EL HEJIR TO UM TERIF. 107 for the men’s cooking pots and the steamers’ boilers.

Roads had been laid out, and troughs of mud were built, at which the horses and camels were watered, for the river's bank was unsafe. The site of the camp was not unattractive. In front the great river was dotted with luxuriant islands. On the left hand rose Jebel Royan, a Bass-rock-like hill rising from Royan island around which the Nile flowed like a sea. Again the Khedivial division had sheltered itself in straw huts, tukals and under blanket shelters. The British soldier had a few tents and much uncovered ground at his disposal for bivouac. It may be added that the health and general spirits of the army were splendid.

At El] Hejir the press correspondents, or at any rate those representing the big dailies, except the Z7mes, discovered they had a grievance. The news agencies shared that feeling with their colleagues. Even into war the affairs of business life obtrude. It is not an unmixed evil to have a grievance ; trouble and ridicule come of having too many at the same time. I drafted a letter to Colonel Wingate on the subject—a sort of “Round Robin” which the majority of the correspondents signed, after which it was given to that gentleman, who stood in a sort of god-fatherly position tous. A form of telegram was also written and handed him for his visé, that it might be forwarded, though in somewhat slightly altered phraseology, to each of our journals. These papers explain themselves, and as they have never seen the light and the incident is as yet one of the unrecorded events of the campaign, I appen them :— |