OUR SOLDIERS ABROAD.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 23 June 1915, Page 5

OUR SOLDIERS ABROAD.

THEIR EXPERIENCES AND TRAVEL

NOTES.

Mr Lynn Jenkins, of Ahuroa, has written another interesting letter to members of his family. We make the following extracts: — We have juet returned from the Suez Canal, where hostile operations as you are probably aware, have been taking place. We have been under a strict censorship all the time, so that all we could write was practically concerning our health. We were away from here just on five weeks and it was really like coming home to get back again.

Whilst there we attended 200 wounded prisoners as well as a few of our own men. Although not really under fire, we were within the firing zone and expecting to hear the bullets flying and Bee the shrapnel bursting at any time. Later, a number of us were sent down to the canal to join the infantry in the trenches. I was amongst the party that went, and we stayed four days in the trenches. The day before we arrived there had been heavy fighting and the Turks were severely repulsed. There were numbers of their dead lying about on the Asiatic aide of the canal which were afterwards buried by Indian troops. Down on the canal where we were, shrapnel bullets from the enemy were lying as thick as hail all over the place. Our company was split up in sections and sent to different places along the canal. After about a fortnight the Turks suddenly retreated.

Areoplanes have been used to do all the scouting work, and have now become so common that we do not bother looking at them.

lemailia is only a small town but it is extremely pretty. It is practically a French town, the residents being mostly officials of the canal.

The country for about three quarters of the way is heavily cropped in wheat, barley, beans, and smaller crops such as tomatoes and potatoes. To see the crops one would never think there was a desert within a /few miles of it. With a little water this land will grow anything.

Whilßt we were down in the canal we had a swim in the lake every afternoon. The water, though cold, was highly appreciated by the men. During most of the time there we bivouacked out in the open. It was not very pleasant at first, but we soon got used to it. It is just on three months since we arrived here. x The weather is getting excessively hot during the day, and we are all getting quite brown. There is every likelihood that we will be away from here in a very short time. We will be glad to get another more; three months in one place is quite sufficient for most of us.

v For Influenza take Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Never fails. Is 6d, 2s 6&