BACK FROM EGYPT

Otago Witness, Issue 3398, 30 April 1919, Page 21

BACK FROM EGYPT

; TALES OF THE N.Z.M.R. THE NEW ZEALAND HORSES. Mounted men who bad seen every phase of Now Zealand's share of the Eastern campaign, from Gullipoli to Jerusalem, were among the troops Drought to Wellington by the Kaikoura on the 19th. These "five-bar" men fought the Turk during four strenuous years, 'ihey took part in battles that are now famous and in scores of minor "scraps" of. which the Empire at large has heard soarcely anything. They saw the failure, or apparent failure, of Gallipoli retrieved by Allonby's decisive victory, which definitely and finally wrecked the military" power of. Turkey," and left Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia as prizes in tho hands of the Allies. The veterans of the New Zealand Mounted Brigade can tell many thrilling stories (says the Dominion). A certain politician, a year or two ago, suggested in public that the mounted men from Egypt ought to be "sent to France to relieve the infantry."" That remark, with its implication that the N.Z.M.R. was having a soft time in a safe place, was read in three-months old newspapers by men who were enduring heat, thirst, fatigue, and' malaria as they pushed the Turks back across the desert and cleared the way for the big efforts of the campaign. "We passed the paper round the squadron and wished that we had the chap with us," said one of the troopers on Satur-_ day. "At that time we were well into the desert. We had a bottle of water a day for each section —a quarter of a bottle per man. Each horse was allowed a gallon a day. Our tongues • used to swell and our saddles slipped on our poor, lean horses. There were tremendous marches to be made over the sand, with a poisoned well as the goal of a march: When the Tu|ks stood up to us there was no question of digging in, bringing up artillery, and so forth. We had to push on, mounted troops across open country, against rifle and machine-gun fire. The wounded generally had to go back on horses or camels, and they might have to be tossed and shaken for- days before they reached hospital beds.. I am not saying that tho job was any worse than the infantry's job, but it most certainly was no picnic. TURK NOT A SPORTSMAN.

The Turk has been called by- some a clean fighter. The mounted. men are nob disposed to endorse the tribute in any general sense. They admit that the Turk can fight well under his own conditions. He often fought well even in the closing weeks of the campaign, when Allenby's swift-moving brigades, were harrying the scattered remnants of the enemy armies. But he is more than suspected of illtreating prisoners and the wounded; he has poisoned wells, and he is villainously cruel to animals. "The Turk might be a better man fighting his own fight than he is fighting tor Germany under German officers," was the verdict of a group of returned New Zealanders. "We _ found him under German rule, and he did not impress us as being a sportsman. Some of the things he did were "black crimes. Our men were less inclined to take" prisoners in 1918 than they had been in 1916, though the smashing Of the enemy armies forced us. to flood our.lines with prisoners last yeax." The fate of the New Zealand horses left in Egypt and Palestine is a subject on which the . returned men speak with anxiety. They are not satisfied with the official assurances that the future of these animals is being guarded. Several troopers remarked that, they thought all horses not required for. army purposes by the Imperial authorities ought to have been shot. If the animals are going to be sold to civilians —and it appears that some of them have been so sold already, —there can be no real assurance that they will not eventually find their way int*> the hands of the natives. And the natives' way of handling horses makes a New Zealand boy's blood boil. "The .niggers keep their horses short of both food and water, and they drive with the whip and not with the reins," said a trooper wearing the 1914 ribbon. "They use a long whip, and they can reach right round a horse's head to the shoulder. They keep the whip going all the time. It is the cruelest thing I have ever seen in my life, for there is no end to the pain and fright. I have punched a black driver to make him drive and have forced him to abandon the whip for a time. But the fellows can't drive without the whip. They hava no other system, and they have got the horses into such a spiritless and broken condition that the poor" brutes slacken down directly they are out of pain. I saw in Cairo an Australian trooper shoot a horse in the. street with his revolver. He said it was his old horse, and ho had found it being driven by a native in the sort of vehicle that does duty for a cab there. I know we were flad whenever an order 'came to _ shoot orses after the armistice, though it was miserable work." FUTURE OF SYRIA.

The troopers have gathered some impressions regarding the political future of the lands they helped to conquer. The men who have given attention. to this subject will be keenly disappointed if Syria and Palestine are allowed to fall back into incompetent hands. Millions of pounds have been spent by Britain on roads, raiways, and waterworks that, intended _ primarily for the service of the armies, will be of permanent benefit to the countries. The men are convinced that the Eastern lands over which they have fought are capable of enormous. development, and they are profoundly mistrustful of the coloured man's ability to rule himself or anyone else. They consider that already a mistake has been made in giving extended authority to the Shereef of Mecca over portions of Syria. These are political matters that do not come within tits domain of the army, but they have interosFed some of tho New Zealand boys. " Britain and America are the only countries that can manage protectorates properly," they say, " and if somebody does not take Syria and Palestine in hand properly there will be nothing but muddle and oppression." It does not appear that any of the soldiers are anxious to take a hand in th 3 rebuilding of old lands. New Zealand is good enough for them.