Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1916 — CAIRO BURSTING WITH WILD WEST AUSTRALIAN ARMY [ARTICLE]

CAIRO BURSTING WITH WILD WEST AUSTRALIAN ARMY

“Roughest, Toughest Fit and Fighting Body of Men,” Says Correspondent. AWAIT ATTACK ON THE SUEZ Gsrman-Turklsh Forces Expected to Plunge Toward Canal —Veterans «f Gallipoli Are In the Defending Army—Longing for a Scrap. Cairo. —Egypt ia waiting. It is waiting with the patience of a country -ages old that can afford to wait. It is quite conscious of its position in the war. It expects the German-Turkish forces to plunge toward the Suez canal, and it is ready for them. But it awaits the event with an eastern calm on which is superimposed a British calm. Here in Cairo I feel I am in closed territory. After being raced across the eastern Mediterranean in a P., * O. liner with an honest frar of submarines, I was dropped at Port Said and there was an ordinary train, dining car and all, which hustled us on to Cairo, skirting the canal and the desert which were not at all as ordinary. Once in Egypt I or anyone ran move about anywhere. It is easier to knock about on the delta of the Nile than in France or England. Once you are off the delta the triangle with Cairo at the apex, you run Into military sones. The secretive desert lies beyond and even the trains Of padded footed camels snooping off across the skyline, no doubt on quite ordinary errands, and their Arab drivers add to the mystery. As to the Arabs most of them could tell a good deal if they cared to talk. No Uprising Is Likely. One can spend four and a half days going froin Khartoum as easily as any tourist ever traveled the Nile, but if there is one thing extremely unlikely to happen in Egypt it is an uprising between here and the Soudan; nor are. any of the desert tribes likely to create any havoc along the river. Trouble can come but from two directions, east and west Both are under active military control and I am for the present not permitted to write about them. But tnere is enough going on in this small, intensely vivid world to keep one from getting restless. For, remote from the war as we are here, we are- in it in a strategic position, and the part of Egypt , which counts strategically in a military sense is really go It a small. —It is only three hours from here to Alexandria and five to Port Said. The situation has dramatic compactness. Beyond that there are only the considerable outpost forces at the oases in the desert. Egypt is staged in Cairo. Cairo has not given up any of its ordinary life, except the tourist trade, and is carrying off its military honors with quite an air. It can afford to let the tourists go, because it has the Australians and they are Worth mbre in a month than the tourists of ten years. Newt rrom the Senussi. . i happen to be waiting for something that lifts the curtain and reveals a corner of the stage. A British officer has located an Arab somewhere in the depths of Cairo, and thia Arab has just come off the western desert and knows more than any other man on the delta about the doings of the most-talked-of man in Egypt, the head of the Senussi, the desert chieftain who is the unknown quantity in Egypt and that officer’s report will mean much. I have seated myself, as many thousands of Americans have done, on the -terrace of Shepheard's hotel, but I have quite another sight from the usual one before me. Imagine the most European of

Cairo’s streets filled from the steps of the hotel to the arcade across the way with swaggering men in khaki. They walk with a swing and a “cheero.” their spurs jangling, the Emu feathers in their hats waving, their level eyes a head above even the tail Egyptians. To anyone used to the areas of Europe they" strikeyou like a fresh wind off the mountains. For those are the Australians; the roughest, toughest, fit and fighting body of men. I believe the world has ever seen. All -the varicolored, fascinating life of Cairo is swept away toy their virility. They seem fairly to swell through tha streets. —Heroes of Western Romance. imagine this ancient and-secretiye city bustling with the heroes of west- , ern romance, wjth ? their pockets full of money and itching to spendtt—to blow it in in a large and conspicuous manner. Th’ey fill the sidewalks, flicking with theirswaggersticks at the bare legs of the 'son»~of ..the.. Prophet-who wriggle among them keen and -offering-te-sell -themiWhat they will. The steps of the hotel are lined with military police, soldiers wearing the red and white brassard. of the P. M.’s guard. They are here every night. For that matter they are to be found everywhere in Cairo to the number of UMW to keep the same im-

