lly built for such rough
treatment, being an Indian marine vessel taken over by the Navy. She
gave more than she got when her four-point-sevens found the massed
Turkish supports.

A great deal of criticism has been flung at this first series of fights
on the Canal, mostly by Anglo-Egyptian civilians. They asked derisively
whether we were protecting the Canal or the Canal us. The answer is in
the affirmative to both questions. Ordinary steamer traffic was only
suspended for a day during the first onslaught, and the G.O.C. was not
such a fool as to leave the Canal in his rear and forgo the defensive
advantage. There are some who, in their military ardour, would have had
him pursue the enemy into the desert, forgetting that to leave a sound
position and pursue a superior force on an ever-widening front in a
barren country which they know better than you do and have furnished
with their own supply-bases is just asking for trouble. Our few
aeroplanes in those days could only reconnoitre twenty miles out, and
there was no evidence that the enemy had not merely fallen back to his
line of wells preparatory to another attempt. We had not then the men,
material, or resources for a triumphant advance into Sinai; it was
enough to make sure of keeping the enemy that side of the Canal with the
Senussi sitting on the fence and Egypt honeycombed with seditious
propaganda.

Anyone at all in touch with native life in Cairo could gauge the extent
of propagandist activity by gossip at cafes and in the bazars. The
Senussi was marching against us. India was in revolt and the Indian Army
on the Canal had joined the Turks. The crowning stroke of ingenuity was
a tale that received wide credence among quite intelligent Egyptians. It
was to the effect that the Turks had commandeered an enormous number of
camels and empty kerosene tins. This was quite true so far, but the yarn
then rose to the following flight of fancy: These empty tins were to be
filled with dry cement and loaded on camels, which were to be marched
without water for days until they reached the Canal, when the pangs of
thirst would compel them to rush madly into the water. The cement would
solidify and the Faithful would march across on a composite bridge of
camel and concrete. Our flotilla was to be penned in by similar means.

There must be something about a Turk that hypnotises an Egyptian. His
country has suffered appallingly under Ottoman rule, and a pure-blooded
Turk can