alls which held up the road in many places. The
roadmakers proved splendid fellows. They put a vast amount of energy
into their work, but when the roads were improved rain gravely
interfered with traffic, and camels were found to be most
unsatisfactory. They slipped and fell and no reliance could be placed
on a camel convoy getting to its destination in the hills. Two
thousand donkeys were pressed into service, and with them the troops
in the distant positions were kept supplied. It would not be possible
to exaggerate the value of this donkey transport. In anticipation of
the advance the Quartermaster-General's department, with the foresight
which characterised that department and all its branches throughout
the campaign, searched Egypt for the proper stamp of asses for pack
transport in the hills. The Egyptian donkey is a big fellow with
a light-grey coat, capable of carrying a substantial load, hardy,
generally docile, and less stubborn than most of the species. He is
much taller and heavier than the Palestine donkey, and our Army never
submitted him to the atrociously heavy loads which crush and break the
spirit of the local Arabs' animals. It is, perhaps, too much to hope
that the natives will learn something from the British soldier's
treatment of animals. It was one of the sights of the campaign to see
the donkey trains at work. They carried supplies which, having been
brought by the military railway from the Suez Canal to railhead, were
conveyed by motor lorries as far as the state of the road permitted
self-propelled vehicles to run, were next transhipped into limbers,
and, when horse transport could proceed no farther, were stowed on to
the backs of camels. The condition of the road presently held up the
camels, and then donkey trains took over the loads. Under a white
officer you would see a chain of some two hundred donkeys, each roped
in file of four, led by an Egyptian who knew all that was worth
knowing about the ways of the ass, winding their way up and down
hills, getting a foothold on rocks where no other animal but a goat
could stand, and surmounting all obstacles with a patient endurance
which every soldier admired. They did not like the cold, and the
rain made them look deplorably wretched, but they got rations
and drinking-water right up to the crags where our infantry were
practising mountaineering. Shell-fire did not disturb them much,
and they would nibble at any rank stuff growing on the hillside