SYRIA JOURNEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24243, 8 April 1942, Page 2

SYRIA JOURNEY

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION PICTURESQUE SCENES (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) BEIRUT, April 5 Thousands of New Zealanders have arrived at their scattered outposts throughout Syria after a journey whicli will live in the memory. Across the sands of the Sinai Desert into Palestine moved the trucks of the division. In the fields men and women worked and children played, untroubled by the outside war-torn world. Camels and donkeys were harnessed together to pull a single-furrow plough, hand-made and old. No American tractors or farm machinery, have yet found their way into Palestine. Jerusalem Visited Some moved through the streets of old Jerusalem. We saw the magnificent Y.M.C.A., which looked more like a university, and opposite the famous King David Hotel, the most luxurious in the Middle East. Below was old Jerusalem. Around the streets moved a cosmopolitan crowd of Moslems, Jew's and Christians. Up near the Mount of Olives we saw the soldiers' cemetery of the last war, where many New Zealanders were buried. We knew some of the names. There were some whose fathers lay buried there. We saw the simple, impressive little chapel, the gift ot the people of New Zealand. The next day the division moved on over the rocky hills which surround Jerusalem and across flat country to modern Tel Aviv, on the sea coast; through miles of magnificent citrus plantations, the land of the famous Jaffa oranges. We bought a sugar bag of them for a one piastre (about 2|d) tip for the boy who collected them. And then we found ourselves in Haifa, the Mediterranean end of the Irak pipeline, with its straight-lined architecture of modern Russian style. The coast road scenery was like the coastline around Wellington. Hero South African native pioneer troops were building a railway. Snow Ploughs at Work Behind, along the coast, towered the majestic mountains of Lebanon. We were on the way from the sun-scorched sands of Egypt to the snow-capped heights of Syria. For over an hour we climbed a winding road over the Lebanons to a famous town high up in this mountain paradise. Army snow-ploughs worked ceaselessly to keep the road open for the constant stream of guns and other war equipment. Many of the New Zealanders staged snowfights. Hundreds of feet below a tiny village nestled in the. foothills. The lights from the houses twinkled in the valley. Friendly With Sheiks We passed through an ancient town, most colourful and picturesque of all the cities the New Zealanders have so far visited. Around here the New Zealanders rub shoulders daily with Arab sheiks who were Lawrence of Arabia's friends. In a village not far away the New Zealanders have become friendly with the sheik who first taught Lawrence Arabic. In the cookhouses of the division New Zealanders work side by side with the cooks of the Free Legion and American ambulance drivers—volunteers, who pay their own way and drive New Zealand ambulances. Duty in the Mountains Miles away in the mountains are the New Zealand machine-gun posts, and infantry. Mules have replaced the machine-gunners' trucks, for trucks are useless in this rugged mountain country. Railway tunnels and bridges are guarded day and night, while the New Zealand Division camps have to be strongly picketed, for marauders from the Arab tribes come down from the hills at night to steal anything they can lay their hands on. The solid training of the division continues —training in mountain warfare which is poles apart from that to which they had been accustomed for so long. The troops have settled down to their new life and new surroundings with the usual adaptability of New Zealanders, and they carry out their tactical exercises with spirit and enthusiasm.