WHERE OUR MOUNTED MEN ARE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14050, 21 July 1916, Page 3

WHERE OUR MOUNTED MEN ARE

THIRST Alfo SUNSTROKE IN THE DESERT.. Trooper E. S. Robinson, of the 6th Wellington Mounted Rifles (formerly of Abraham and Williams' EaJiiatua staff), writing from Bir-el-Maler, Egypt, says : "'Well, at the present moment, I wish I was back m Pahiatua. 'We aire patrol-' ling on the Et-Teh desert at present, and it is a fair beggar. x The Turks are keepin us very busy; the heat is deadly, and several times we have been without water. It is now four months since we left Zeitounand we liave been trekking all over the place, staying m one camp for a few/weeks at a, time. The last five weeks ; have been the most strenuous. Since 'the Turks and Germans paid a. visit, here we have been ni£hb and day, also making two days' trip out to try and have a go with some of their small bands, but so far we have only managed to capture a few of them, who were on patrol. /Have cleared -this part of the desert of all 'Bedouins. A -week' ago while a number of the Uoen were on a big patrol over a hundred got knocked out, with sunstroke. / That will tell you what tlie $uh is like here. Their supply of vvater gave but also. The biggest majority of the horses are utter wrecks. A lot 1 of our poor beggars won't eat or drink, so you can imagine their condition. A great number are on the sick list. It is far from pleasant when your tongue begins to swell with thirst. For a time we were drinking brackish water; that's all the horses have every mornirig. We have to stand to from 3 to 4.30 a.m. to, be ready' to move out at a minute's notice. One of tlie camps where the Tommies got: smashed iip was a shambles. The poor beggars never got a chance- in this particular fight, the dead lying half buried all over the ?how. The enemy aeroplanes pay us a visit now and again, but -as yet they have not dropped any. bombs. We are' not very far from one of. their bases. It was bombarded by warships the other day.