penal Australian private tn. order. But tonight they are particularly vigilant, as an order has been issued declaring Shepheard’s and the Continental hotels out of bounds for anyone under tho rank of ( /an officer. The order was issued because the Australian privates were monopolizing the two best places ip the town to dine. , Two of these Australian boys, leanflanked horsemen from the plains, free men in the -very carriage of their heads, started to mount the steps. “Pull them up!" the lieutenant of the P. M.’s guard snapped out. For a moment I thought we would have a scene, but the two boys, who had not heard the official order, listened with faces as cold as marble, and, without losing a trace of dignity, turned and walked down the stairs. I wanted to cheer. The landing at Anzak was easier for them than to walk down those stairs, but they did it like cowboys and men. “King’s” Son a Private. Most of these Australians have

plenty of money and there is no telling by their rank how much money they have. One private has rented the most expensive house for rent in Cairo and has a retinue of servants. He is the son of a pearl king. The democracy of this army shocks some British officers and delights some others. Usually they like it, because the type of British officer who has been sent to Egypt is usually a man who has knocked about the back countries and values men for being men. 1 spent the morning with a British major who had received orders to work up a contingent to handle a camel corps. For corps captain he picked up an Australian who has not an “!?’ to his name and swears beyond belief. But he -under-

stands camels and that is all my friend asks. He has been doing a large share of his provisional recruiting sitting in a case, and the word has' passed around where —he Is to be -found; —And this is the British army! An Australian told me . a story on his colonel. They were fresh back from Gallipoli, and ordered up for a review So the colonel gave them a few instructions, in the family circle, as to how they were to behave, and ended by saying: "And for the love of Mike when the General is here don’t call me •Bill." I can quite believe that story. After seeing the joyous Australians it does not seem a bit out of the way. Longing for a Scrap. Three of those mighty men from the Antipodes were riding on a street car with me the other day and three dapper effendi, with polished boots and more than polished manners, entered and sat down opposite. One of- the Australians leaned across to me and remarked: “Stranger,, can’t you do somethingto start a fight? I need exercise.”

The effendi looked disturbed but kept their seats. The most typical of the stories I have heard on passable authority occurred the night of the evacuation of Anzac, the particular evacuation in which the Australians did not lose a man. Officers have told me that as they walked down that deadly slope to which they had clung for months they had not the slightest expectation of dver getting away alive. They hoped they might get some of their men off on the transports which had come up under cover of night, but to escape themselves -they considered impossible. That night, though everyone knew what was going to happen, was chosen by several mighty Australians to get dead drunk. They could not be moved. But in the dawn, hours after everyone else was gone, they woke from their drink Homerically, and swam out until they were picked up. After First Effect, Ordinary Life. Once the first overwhelming effect of the Australians has passed, One sees from the terraces more of the ordinary life, the racing gharries with their shouting drivers bearing along Egyptian women with fine eyes and the thin white veils, more a provocation than a protection, now in vogue in the East. Some of the ladies of the sultan’s palace have also just passed in a French limousine, going three times as fast as anyone else, and I note they too wear the gossamer yashmaks. On the sidewalk immediately below the rail of the hotel, an Arab woman is squatting telling the fortunes of two ''Australians. A water carrier, dirty beyond belief, pushes

aiong through the swarming porters. Officers are arriving, bag and baggage, every half minute, and through the red fezzes comes a brighter touch of color as two Britiah generals, red bands on their caps, red tabs on their lapels and strips of service ribbons with every color in the rainbow, pull up. ... But through all this dis tr acting color comes a figure in a white turban, and a white burnoose whip dominates the sidewalk. A staff officer who has -Just descended the steps sees him and thrusts out a hand for him to shake. He gives it a quiet, dignified shake, and they pass a few compliments before they pass on. It occurs to me that this is the first time I have seen an English officer shake hands with a native and the explanation is being • expressed right behind me. .. "A Bedouin,” an officer is saying, off the desert, too. Isn’t he a specimen for you? A man, by Jove, and a gentleman I” And so I begin to understand why everyone in Cairo talks only of the leader of the Senussi, the chief of all the Bedouins.—Arno Dosch In New York World. ..... '