1
MAGAZINE
SECTION
SECTION SIX
Pages 1 to 8
PORTLAND, OREGON, FEBRUARY 27, 1916.
n
y
YPT,
Kaiser Wilhelm' as Modern
Moses Would Send 500,000
Men Back Over Trail
Described in Exodus.
jJV ARCHIE BELL.
CCORDING to the oldest historical document relating
to the subject, the Song of Deborah, the lady
who sat under a palm tree (Judges V), there
were forty thousand men capable of bearing arms
when Moses attempted to "personally conduct" the Israel
itish nation across the Sinai peninsula from EgyptUo the
promised land. The journey took several years and not
many of those who started lived to reach their destination.
According: to the announcements from
Constantinople, Kaiser Wilhelm wants to
send 500,000, or twelve and one-half
times as many fighting men from the
promised land to Egypt, but ho plans to
do it In a few months.
According to the thirty-second chapter
of Numbers in the Old Testament, only
two men in the party who left Egypt,
lived to arrive at the end of the journey.
If the kaiser's prospective travelers ar
rived on the banks of Suez in a similar
proportion, there would be exactly
twenty-five men on that eventful day
when they shall meet the forces of the
allies and attempt to destroy the canal,
wrest Egypt from the crown of Great
Britain and weaken British control in
India the three things which it is
hoped will "congeal the fighting blood
of the leaders of England and compel
them, not through force, but through
fear, to loosen their strangle hold on the
throat of Germany."
But, presumably, the majority-of the
company with Moses were pedestrians,
although there is some mention of offi
cials riding on white donkeys and it is
not beyond reason to suspect thatj there
may have been camels in the party, for
camels were probably in Egypt at this
time, although the monuments make no
mention of them, which is explained by
the scientists who believe that such men
tion . was forbidden. For many centu
ry's, at least, camels have been. the most
desirable "motive power" in this region,
as they are today. The Sinai peninsula,
lying between El Ma'an.. where. the Ger
man emperor purposes to- mass his
troops, and the suez canal, is a place prac
tically without water. Even :camela
must drink and carry water for travelers
to drink, but they are able to go without
it for a great length of time. They
thrive where horses and donkeys die, but
the rather optimistic announcement of
the Germans does not suggest the pos
sibility of mounting 500,000 mea on
camels. Great armored motor cars are
suggested as a solution to the problem
of providing water, and presumably of
looking out for the food supply of this
vast army, where there is practically no
food and no means of providing even
the most essential substitutes for what
we consider food. Arabian desert Bed
ouins live and thrive on a small quan
tity of lentils and sour cakes of green'
wheat roasted in camel dung. But this
diet would not suffice for 500,000 fight
ing men from Europe and Asia Minor.
The Teutonic-Turkish plan, it is an
nounced, is to form the basis of this su
preme attack upon Suez at Aleppo. A
part of the distance from Constantinople
doubtless may be covered in a compara
tively short time. Aleppo is situated in
the midst of the great recruiting fields
of Asia Minor. Where there are no rail
roads, thousands of laborers have been
crushing stone and paving the way for
the horde that is expected to pass that
way. Over much of this distance, great
engineering works have been going on
for many years, and while we have no
certain knowledge, it is likely that the
way to Damascus has been made com
paratively easy.
From Damascus to Medina, one of the
holy cities of Arabia, runs the Hejaz or
pilgrims railroad. It is a privately
owned and privately operated road for
the convenience of pilgrims on their way
to the tomb of the Prophet and to Mecca,
many days beyond, a distance that must
be covered by camel. Many writers, ap
parently English sympathizers, feel cer
tain that the rolling-stock of this little
line will not be sufficient to provide
transportation for the hundreds of thou-
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El Ma'an, a station less than 300 miles
distant from Damascus. It has about
3,000 Inhabitants in normal times, pre
sumably identical with the Mehunims
mentioned In II Chronicles, xxvl 7. Or
dinarily, only three trains a week are
run over this railroad, which may have
given the impression that rolling-stock
is scarce. Herr Diekmann, the German
director of this line, told me two years
ago that at the time of Moslem festivals
at Mecca, 'he was able to send out trains
from Damascus every two or three hours
of the day and night, permitting the
rolling-stock to lie idle the rest of the
time, when it was not needed. This, it
seems, would dispose of fears in the di
rection of quantity.
