WITH THE TROOPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 195, 26 January 1915, Page 7

WITH THE TROOPS.

THE DISEMBARKATION. MARCH TO THE PYRAMIDS. ) VICTORIAN BATTALION LEADS THE WAY. (Melbourne Age Correspondent) I Cairo, December 5. The flagship had pulled into the wharf [at dawn. From reveille the men had | been busy packing their kit packs and collecting their belonging.,. On every deck there were men with their kit spread around them. I could hardly find space to walk about. Somehow or other j the articles had managed to collect on ! the voyage and increase. As I passed by one man who was puffing and blowing as he tugged at his bag and bounced it up and down, there was. a look of | almost dismay on his face, and he said to me, "I got these things in all rigiit before I left, but I'm bothered if they will go in now. I'll just have to chuck the Wankey things away." And with that he took up a pair of shoes and a suit of dungarees and pitched them on to the wharf. They were of little value, anyway, but at once a native rushed forward from behind a railway truck and grabbed them until he was chased by a native policeman, who belabored the fellow which his thin cane. There was wailing and high-toned language, which eventually subsided. In their haversacks the troops were also , packing a full day's rations of six large whole meal biscuits, that were called by the men "twenty-niners." They were, I believe, the same stamp of biscuits that the troops had in South Africa, with the difference that they were then called "forty-threes," because of the forty-three holes that were pierced in them. There were also tins of bully beef handed out. and the water bottWs were filled. The troops were now ready for the train that had backed along the wharf. In the meantime a fatigue party had been set to work to clean up the ship, and that WdJ no light job They were left on board to come on by a later train.

I All the morning the troops were oecu- ! pied in getting the baggage together. There were twenty-one horses aboard, and and all of these were slung ashore in the slings, and exercised on the wharf, They had s'todd the voyage well. I can state here that the loss of horseflesh has been surprisingly small, being scarcely 2i per cent, on a six-weeks' voyage. Instead of going to the rest camp which had been established at Alexandria, the horses were quite in a state to be taken right through, thanks to the care bestowed on them by Lieutenant Smith—well known in Melbourne for the manner in which he handled the police horses. The kits and baggage—and one has to remember that all the administrative material has to be carried on such an expedition by each battalion —were lying in great h-nps on the wharf, ready to be loaded into the vans. This had been accomplished by 2.30, and the horses had been trucked as well, after no little difficulty, for the animals were weak after their narrow confinement, and had to be lifted into the trucks in some instances. LieutenantColonel Wanliss was on the wharf with his adjutant, superintending the work of getting the battalion away The mm were (Oreadv falling in and being ,!r 'led ind foinec into their companies. A few cu'ions ratives peeped from heVnl sheds or timidly offered to sell dates or cigarettes, but once detected they were hastily driven off by the police. ' On an adjacent wharf another ship was commencing to unload material, lint ptomaine poisoning in a mild form had held up the disembarkation of her troops. The New Zealand ships were .'■longs-ide the wharfs, and the men frorthe decks were watching the preparn tjons of the Fifth. Here was a prepar: tion for any regiment, and they sei •< d it at encc. Kvery man fell smartly into h-;? v_ la, e. and when the signal whistle RDimiku the battalion, less a full company, headed by the band, marched Oimn the wharf to the train. The band had improved immensely; and it now played the regimental air with ail the force that was in their powe.-. Past the New Ztalanilt'.b the Australians had to march, and tlity. were cheered as they jamc or. by the ship. A light rain had commenced to fall, but the weather was mild. «.s the band •ann> Mcng to the er 1 of the train it drove before it the Arab drivers in their gowns of gaudy colors, who lashed their mean little ponies and donkeys into a canter. Very quickly the troops were all packed away in the carriages, and a late party found a place in a truck at the rear of the train. A Territorial officer was in charge of the entraining arrangements, and as soon as he had cheeked the train it was ready to move off. Near him stood the guard. a wretchedly-clothed creature in a uniform of sorts, ready to blow his long curious horn that is used as a whistle. He a,lso held two immense flags. On the far

