ourteen miles away, and the time was
not yet ripe. It is illustrative of our early limitations that our postal
designation was "Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Canal Defences." Note
that no idea was then entertained of anything beyond defending the great
waterway.

Nothing else could be done. We had simply to hold off the Turks and make
shift as best we could, meanwhile collecting materials and making
preparations for a definite offensive when the psychological moment
arrived.

Originally the troops were on the west bank, near the station, which is on
the State Railway from Port Said to Cairo and Alexandria, until some one
high in authority suggested that as we were supposed to be defending the
Canal, and not the Canal defending us, it would be as well to move over to
the other side. The fact is, this would have been done much sooner had it
not been that the Turkish attack in February caused what is called a
vertical draught in political circles in Egypt, and it needed a very great
man indeed to order the move.

We were still dependent on Port Said for rations and supplies, while all
the water was brought up from the same place by boat and stored in the big
tank. The means of communication between the east and west banks were
somewhat primitive. At Kantara a pontoon bridge and a decrepit chain ferry
of uncertain moods maintained irregular intercourse with the other side. It
used to be one of our diversions to watch the ferry bringing across the
daily ration-waggon, whereof the horses, frightened by the clank of the
chains, frequently bolted the moment the "door" of the ferry was lowered.
To the right, in the direction of the camp, was a particularly nasty
incline, so the waggon usually decided to go to the left through the lines
of the Bikanir Camel Corps; whereupon the horses, having an unconquerable
aversion to camels, at once stampeded, and our rations were in dire
jeopardy. There were, too, a few rowing-boats for passengers, but these
were either on the other side when you wanted them or were too full of
holes to use.

Patrol-duty and spy-hunting were our principal occupations, as in most of
the other Canal stations; certainly few dreamed of the greatness in store.

It was not until the spring of 1916 that Kantara dropped its mantle of
obscurity and began to take its place as our principal base of operations.
From then onwards the place hummed with ever-increasing activity, for the
danger of a further attemp