When Russia was at war with Japan
her great problem was to transport men
over the Siberian railroad into Manchu
ria. The" total number actually carried,
when at full pressure, was about 40,000
men a month. Perhaps the Germans
will be able to overcome, this difficulty
and get the 500,000 men to Ma'an by the
commencement of operations in the
spring, as threatened. Perhaps adequate
provision will be made for their food In
this desert city so far away from all
sources of supply. Presumably they have
looked out Jor that or they would not
make the announcements that have goue
out from Constantinople. The possibili
ty of doing so cannot be doubted in view
of other achievements of the past two
years.
When they leave Ma'an, however, and
start westward that's a different story.
The Arabian desert and the Sinai penin
sula are so little known to Europe and
America, excepting in regard to their
history and geographical position, that
the announcement in regard to march
ing a great number of men across to the
Suez canal and supplying them with
food and drink by means, of motor
trucks, sounds reasonable. One optimis
tic announcement calls attention to the
fact that the Arabian desert, unlike the
Sahara, is not sandy, but consists large
ly of sun-baked clay "admirably adapted
to the use of motors, which, unlike cam
els, do not require food and water."
Sun-baked ' clay, If It chance to be
baked to a smooth surface, would be an
almost ideal foundation for such a
march. But sun-baked clay, through
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yet these are horses of Arabia, accus
tomed to the trail, horses which easily
drop over ledges of rock twelve to thirty
inches high and strike their balance
when given sufficient foot room.
' The-Arabian desert is a 'barren - land
which great rocks protrude, even in the
narrow . paths between barren and ' dry
gorges barely wide enough for a camel
to pass Is far from being ideaL The
passes are so rough in many instances
that a horse cannot ' keep 'his -feet," and
of mountains, hills and deep valleys. Per
haps motor trucks could climb the ele
vation, or pursue tlwir way through tho
bowlder-scattered - valleys, but. motors of
the dimensions now known cannot pass
along rocky trails, .not more than eight
cen inches wide, and there are many
such on the. way from Ma'an to Suez.
Perhaps wide detours would obviate
trying to pass, but with such a sun as
beats on the Arabian desert (frequently
110 degrees) such-a scarcity of food and
water, every mile is a tremendously im
portant matter in the transportation of
a half-million men. .
The Israelites complained to Mosp
that they remembered - the cucumbers
and the "melons of Egypt, as they at
tempted to struggle along through this
wilderness. That . was close to 4,000
years ago. Men have become arrustomed
' to even greater luxuries than the cucum
bers and melons of Egypt in A. D. 19 If-.
It looks like an impossible, and if not
impossible, a precarious undertaking.
Even -the Teutonic allies themselves
would not be pleased with having twenty-five
men of the original 600,000 ar
rive in Egypt. But in all these 4,000
years the' nature of the country has not
changed t,o any appreciable extent, ex--ceptiDg-no
doubt, to become more bar
ren than It was. Oases have boen ahan.
doned, whore there wore palnm, and
trail have boon covered by Hie drifting
sands. But mountains and valleys are
doubtless about as they were when
Moses started out from Epypt n his
divine mission. According to the news
reports, the kaiser entrusts to Leopold
of Bavaria this similar mission, unci lm
gives him a much more serious task to
perform tlmn that undertaken by Mosos.
His men will be stocked witli provision,
no doubt, ns the Israelites roil id not hav
boon, but there are twelve and one-liHlf
times as many of them, and instead of
years, he will h" expected to accomplish
his work in weeks, and bring his men to
Suez in tlKlitins condition lor the be
ginning of Uieir real offensive (Htnpulcu
in that region.
And to combat their fiphting strenKth
they will be met by hordes of Ahysslnl
ans, Indian troops, Great Britain and
her European allies, who have made voy
ages' in ships to the battlefield. Thim th
contemplated attack on Suez seems to b
one of the most tremendous moves of the
present world war, and one never
equaled in this territory where men wer
fighting soon after they began to Inhabit
the earth.
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