BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR GEORGE MACMUNN, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., D.8.0. "And underneath are the Everlasting Arms." STORIES of the war are somewhat out of fashion. Peace, and all therein is, is the balm that the world wants. But stories of human nature should never come amiss, especially when human nature transcends itself, and this is a story a story which, if I can tell it to its end, should "touch 'touch strong men's hearts with glory till they weep." I came across the story this year up the Nile, when the poor squabble over Tutankhamen, dead and gone, was at its height. It was told me by Mr James Breasted, the Professor of History at Chicago University, sitting over sitting over the luncheon-table with Dr Oscar Straus, erstwhile United States Minister at Constantinople. When so famous a historian as Mr James Breasted tells you an anecdote, and withal one who knows and appreciates VOL. COXVI.-NO. MOOCVII. the higher side of English strivings and all that England has stood for in the world, it is well to "sit up and take notice," as modern slang would express it. The story was told to Mr Breasted himself in Turkey by a Turkish officer, who stated that he was present. And the story is so against everything Turkish and against even the zeal of Islam, that it has the ring of truth. Opportunity was at hand for me also to test the truth, or at any rate the probability, and I have been able to do so. The story is as essentially proved as anything short of an official examination of witnesses in Turkey can make it, though a portion of the ancillary incidents have been filled in from imagination, and knowledge of the terrain. It relates to those early days of the war when Turkey, mad with the doings R on which the Grand Army had never looked,' of the previous ten years, Then "the storm-tossed ships anxious to catch on a8 a modern nation, and to free herself from all the trammels of capitulations and foreign financiers and the like, threw herself into the arms of the Central Powers. Indeed, it seems very probable, as evidence comes from the desks where it has lain, that this programme had been prepared months before the war, and that the period of hesitation was but a cloak to preparation, of which the forces of the Sultan were sadly in want. However that may be, by the end of October 1914, Turkey plunged into the maelstrom of general war. That she was likely to do so was sufficiently evident to the British Government, and ever since the outbreak of war their great anxiety had been adequately to protect the Canal, without detaining more troops in Egypt than were actually necessary for the task. The troops for that purpose were to be Indian brigades, mingled to some extent with the units of the Territorial Force of England that Lord Kitchener had used to free the Regular units comprising the overseas garrisons. Egypt had ever been a strategic point for modern England. It will be remembered how, when Napoleon moved there suddenly in 1799 to cut England from the East and bear up Citoyen Tippu, his ally, the British perforce followed him -horse, foot, and artillery. The making of the Canal had but emphasised conditions, and as in 1801, so in 1882 and on several other occasions, a force from India had joined a force from the United Kingdom, to protect what a German writer has termed "the spine of the Empire." All during that hot summer the Canal and the desert of Sinai that spread between it and the Turkish frontier was carefully and systematically patrolled. The anomaly of our position there did not make for simplification of war measures and war control of the travellers. It was not till the declaration of war by Turkey that anything very definite could be done to regularise the position of Egypt. But since the Khedive was in Constantinople when war was declared, and elected to stay there, the knot was cut by declaring his uncle, Prince Hussein Hamel Pasha, Sultan, free of Turkish suzerainty, and protected by Great Britain. From August to November 1914 the troops on the Canal kept watch and ward along the bank, with Turkish troops crossing into the Egyptian pro 1 Mahan. vince of Sinai, yet with no Turkish declaration of war-an unsatisfactory situation that was only one degree less desirable than actual war, while all the while German and Turkish propagandists strove to germinate the seeds of trouble inherent in the British occupation of Egypt. Out into the deserts of Sin and Paran and over the Wilderness of Shur the patrols of the Indian units guarding the Canal pushed day in day out during that long summer of '14, while such defences as time and resources permitted were erected along the Canal itself. Then it was that in October Turkey at last nailed her colours to the mast of the Central Powers, and declared war on Great Britain, her preparations fairly ready, as, incidentally, were by this time those of Britain. With the declaration of war the situation on the Canal became definite. Our patrols came into contact with Turkish patrols and armed Bedouins, and various small affairs took place. Germany and Turkey confidently hoped to trade on the well-known discontent in political ciroles in Egypt with the British occupation. The Drum Ecclesiastic was set a-rolling. A Jehad, a holy war for the faith of the Prophet, was proclaimed from the mosques and minarets of Turkey, "glory for all, and heaven for those who bleed." By this time, however, the British garrisons in Egypt were strong, and there was not sufficient dislike of England in Egypt to make it worth while to reverberate to the drum of Islam or the intrigues of Berlin. The roll and echo of the drum, moreover, disturbed but few of the Indian Moslems. The glamour of loyalty to the English Crown, which since the Crown took over the rule has been so remarkable a feature, burnt steady in their breasts— a real and enduring enthusiasm stirred at times to an almost religious fervour. There is no real occasion for enmity among the Ahl-i-kitab, the People of the Book, be it Testament or Koran. When His Majesty King Edward lay at death's door, just before his Coronation, and all England held their breath, a famous old