the real Turks
among our prisoners.

I was very curious to ascertain if they had been worked up with
pan-Islamic propaganda or carried any of it on them, for there was not
even a Red Crescent Koran on any of the Arabic-speaking prisoners. A
search of their effects revealed a remarkable phase of propaganda. There
was hardly any religious literature except a loose page or two of some
pious work like the "Traditions of Muhammad," but there were quantities
of rather crude (and very lewd) picture-cards portraying soldiers in
Turkish uniform outraging and murdering nude or semi-nude women and
children, while corpses in priestly garb, shattered crucifixes, and
burning churches indicated the creed that was being so harried and gave
the scene a stimulating background. From their appearance I should say
these pictures were originally engraved to commemorate Balkan or
Armenian atrocities, but their possessors, on being closely questioned,
admitted that the impression conveyed to them was of the joyous licence
which was to be theirs among the Frankish civilians after forcing the
Canal. One Kurdish gentleman had among his kit fancy socks, knitted
craftily in several vivid colours, also ornate slippers to wear in his
promised palatial billet at Cairo. There were some odd articles among
the kit of these Turkish prisoners, to wit, a brand-new garden
thermometer, which some wag insisted was for testing the temperature of
the Canal before immersion, and a lavatory towel looted from the Hejaz
railway. Still, nothing was quite so remarkable as a white flag with a
jointed staff in a neat, compact case which had been carried by a German
officer. Among his papers was an indecent post-card not connected, I
think, with propaganda of any sort, as it portrayed a bright-coloured
female of ripe figure and Teutonic aspect, wearing a pair of long
stockings and high-heeled shoes, and bore the legend "Gruss von
Muenchen."

A certain coyness, or possibly an appreciation of their personal value,
kept most of the German officers from actual contact with our line. Only
one reached the Canal bank, and he is there still. The German touch,
however, was much in evidence. There were detailed written orders about
manning the pontoons, not to talk, cough, sneeze, etc., and for each man
to move along the craft as far as feasible and then sit down. They seem
to have relied entirely on surprise, and ignored the chance of its
occurring on the wrong side of the Can