TROOPS IN EGYPT

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 March 1940, Page 4

TROOPS IN EGYPT

New Zealanders Have Busy Time CAIRO’S HOSPITALITY “Time still refuses to stand still for members of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force,” states the officer commanding the New Zealand • Forces overseas, Major-General B. C. Freyberg, in a cable message received -by the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage. The days which< we spent in settling down in the concentration area on the Egyptian sands have flown by. and we feel ready for the inauguration of our advanced' training programme. "In spare time during the last few days, our eyes have been opened to some of the endless wonders and sights of Cairo and its surrounding. Leave* is now being granted each evening, also Saturday afternoons. and already most of us have been carried in fast trains along the Nile to huge mixed cities. Organized tours to places ,of interest are .being, arranged. "We seem popular with the people of Cairo, whose hospitality has warmed us to the city. The native language is beyond us, bur schoolday French is proving more than useful. Our trips have impressed ms with the intense wartime activities all around us, for we have seen, and hoard of the canvas cities, even larger than oars, and we have met troops from Eng 1 and Scotland, and India. R.A.F. plane* have excited us with mock fighting just above our heads. “The weather here. with brilliant days and cool nights, suits us ideally, and the general standard of health has probably never been-higher Every care is taken to keep it so. even to cleaning hands with disinfectant before and after food. .“There are good Navy, Army, and Air Force, Institutes, of which several are established here.” concludes MajorGeneral Freyberg. "Part of our transport equipment, in the form of vans, trucks, cars, and motor-cycles has been handed over to us. and dispatchi iders have already experienced the thrill of careering over pebbly undu latmg desert in the shadow of the Pyramids. Our days are truly filled with activity in this new land, but our thoughts continuously span the thousands of miles to New Zealand”