OUR DOINGS IN PALESTINE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11443, 24 January 1918, Page 5

OUR DOINGS IN PALESTINE.

AND WHAT THE GERMANS ARE THINKING. lu the German General Staff hulletin to the press on November 8 reference is made for the first time to the British military operations in Palestine The attack on Gaza is described as “something that had been counted'on for a longtime.” The “evacuation” of Bersheba by the Turks is dismissed as ‘ ‘unimportant, ” the town having “been held only by weak detachments to check the enemy’s advance.” Gaza, the report continues, was attacked on November 2 after artillery preparation “‘with gas shells tanks and all the other methods used in the European theatre of war. ” As is customary on these bccassious Germans were assured that the whole “main” Turkish front ws held and that the British attack “broke down in face of the timetried gallantry of our Turkish allies.” It was added that further and severer lighting wrs in immediate prospect. The pan-everything Hamburg News finds the moment when British troops are smashing the Turks in Palestine appropriate for emphasising that the “liberation” of Egypt and its restoration to Ottoman rule is “a first-class German interest.” The chief shipping organ acknowledges that this objective cannot be achieved without “a complete victory of the Germanic Powers and their allies,” and that is ‘‘why we Germans hear gratefully from Turkey from time to time the pledge that the Turks will, hold out till spcli a victory is secured.”