side of the train sonic hundreds of Arabs had gathered, and stood watching the troops in khaki as thev disposed of their haversacks and made themselves as comfortable as possible for the journey. They did not even dare to play their trade, and offer their tinsel goods. Another ten minutes, and all was ready. Two nnrses stood on the wharf, down to sec the men off, but otherwise there was no one to watch the train draw out The New Zealandcrs raised a cheer, but our troops did not reply, urifler orders. For they wished to reserve their cheers until they reached the camp.

THE JOURNEY TO CAIRO. There wore over forty coaches on the train thnt was slowly drawn off the wharf. The route lay through the slum portions of the town, along a stream on which were the native boats with their enormous brown sails. The dwellings on the bank were remarkable only for their resemblance to ruins, whileabove them, stood towers and minarets and the occasional dome of a mosque. Half a mile on our Journey (for T had managed to join this train along with the officers of the regiment an,; some of the Staff, who were hurrying ahead to make hasty preparations), the train stopped, and we changed engines at what I took to be at the time the cen-

tral station, which reminded one morn of the Ballarat station than any other. When we again started it was soon to develop a vigorous pace, which wo maintained for the whole of the journey to Cairo, a distance of 130 miles, which was a revelation in troop trains to most of the officers on board. The railways

are State-owned and were at this season pretty heavily taxed, i think that most of us will vividly remember that journey. It was not 3 o'clock when we left, and and the sun was shming. onlv very shyly. The track was level for the whole distance. For the first twenty miles we kept by tbe side of the stream that had emptied itself into the harbor near our point of departure. The ground on either side was tilled and irrigated in the most excellent manner. I could see cauliflowers and cabbages twice the size of any grown in our country, and maize and flax eight and ten feet high. The

ground was cut up into squares like a chess board, each measuring ten yards, and thse were in some cases flooded, in others, caked. I expected the rijh | thick covering of a peculiar type of lucerne to Joe the result. The Arabs were gathering this, the men an|l women, the beasts of burden being ponies. (I cannot bring myself to call any of the animals I have seen horses), donkeys,

oxen of a very large breed, and camels. These beasts were used to take the vegetables to the canal bank, where they were placed in the boats and taken down into the city. What interested the troops most was the native towns wnere the gardeners lived. They were composed of mud and rush huts or hovels barely eight feet j high, with curious domes looking like the conning towers of submarines. 1 perched on the flat roofs. No house ■ seemed more than eight feet square, audi each seemed to be joined to the other with narrow alley ways between. The children played with the dung cakes which had helped to form the houses. Sometimes in the centre of these native villages was a more pretentious house of brick, built like a square box. Several grave yards lay by the way with the mosque and minaret in the centre. The graves all pointed the one way—the feet of the dead man to the east—and they were spread over a rounded hill. Twice we passed over the broad Nile, and past towns of modest aspect, though there were few brick or stone buildings of any dimensions. On all sides the natives came, but not in large numbers, and watched us passing throueb. Darkness came about 5 o'clock. We were three hours in the train before we saw the lights of Cairo in the distance.

Near the central station lo»g strings of electric trams were passing over a bridge. The train whistled on. The Arab driver was always careful to whistle leud and long before startine his train after the first shock he got when some of the troops had jumped out at a wayside platform and b&arded the train while in motion. About a mile further on, on a gravel platform, which had been made for the reception of troops trains by the manner in which it sloped back to the level of the track, the train drew up. Great lamps had been set down, and cast long shadows on the red gravel. This was Cairo, but not the camn— that was nine miles away and it present shrouded in mystery. But the troops were getting used to going into the unknown. There was a great deal of commotion for ten minutes while the battalion was formed up But a party 'vas quickly unloading the baggage from the vars, and the horses were bcirvj taken from the trucks The majority of the battalion, about 000 strong, wer; at Mice able to 01/;ain rolls and ho\; roc.'. I discovered that we had been set down nef.r a large brick factory, distinguish e-' by an enormous chimney The troops wee too busy with 'heir roll? to worry murh about the buildings round them, and when thev had finished it was time to march off for the camp. :A party was left behind to lock after th« baggage. a>ir" finish the work of unloadiri liic vans