Indian Sirdar of Afghan descent attended the intercession service at St Paul's. When it was over, he said with emphatic fervour to those with him, "Be of good cheer; he surely will not die." Some weeks later one of those who had been present said, "Why were you so certain that the King would recover?" And the old man said, 'Sahib, as you knelt in prayer, I saw a figure in white come among you and hold out his hands, which were bleeding. I felt it must be Jesus bin Miriam, and I knew.” And it was in something of that spirit that the Indian troops went to France and kept watch on the Canal, and it was in the glory of that spirit that the point of this story lies. So in Egypt for the moment there was no flame to fan, while it was long before the efforts of the Turk to raise the dreary fiery summer of '15. Senussi on us bore fruit. more November came and went, and Christmas and the New Year passed, with no than a few affairs of patrols. Yet rumours came of Turkish massings on the coasts of Beersheba, and of railway activities in Palestine. Then at last in February the expected came to pass in an attack on the Canal, organised by Djemal Pasha and that fine German soldier, Colonel Kress von Kressenstein. By careful and systematic organisation of transport and battalion equipment, and of wells in the desert, he actually brought within striking distance of the Canal close on 20,000 men, which was four times as much as the number considered possible. But the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. The Turks reached the Canal banks, launched their steel pontoons that they had laboriously brought from Beersheba, and failed. One boatload got across, to be shot or captured; the others were destroyed by the fire of the Indian troops holding the western bank of the Canal. Something failed in the attacking drive of the Turk. A counterattack by a couple of battalions already across the Canal rolled up the whole Turkish line, and for some reason that is not yet fully clear, the Turkish columns beat a retreat as orderly as their advance. The watch and ward along the sand-dunes kept on day in day out all through that Constant minor alerts took place, and the Turks even dragged mines across Shur and Paran to throw them into the Canal, actually sinking one passing ship thereby. The British were now much exercised to keep enemy agents and spies out of the country, while Bedouins and other emissaries from Sinai were notoriously crossing the Canal o' nights at will. Some bright lad, however, remembered the story of the gentleman (a friend, I think, of Mr Soapey Sponge) who raked his drive before going out, so that he might know on his return what visitors his wife had had in his absence. It was decided to create what was known as "the swept track" the whole length of the Canal on the eastern bank. So henceforth each afternoon various pairs of camels drew wide harrows with brushwood attached along the length of the great Canal for close on a hundred miles. Each morning soon after daybreak officers inspected each portion of the long track to see if there had been any come and go in the night, and whence and where it trended. By this means any villages concerned were discovered, and so forth. As in war so in love, ruse and counter-ruse, and the devil take the hindmost. There was more than one spy whom the swept track relegated to the lot of the hindermost. The comparative quiet that followed Von Kressenstein's first attack was due to the Gallipoli pressure, and trained "Glory for all, and heaven troops were required elsewhere. for those who bleed." And Neither British nor Turk men in Egypt were listening, wanted enterprise on a large and perhaps the Soudan would scale, though, while the latter give a sign. never let the Canal alone, the former were for the moment thrice happy if they could parallel the old tag of the Northern States, "All quiet along the Potomac," and no sign of Jackson on the raid. But Turkish parties frequently approached the Canal, and knew exactly what was going on, lying up by day in the desert. The finding of mines in the Canal and half - launched on the Canal bank, with the tell-tale smudge on the swept track, in the parlance of the day, "put the wind up" the Egyptian High Command. At all costs must the Canal be saved from a block. It was known that the Turk was slowly making a railway-line and motor-road across Sinai canalwards from Beersheba ; it was imperative that no march should be stolen. But aeroplanes were more than short; they were at this time practically non-existent with this force, and the seaplanes had left for Gallipoli. The Canal was short of eyes. And all the while the Holy War was being preached from the mosques and minarets of Islam in Turkey. Away on the Western deserts the Senussi were awakening to the call. With the muezzins' adjuration, Prayer is better than sleep! Prayer is better than sleep!" that broke the silence of night, the added cadence, came So the order came down to the Canal, the Canal, "Be more vigilant. No more mines must get near the Canal," and the troops were set to patrol yet more closely and still more arduously. The Bikaneer Camel Corps made long circuits, and put out standing patrols, and infantry patrols would tramp out over the sanddunes to keep touch with them. Not far from El Quantara the posts were held by one of the old-fashioned reliable battalions from the Punjab-a battalion first raised during the Great Mutiny to tramp Delhi-wards and take the birthright that the Bengal Army had thrown away for less than a mess of pottage. And the wise heads that had formed such battalions had mingled the races in class companies, knowing how greatly could class rivalry be interwoven with regimental efficiency and inter-company emulation. So Dogra and Sikh and Pathan and faithful sturdy Mussulmans from the Punjab, of Rajput origin, whom the proselytising faith had made its own, formed the four double companies. Those same wise heads had also known that with a class company system there was some chance of talebearing, so that the British officer might know what different companies might be thinking or even talking of. At any rate, at El Quantara and holding the outposts was |