HORRORS OF CAIRO.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13791, 11 June 1915, Page 8

HORRORS OF CAIRO.

THE DRINK CURSE

CHAPLAIN'S WARNING TO THE

REINFOR CEMENTS

Vice is neither lessoned nor eradi rated by concealment or b,y treating it as being beyond the niceties of print ;md discussion. To bo fonvarncd is to he forearmed, nnd for that reason the plain statement of the dangers awaiting our soldiers of the reinforcement: contingents' when they arrive in Egypt, made by the Key. Guy Thornton, one of the chaplains with the Forces, is timely and valuable. Captain Thornton, who has returned to Auckland from Egypt, and proceeds to Trentham preparatory to his return to Alexandria -or the i?alda.:..l;es. gave some interesting information in an Auckland ''Star" represe. tative v.T-h regard to the nature of a chaplain's -ask in Cairo. After a reference to the elaborateness of the Cairo camp both in regard to equipment and the commissariat, Capt. Thornton explained that he had^niamiy been engaged on rescue work in connection with the many temptations that befell om- men when they arrived in Cairo. "There are three main infhi--oncos that make for tlie existing evil condition ot things in Cairo/ he continued. "In the first place, the war has caused thousands of undesirable characters to flock into Cairo—from '.Port Said, Alexandria, Paris, and even Algeria. Secondly, the Mohammedan religion has been largely. responsible for the immorality existing there. "Mohammedanism stands everywhere lor the degradation ot womanhood. "The third cause is the liquor trade. Almost every shop in Cairo sells liquor in some shape or form. 'Scotch' ■whisky made in Egypt is sold at about three-halfpence of oxn- money par glass. ■Unfortunately, iv a great many instances, the" whisky is drugged. 1 fiad an analysis made ol one boitie, and found it to be an unmentionable product." On the whole it was only t? be erepeated that among the 12.1)00 New Zeaknd troops there would be -ti certain uroportion of undesirables. J3ut to condemn the whole- iot for the conduct of a comparatively small number" is absolnteiv -unruasjiuible. Our men's conduct v"i tiii. \moie was splendid. One cannot n^-.., t! at a certain proportion .of tie men snecmnbed to tho novel temptations "to which they were, exposed, seeing that they came from the deanest spot morally o"n the earth, and ■eni.erocl wnac io perhaps the worst city in the vvovirl. The wonder is not so much that many i'eil, but that so many follows-'came through with their reputapeaking of the drugging of the dviiik wiu- js systematically carried on in tiii- , . ...■•■■ i.>'.!iUi AnOixiUm said that it was, of course, done '.vith a .vpeci'ic object. One drug used... .was for the purpose of assisting the traffic 'in another form of vice. Others quickly made men mad drunk or rendered the

victim partly unconscious, and made him an easy prey to robbers. Ninetynine cases-out of "a hundred of the boys who went wrong wore duo to drugged drinks. . - Under thoso circumstances rescue work was attended with the greatest difficulties. The chaplains had to literally fight their 'way into the dens of tho bad dianroters of the city lo reseiic decent young.fellows, declared Captain Thornton, and he grimly pointed to tho evidences of conflicts or this character in tho hoaled sears on his hands. Asked what steps were .taken by Ihe nnh- ■ tf.ry authorities to warn the troops of the' dangers of the cil-v. the chaplain 1 said that everything that could be dono lin the shape 'of preventing Ihe men becoming \iclinis of the vi:« of the •ciiy ; was done. The ofHcers, chaplains, and 'medical men of the city vru-ked 1o this .end. No boy went into trouble, [through ignorance, but either_ through ' .sheer cusscdness or drink —in nearly |c\crV case ihrongh tho latter. Unfortunately, tho authorities were not in a position to adopt root re.ne'lie:-; at Ihe outset, owinu; i.o tho fact, that the Capitulations' were still in operation, land bad the effect of preventing action v

against the offenders at eveiy turn. Corruption was everywhere rife, so thai ii- was v.ell-ni»h impossible to put it -top i-o LIIO drink' and drugging evils. Now, however, the position was changed, <y.Ki at the time ho loft Egypt tho authorities wo-ro takinp; action to cope, with tbo drink quesion. Captain Thornton added that he mentioned those things so that the men who would bo leaving tho Dominion for Egypt would be fully warned, and would be wise enough tr. profit by the experience of othersT As a tribute to th* conduct of most of the men, he mentioned that the troops were in the best of condition before leaving for the Dardanelles. Nevertheless, he thought that something shouid be done to pre-vent.-enlistments under tho prescribed age, for mere boys simply could noistand the strain of continuous training-