Williams news., 1915-05-06

RE~iM most formidable to assault. 4R1H Mountains, rivers and seas 3SH have their difficulties, and @ are serious obstacles for an
 invader to tackle, but for impracticability they do not compare with even a narrow zone of barren land, where food and water are non- existent and where bad ground makes transport either laborious or alto gether impossible. Battlefields, like the sites of capitals, are not made by man, but are the outcome of geograph- tcal position. The chief lines of com munication of the world, and conse- quently the warpaths of nations, are, in like manner, determined by the lie of the land and it's physical features. So long, for instance, as Egypt and Palestine are not under one rule, and so long as there is a likelihood of recurrence of hostility between the powers that control these two coun- tries, the desert barrier that separates them will be the scene of conflict. Be ing narrow neck of land joining two continents, and being the only land link between two of the most fertile regions of the earth, it has always been, and will always be, an important line of communication. For the same reason it must retain it's significance from a military standpoint. It chances that the link between Egypt and Asia is cursed by the blight of aridity. But the same providence that caused this area to be useless to man provided the more favored region of the Nile val. ley with an inimitable protection from envious foes. A hundred miles of waste IS better guard against inva- sion than any other natural feature; it is far less costly than modern fortifi. cations and probably more effective. Yet, in spite of natures bulwarks, this area has probably been the scene of more hostility than any other desert In the world. Inexorably, as it were. the silent wilderness has been dis. turbed by successive waves of migra- tory hordes and by the continual pass ing of military expeditions. There is no rest for this land: it seems to at- tract tragedy.
 The desert, Egypt's ancient barrier against intruding foes, has proved to be formidable breakwater on to which many an enemy has hurled him. self. Their efforts have been met with varying success. Although it has proved of no avail against determined and systematic attacks, it has caused hostile advance on Egypt to be looked upon as big undertaking. If would be foolish to treat such an oh. stacle lightly, but with sufficient initi ative it's difficulties can be success fully surmounted. It is noteworthy that desert frontiers to fertile lands also probably entail the responsibility of wild tribes to be kept at bay. The wilderness that fringed ancient China was barrier against distant foes. but the nomads actually inhabiting thai desert were the source of so much danger that they might be considered the direct cause for the building of the Great Wall. In the same way tbe early inhabitants of the Nile valley did not consider natures battlements suffi cient to repel the wild nomadic tribes that constantly swept in, from ari6 Arabia to raid them. So they supple mented this barrier by lines of for tifications, which ran from the Medi terranean to the Gulf of Suez. Now adays still more effective barrier ha. supplanted the crude. though colossa