsiderable. The weather while we were in Albany wss very hot and continued so until we had had a couple of days' run in the Red Sea. From then until we arrived at our pres«nt camp it was delightfully cool. We were favoured with very good weather for the run acruss from Albany to Colombo and what troubled us most v>a.* the heat. When we were at our meals or in our bunks we used' to be in a lather of sweat. Tne ventilation of our dining and sleeping quarters was altogether inadequate. Th-

fans were f r lO'.i small an<i only those who were close to them got much benefit. At night large numbers of men slept on the hatches and those who could do bo slept on the deck. Some slept naked and most slept nearly naked. The food on the wh'ole was passable, more especially during the last two week 3 on board. The bread issued to us was nearly always bad. I don't think we had decent bread on more than half-a dozen occasions. When the troopships arrived at Columbo the Australians anchored outside the breakwater and the N.Z. transports came into harbour. They took in coal and water from coal and water boats. All the labouring work is done by the natives. Labour is very cheap. The Singalese are mostly pretty poor, but if they are so it is not for the want of begging. They have reduced

begging to fine a art. The jabbering and shrill cries were quite a novelty to die New Zealanders. The Singalese are rather a fine race. By fine I don't mean that they are admirable but that ihey are very slim. Their arms and less remind one of the pictures of slaving Indians we used to Bee in the Witness. The inner harbour at Colombo is simply alive with boats rowed by natives. There are also a good few catamarans. A catamaran is a high narrow boat with an outrigger to prevent from capsizing. A certain number of New Zealanderß were allowed on shore on two successive days. I was ashore on the second day and about thirty of ua indulged in a ride in a rickstiaw. We formed our rickshaws up in a line and after a lot of jabbering we got away. We visited the Colombo fruit market. It is perhaps the most interesting thing we saw in Colombo. The size of it fairly staggered us. Most of us also sampled the Colombo beer, but from the remarks 1 heard it could not have come up to expectations. There are not very many good buildings in Colombo. Some of them seem to be built more for ventilation than to keep the rain out. There are a good few tired looking Europeans in Colombo. One requires to be a good hand at bargaining to get decent value from the Singalese. They are very keen to sell things and one gets tirud of telling them there is no business doing. We (N.Z.) left Colombo without regrets aa it was very little use being stuck on board a transport and very few of us had more than two and a-half hours ashore. Very few of the Australians got ashore at Colombo. A run of nine days brought us to Aden where we anchored out a long way from the town and did not get ashore. Some of the transports ' taok in coal and water at Aden. Aden ] seems a small placa and is surrounded by miserably poor country. A short run from Aden brought us to the straits of Bubel-el-Mendeb and the barren inhospitable island of Perim. Perim is a small fortified island at the Red Sea and belongs to Britain. The population is composed mostly i of troops. The Red Sea( which many expected to be red), was much cooler than we expected and before we arrived at Port Suez we were beginning to wake up after having been half asleep with the heat. We ware only a few hours at Pott Suez and at three o'clock in the afternoon our .transport (which was j second last of the N.Z. transport) entered the canal. The New Zealand transports went through the Canal first and wiih them one war ship. The Australian transports followed. As the canal is not wide enough to accommodate two ships abreasl the transports went through one after another with an interval of about half a mile. Each vessel carried a searchlight. We entered the Canal very slowly but increased our speed afterwards. The canal is being widened and there are a large number of dredges at work in it. It is a sea level canal and there are no very deep cuttings. As we had to bunk up at 8.30 p.m. we saw only part of the canal. In places there is an arrangement of the channel to permit ships to pass each othe'. At Port Suez we saw a large camel caravan and there

were numerous Arabs with single camels. There are strong detachments of troops all along the canal. Our transports arrived in Port Said about: 3.30 a.m. after a run of about twelve and a-ha!f hours. Some of the transports took in coal and water at Port Said but there was no shore leave for the men and in the afiernoon we got under way for Alexandria, where we I arrlv °d shortly after day break next day. Our transport came, straight up

to 11 wharf and made fast; commencing to unload our horse 3 straight away. Our swags were put into vans and our horseß into the railway truck?. As uoual we got no leave and so hud no chance to take a look round the town.

At four o'clock in the afternoon we were put on board the ( train and steamed oat for Cairo. We were packed like sardinen into third class carriages and the journey wa9 far from pleasant. The sth Otago Mounteds were the first to land end along with some Otago infantry, the first New Zealand troops to arrive here. The railway station where we detrainel was called Zeitoun and s about seven miles from the city of Cairo. The trains here m ive a good deal faster than the Otago Central traint and we arrived at our destination shortly after half past ten at nH;ht. After we had detrained we moved out to a pljce called Luna Park. As a park ii would make one ill to \wk at it, but it would have made a fingravel pit. We had brought up our hordes' nosebags with a feed in them, and aftt-r we had watered ti.e-n we tied them up to a picket fmc- -nd fei tip.

For ourselves we t>an be ug t up rations with us, but as no tea was procurable we drank water. Our t.vercoata and swags had not come forward so we had » pretty cool time. I had heard about th* heat in Euypt but never about the cold. Most of us spoke very feelingly about that just before daybreak.

Nesa morning we water?';! par horses and moved out to «h re we ar> now camped. It took t.vo or three dayy to get our tamp proper!, fixed up. The ground is v.-ry s-inriy—>>•• sandy as the ground ..ut. of Vr mwe'!, -and is re.illy part of u --.t We are .-.lose to a to*n a d have all the N.Z. troops ana some English Territorials camped with us, so you can imagine it is a big camp. In this letter I won't give any description of the city of Cairo or of the inhabitants of the country. The formal hoisting of the British flag took place yesterday. There was a largn detachment of infantry, from this camp present Theymarched in in the morning and returned shortly after dinner time. Ihe ceremony took place without any disturbance. A proclamation issued a few days ago formally declared the Khedive deposed, a new native ruler to be Sultan and Egypt to be a British Protectorate. The present Sultan is a relation of the disposed Khedive and is understood to be friendly to the British. The number of white troops in the Army of Occupation was given in one of the Egyptian papers as fully 100,000. Whatever aspirations the Egyption National p.rty may have toward an independent Egypt it h absolutely useless of them trying to drive the British out of Egypt by farce. It is commonly supposed that in case of any Egyptian rising, the Nubian and Sudanese troops could be depended on. We are getting plentv of work to do and seldom have much time to ourselves. Up till to-day A>e have had our meals in our tents but to,-night we took our first meal in the big wooden mess-room erected for us. There is enough room in it for the three squadrons (sth, 7th, a- d 12th) of the Otago Mounted Rifles to take their meals. The sergeants have their meals in a house near to the camp and the officers have theirs in another house just across the read from our lines.

There i 3 a roller skating rink in Heliopolis and it 13 well patronised by the men from our camp. Many walk in every night as it i 3 only about 20 minutes' walk.

At night a large number of our soldiers (New Zealanders, Australians and Tommies) go to Cairo and the city is just full of them.

I'll have to hold over the rest of my descriptions until my next letter.