voyage, but most of the troops travelling East
experienced the same conditions; moreover, the praise or blame for those
responsible for the early chaos will doubtless be meted out at the proper
time and in the proper place.

Again, as far as most people at home are concerned, the Great Crusade began
with the taking of Jerusalem and ended when the Turks finally surrendered
in the autumn of 1918. This view, entirely erroneous though it be, is not
unreasonable, for a thick veil shrouded the doings of the army in Egypt in
the early days, and the people at home saw only the splendid results of two
years' arduous preparation and self-sacrifice.

Now the tale of these weary months ought to be told that justice be done to
some of the biggest-hearted men who ever left the shores of Great Britain
and Australasia, and that the stupendous difficulties confronting them may
be properly appreciated. It is no tale of glamour and romance; it is a tale
of sheer, hard graft, generally under terrible conditions--for a white man.

Before we could even think of moving eastwards towards Palestine we had to
set our own house in order. Egypt was seething with sedition, and the flame
of discontent was sedulously fanned by the young excitables from Al Azhar,
who probably were themselves stimulated by Turko-German propaganda--and
"baksheesh." These had to be suppressed; and the task was not easy.
Further, as far south as Aden there were Turkish garrisons, and troops in
considerable numbers had to be detached to overcome them; this, too, was no
small undertaking. Finally, a flowery gentleman called the High Sheikh or
the Grand Sheikh of the Senussi had ideas above his station--and he had to
be disillusionised.

This was a more serious matter, for the Senussi were the largest native
tribe in Egypt, and Turkish and German officers had been very busy amongst
them. Some account of the operations against them has already been
published, but I believe it concerns mainly the Duke of Westminster's
spirited dash with his armoured cars to rescue the shipwrecked survivors of
the _Tara_, who were grossly ill-treated by the Senussi. Yet right up to
the end of 1917 they were a source of trouble, and in 1915 the situation
became so serious that a strong punitive force had to be sent to Mersa
Matruh, on the Western Frontier of Egypt, to cope with it.

Here, I think, is where we must make our bow, for we had some small place
in these operations; it was, in fact