THE PROMISED LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16561, 9 June 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PROMISED LAND.

A CHANGE OF SURROUNDINGS

AN HISTORIC INVASION.

Thh Promised Land! After twelve months' incessant toil in the Sinai Desert, sometimes fighting hard always digging, making military works, building railways, constructing pipe lines and roads, and for ever marching over the heavy inhospitable wastes, our troops have at last como into . the Promised Land, writes W. T. Massey. What a marvellous change of scene! Behind them is a hundred miles and more of monotonous sand, blazing and shimmering under a torrid sun, with hero and there a group of palms to relievo the deadly sameness of the desert. Behind them, too, is the intolerable glare of the noonday Bun, which is never softened except when the khamseen lifts the dust and forms a screen through which the sun appears as during an eclipse. Before and around us everything is green and fresh. Big patches of barley, for which the plain south of Gaza is! famous, shine like emeralds, and the immense tracts of pasture aro to-day. as bright as the rolling downs at home. You can truthfully compare the country to the Berkshire Downs. We do not see the buttercup and cowslip to remind us of the time when, the war being over, we shall return to Britain, but in their place there is an abundance of the most gorgeous flowers lighting up the vivid greenness of the plain as if in welcome to an army which is to relieve the country from the oppressor's hand. There are crimson anemones, bright as any rubies, crocuses and narcissi, irises, short in the stem, but brilliant in hue, a tiny sweet-pea, clover, and many common flowers in dazzling profusion, while a few specimens of an almost black arum lily have been collected. One of the prettiest pictures I nave seen for many a long day was of an Australian Light ' Horse regiment out grazing. Each man was tending two horses. He was enjoying the luxury of a rest on the grans, but his pleasure was derived, not so much from lying _ fulllength on turf as in seeing the animals revel in abundant green food. To beast as well as man it is the Promised Land.

Ancient Cities. I have been out on a reconnaissance over-ground evacuated by the Turks.and towards positions which the enemy at present hold. The high minaret of Gaza showed itself to us from above the dark framework of trees enclosing the town. The mosque ' was formerly a Christian church built by.the Knights Templar in the twelfth century, when the Crusaders fortified themselves within Gaza's walk. Saladin drove them out, but after many, centuries (Napoleon's hold on Gaza was merely temporary) British forces are within sight of the town. Away on our right over the abandoned Turkish stronghold of Wali Sheikh Narun is Beersheba, tucked in the plain beneath the southern end of the hills of Judea. These two of the most l ancient cities in Palestine-I—who1 —who needs .to be reminded that it was in Gaza that Samson was betrayed by Delilah to the Philistines, and that Abraham dug tho "well of the oath" in Beersheba—have been seen by some of our troops, and the Desert Column is exceedingly glad. The first town in the Promised Land we have been into is Khan Yunus, a not unlovely collection of houses amid wonderfully fertile gardens hedged around by impenetrable walls of huge cactus with! stems a'couple of feet in circumference. From a distance the town looks exceedingly pretty, the green foliage of orchards and gardens providing a delightful foil to the golden 'sand dunes which hide the view of the Mediterranean's blua waters from the town. r Khan Yunus is a shadow of its former self. : It has a mean bazaar, which is surely not so prosperous as when the palace was occupied in the misty past. A portion of the palaco still remains." Local tradition' attributes the building to tho days of Saladin, but it is probably an error. A double archway in of architecture and a tower may prove o! interest to antiquaries, but to our soldiers the main importance of the place just nowi is that it is the first town in Palestine* they have secured from the Turks. It is 1 a bit. of the Promised Land which the Turks have ihad,;to' concede to us under our constantly-increasing pressure.