t advance was to be carried out successfully. For the
feluccas were limited by their size to carrying articles of small compass,
capable of being unloaded by hand; the larger implements of war were beyond
them.

Thus the engineers had to tackle the enormously difficult problem of
widening and deepening the Canal sufficiently to allow ocean-going steamers
to come close in to the bank and discharge their cargoes directly on to the
shore; this would serve the double purpose of time-saving in the transport
of material, and lightening the strain on the ports of Alexandria and Port
Said, which had borne a heavy burden since the war began.

It was no mean undertaking to make fundamental alterations in a great
artery like the Suez Canal. No diminution in the traffic was permissible,
since not only ourselves but the larger needs of the troops in France had
to be considered. Supplies were being brought from Australia and India in
large quantities, and most of the vessels had to pass through the Canal.
Thus the alterations had to be carried out while, as it were, the day's
work was going on, and it took months of patient toil before the end was in
sight. Indeed, I am not sure that the troops were not already in Palestine
before the first ocean-going steamer drew up to its berth in the newly-made
docks.

What made the business more difficult still was the incredible shortage of
skilled labour. Owing to our deplorable predilection in the army for
putting square pegs into round holes, there were trained engineers sweeping
out mess-huts or carrying stretchers; capable mechanics digging holes or
grooming horses; and skilled draughtsmen addressing envelopes and writing:
"Passed to you, please, for information and necessary action," on documents
referring to the momentous question as to whether No. 54321 Dr. Jones,
R.H.A., should have a pair of new breeches at the public expense or pay for
them out of his beer-money. All were very necessary tasks, no doubt, but
requiring the right men to do them; and the engineers very urgently wanted
the right men, too, not merely for making the docks, but for their
multifarious activities in the field. In their search for them they went
through the army like a scourge.

A trade-testing centre was established at Kantara to which from every unit
in the field or at the base came butchers, bakers, miners, moulders,
brass-founders, electrical, mechanical, and civil engineers, draughtsmen,
men accustomed