A MEMORABLE MARCH. In a city wn-rr. the arrival and departure of troops has been going on for months past th& arrival of mn r <- ; khaki irocps (they might have come from any emir of the british Empire so far as the staring Arab knew or comprehended) ' tV departure of the h-oops caused little stir. Even the band and the bugles roi.red little more than passing interest It was a deserted part of the town, hut what Arabs there were washed the tu-cps; the mounted officers rode past at. • a trot. With a guide to point the way, the battalion wound its way out of the f.tation. It seemed curious from the first, to be marching on what would have been in Melbourne the wrong side of the road, the right, • and the inclination was always to swerve on to' the wrong side of the road. Occasionally a motor enr swept past at a furious pace, tooting and sending the Arabs scrambling out of its track. There was a surprise for the battalion as the Kahar-il-Nil military barracks were reached, for the Territorial regiment that is stationed there had turned out. and they lined the walls and clustered round the gates, and cheered and cheered again for the Australians. Tt was a wonderful reception and put the •--ps in splendid spirits. The bands •'*. the men's spirits up, if the thou!a of novel sights were not sufficient! f " make them forget the distance Tti was just as if a limelight had been shed over the city, for the moon was hirti in the heavens. The spires and minarets and towers and domes lost all their harshness as the shadow linnround them. The Nile was like a vast lake. Reflections of tlm date palms and great spreading tree similar to our she-bak, the terraces of houses built near the edg.-, and the tall masts and sails of the dhows, shone in its surface like reflections in polished steel. The road, over two bridges, more than half a mile long, that spanned the Nile, and out on to a long highway that stretched away into the filmy distance, covered in completely with the giant labbalk tree ß j that met overhead. Electric tram caTspassed up and down along one s-'de. It was the road that led to the Pyramids—the great Pyramids of Egypt. The troops, tired ns they were, questioned one another if they were noi isleen altogether. Would the roao iif,.--r end? They had long exhausted their list of popular airs, with their improvised c'.onises. and had fo. a second time sun? "Who Will Come Fighting th-> Kaiser with Me?" and "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary." They ha.! a;-i;e:l again and again if'ttiey wer-j downhearted, and always tnc answer was "No!" so there seemed to be no reason

t) suspect they worn. They nevertheless wore very tired, when the word passed along that the ryranmi? wer.; jiict ahead. I can hear the whi-.njr that wunt dewn the lines as .-adi man strove to see through the trees the great masses of s'Mncs. One saw them loom out, of the haze, that was like a veil of mist rising from the desert, and saw them reflected in the marsh water that lay just on either side of the road. At first

one was inclined to rather accept them and dißmiss them in a glance. There were many taller buildings. But from that moment on the eyes of all looked up to them a? gradually through the branches of the trees one caught glimpses of their regular sides. One grew fascinated with them as one approached nearer to their base. Another half-hour and the end of the electric line had been reached, where there were tram cars already that had brought out the baggage from the station, Past a great spreading building, along a newly made road, still in the process of formation, and round the foot of some bare hills, the battalion marched, and came on

their first real view of the desert. It was a vast basin between two ridges of hills, that were nearly 300 feet high, and probably three mile 9 apart. It undulated away and avay. sand rise following sand rise, uitil one imagined one was looking up the valley or an old, very broad river bed. At isolated points in the shadow of the ridge were half a dozen tents; mere specks they looked in the desert, but they were nevertheless the camp. They were more than a mile away yet. and the road was made for only half that distance inte the desert.

