ENTIRELY FREE FROM WOMEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 27 October 1941, Page 6

ENTIRELY FREE FROM WOMEN

TWO COMMUNITIES IN WESTERN DESERT NEW ZEALANDERS FORM PART OF MALE COLONY (Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.» Western Desert, Oct. 24. Thousands of square miles of desert from the rearmost British positions probably to the distant enemy camps hold two communities which are the most unique in the world. They are entirely free from women. And yet at any rate as far as the New Zealanders are concerned they contrive to be reasonably happy. It is unlikely that ever before in history has there been such a concentration of men only in any part of the earth. The Suva* Oasis, where the timid Bedouin women flee from the British soldiers’ stares, is (he southernmost boundary of this exclusively male territory. Eastwards it ends within 100 miles of Alexandria. Over a year has passed since we watched the picturesque native families fold their low tents, and driving their camels, donkeys and goats ahead of tme, steal quietly from the battle zone. A New Zealand brigadier recalls a period of duty in the last war at Baba, then the railroad where he commanded a platoon during the Senoussi trouble. Those New Zealanders thought the surroundings as womanless as ours until one day as they watched the daily train depart they stood agog at j the sight of the station master hustling j four wives aboard. He had kept their existence a dead secret until the firing of the first shots decided him to evacuate them. One of the advantages about this privacy is that the troops can become sun-tanned all over.