MAADI CAMP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 4

MAADI CAMP

DESERTED VILLAGE SERVICEMEN’S UNANSWERED QUESTIONS Although a recent report from a Press Association representative who revisited Cairo gave a good idea of the desolation and decay which has come to Maadi Camp, the New Zealanders’ old base in Egypt, several ex-servicemen have suggested to the Daily Times that sites of more poignant retrospect appeared to have been omitted from the report. “It was too much like an estate agent’s inventory,” said one returned man. “ Surely there was something left in, the camp to provide human interest." Surprisingly enough, most ex-ser-vicemen with whom the article was discussed showed particular interest in the fate of “ Rock College,” or “ The Budgie Cage.” as the Field Punishment Centre was variously known. Overstayed leaves and other such trivial offences gave a considerable number of men an opportunity to study this institution from the inside, and the queries are doubtless prompted by a desire to know what state of decline time has brought to the packed-sand garden borders, pathways, and ornamental designs devised by the authorities to occupy the attention of the temporary “ boarders.” Shafto’s Cinemas The report did say that Shafto's “ bug-house ” had disappeared, but no clue was given to the present activities of the Middle East motion-picture mogul himself. Some cynics have suggested that the 123rd rescreening of such Shafto staples as “ Ringside Maisie ” and “ The Girl from Calgary ” may be at .the root of the current trouble in the Middle East. Although some petulance over programmes, which periodically led to the pushing down or the burning of a Shafto cinema, tended to keep the actual number of theatres in his circuit in a state of flux, it was generally considered to be in the vicinity of 172, taking his interests in Palestine into account. Monsieur Arcache’s opposition cinema in Maadi was built of sterner stuff, so the presumption is that its walls still stand.

The creaking buses on the run from Maadi station to the camp have also been subjects for inquiry among • exservicemen. Are they rotting in some old vehicle dump, or are they careering along the roads of Upper Egypt, their passengers occasionally startled by a ghostly, but determined whisper of “ U-Area, George, and iggri!"

Horde of Employees The present whereabouts of the host of garbage bucket collectors, newspaper vendors, water-zeer fillers, camp tailors, peanut sellers and ancilliary tradesmen who provided more than a little humour for the tolerant occupants of the . camp have also provoked speculation among ex-ser-vicemen. Does a galabiehed ghost still shout “ Verra Gooda Noos ’’-—and the favourite embellishments —among the wrecked buildings and encroaching sandhills? And on whose behalf do the treadles of Haji Allah Ditt’s sewingmachines now whirr? All these and a hundred more questions apparently still remain in the minds of the men who remember Maadi Camp in its hey-day. Perhaps readers who have maintained contact with friends in Maadi, the garden suburb of Cairo, may be able to supply some of the answers.