The Sentinel=record., 1915-05-11
PANORAMIC VIEW
 OF TURKS AT WAR
PASSENGER ON TWO SHIPS VIEWED FIGHTING FROM PAS
 SAGE THROUGH SUEZ
Accurate Description of the Warfare
 by Some of Those Who Were At
 Safe Distance on English Steamers

dia which passed through the Suez Cana while the attack by the Turkish troops was actually in progress. One Of these carried a considerable mum ber of passengers, who were privil- eged to get more complete Danoram- ic view of a big battle field than has probably been the good fortune of nonmi.itary observers in any other file d of action They not only saw fragments of the repulsed Turks at
 Niutara, but also the advance of Bri- | tish troops into the desert Tn their wide flanking movement further down the canal
 A letter from one of these passen- gers says in part:
 "A few minutes after we left Port Said a notice was sent around that passengers were 10 keep on the port decks, as Turkish snipers were at work on the North side of the canal. For the first ten miles all tho lcw-lying land had been flooded. but | from there onward We commenced to see troops entrenched Every tenth mile was a camp, and about every hundred yards between were small 1 trenches containing about a dozen n- dians. Further up the troops were mostly New Zealanders and Austral- ans
 About the thirteenth mile we | passed the Indian marine cruiser liar. dinge and here was our first evidence of there having been Q fight, for her funnel was gone all the way down one side and the other side was rid dled with bullets and her bridge gone. Of course. the ships in the canal pass within a few feet of each other, so we could see everything. Her cap-
 tain and pilot who were on the
 bridge at the time, were killed and about sixteen others were wounded.
 From this time on We passed sev- eral warships, and troops were on both sides of the canal We amused ourselves by throwing tins of cigar cites out to them We cleared all | the cigarettes from the bar
 "All this time we were going at
 eight miles an hour, which is three miles more than the speed limit. so
 it was evident that they wanted to get us through the canal as quickly as possible
 At the fortieth mile the men in
 the trenches told us that they had been engaged with the enemy on the previous day. and that the Turks were now about eight miles off
 went up on the deck and saw troops in the distance but could not say
 whether they were Turks or not. From the forty-second mile the banks of the canal are high and l could not see any great distance, except be | tween occasional eaps.
 "Rut at the forty-siXth mile I saw a dead horse, half on tne bank and Ihalf in the water and a little farther dead camel Then the excitement began. First one dead Turk was seen then two. then a batch Of seven or eight. and at the forty-seventh mile. crowd of them with a number Of broken small boats, full of dead. simp. lv smashed Co pieces, some hanging over the side with a leg gone, others without an arm. and some you could not recognize as men at all Just here the banks are quite high but they slope down to the water, and on these slopes were dead Turks in all sorts of positions. Some had fal' len with their heads and shoulders inst in the water. climbed mp in the rigging to see what was over the top oc the bank. and there I saw almost hundreds.
 Tt appeared that the Turks were seen coming. and the warships in the canal allowed them to throw a pon- toon across. When they gathered at th.s spot the warships let fly They had to retire after losing several Of their guns. This place was kintara' few miles from the Bitter Lakes. The battle occurred on the previous day.
 "On arrival at the Lakes we an cbored for the night with all lights ont and among about thirty other ships'
 Fighting was going on all night d little further up the canal, and we
 thought we should be held mp in tAe
 lakes but W. started off the next morning. with our bridge and deck re-
 tected by sand bags.
 s1,,cm here to SDeZ we passed camp
 after camp of soldiers Most of them l had been in action, The Turks were about eight miles away.
 "A little further on we heard the guns and saw the British trools nov | ing off to the attack, The battle was
 quite a distance inland. l could see
 tle smoke from the guns through my ! glasses. There were some low sand hills about five miles away and l could see men on this ridge. The Brit ish had several thousand men and six guns marching over the flat ground | for this ridge
 T don't suppose many people have
 had or will have the chance that we |, kad to go straight tAroueh inc middle ! of avnattleneld, before they have even