At the terminus of the line the advance company of the Fifth had greeted | their weary comrades. They came to | guide them to their lines. " But first ] the baggage that had come had to be I loaded into low lorries and mule carts I that served a3 the improvised transport. an)d the mules and camels had to be urg-1 ed on with fearful threats by the Arabs. They went complainingly and slowly. The battalion moved on again, dragging

its weary way over the new road that led out into the middle of the desert. Great masses of stores lay piled up by the side of a half-laid tramline; baggage and materials of all descriptions were cast on the glistening sand. The melancbdly wail of ducks came from the swamps that lay now half a mile on r the right hand side of the road. To B tep

off it meant to sink over one's ankles in the loose sand In itself, ji was as vmooth as any pavement in a modern city. It turned sharply to the southwest and ran along fot half a mile parallel to the hills, above which the te.i>: I'yramids showed their regular triangular shape—the placid monitors, on« thought at that moment, of the desert, for u hundred yards now the read had become rough and more white. It grew

broken, and a steam roller lay .nertly in the way. Great quantities of baggage 'vi re half hurried in the sand. , 'I he road had en led abruptly. Ahead ■ witc tie white pcj,s and neat piles of ■Jtiius defining whore the ro'id would be c.ntinued in the morning There was nothing now but to plod for the next VKi yards through the deep sand. Here, then, vas the discipline and f.raitnng if t!ie tumps. The b.i-talion was the pioneer battalion of the brigade, and well do they deserve the kudos of this first <ntry to their camp. Four tents were uit'-K'd in the sand near a distant pile of bloiics. That -vas the. hn.-l of the lifit-B. The other .ud was ,•.'!, uv« th" pile r>f stones were j.'ouped roi.mJ a di II | ijow which was a fire. In ii>twem | w.,re the lines for the ba'-tulio v-. So

in the dead of night—it was at 2 o'clock in the uaih hauled and nulled their kra across the half-mile of desert into their ph.:ei T.ic/v cursed and whacked 'he in il-;-s till they went forward with the loaded lonics that stuck every ten yard* and had ty be lifted out by scores rf v.cn, until the battalion came to the lines, when all the baggage had to be taken off again. The troops dropped in their tracks, and wound blankets round themselves, and in the shadow of the Pyra- : mids they slept their first night on the sands of the desert, while the cool winds blew over their faces a»d chilled their

hands. Net oven the noise of the next train load of troops from Alexandria, who came singing into the lines two hours later, woke them as they settled down. They had been fortunate enough to have come by electric tram from Cairo. They had crowded on to every portion of the dozen cars available, and had slowly travelled through the city and along the great highway that led to the Pyramids and the camp. They were fortunate ,in having only a mile to walk. Some were Sidney troops, who had come on as an advance party to try and make some provision and erect the few tents that they had for their comrades-in-arms who would follow them within the course of the next few days. There vcrc groups of soldiers scattered all over the camp, some asleep on tli-i sand, others under the shelter of a ten'., a few trying to stir a flame from a (ire and boil some cocoa.

Slowly the sun climbed up. Clouds ' obscured its rays. The light came, and I irt'ill found the troops asWj>. At, s l.o'clock the camp was beginning to stir. ' Yet only a section of the Fifth rose ' with the late reveille, and shook the sands from their faces and their clothes J. and brushed it away from their nycs I. and cars. They turned round and' blinked at the Pyramids across the ■• ridges of sand. They looked across the) galley of sand to the ridges of sand i ( beyond on the other side. Then they I turned their faces to the north-east, and )■ saw the domes and minarets of the city | and the citadel standing out against the > broken face of thft mountain chain, and | the long line of trees that marked the i 1 way they had come from Cairo, on the f Nile. They bent down and shook the t Band from their haversacks and took out \ the square biscuit and cracked the cor-J nor between their knees, a"'- moisten- \ ing their lips with water trom their water bottles, broke their fast. j