Bisbee daily review., 1915-02-13
rIo4rlNo FOR r4e suez CANAL.

There is unusual interest in the accounts of the hght ing around the suez Canal The Turks are carrinA out their threat of invading Egypt They seem to have al. ready possession Of several thousand square miles of northeastern Egypt-the region to the east of the canal lying between the fertile Nile Delta and the Holy Land. called Syria.
 Every mile of that soil desert though 1t is has its ancient memories. The canal dividing Africa from Asia through marshy lakes and drifting sands from Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea- to suez at the head of the Gulf of suez, whence Europes easbound shipping passes through the Red and the Gulf of Alden to the Indian ocean East Of is the Sinai penninsula the wilderness" famous forever for the vanderngs of the Children Israel There have been reports of fighting almost within gunsho of Mount siua where che Ten Commandments were given.
 It is possible that the Turkish army has actually crossed this waterless Sinai Peninsula starting Naan the nearest station the MeccaMedina railway running souward from Damascus and east of the Dead Sea That would leave sixty miles of arid solitude to traverse on the way the Egyptian frontier and twice that far again across the peninsula to the canal It Is likely however that the route taken by the Turks lies farther north near the Mediterranean.
 It is the old caravan from Jerusalem and Gaza used for thousands of years by travellers merchants and warriors going down into Egypt" The great Alex ander came that way to conquer the land of the Phar aohs as the Assyrians had come long before his time Napoleon took the course, more than 2ooo years later with a French army of conquest. Mehemet Ali did the same or rather the when two decades later he led forth his Egyptian and conquered Syria and defeated Turkey may be the route that Joseph and Mary followed when they took refuge in Egypt wit the infant Jesus and the route by which the breth ren of ancient Joseph the avorte Pharaoh went doNr into Egypt to buy corn.
 It is a perious passage for an army. strip of bar sands like the desert of eastern Utah Napoleont troops traversed it in days subsstne on their ovr horses and camels They could not transport even hc Hghtest artillery It is considerable feat on the par of the Turkish commander Demal Pasba to have actu ally crossed this desert with three army corps, abou l2oooo men, with their complement of guns.
 Recent dispatches have told of the first fighting b t,e advance guard of the Turks They found the Bris oldine the canal in force-a motley army made up O
 regulars and many Guras and Sikhs from northern India mixed with Puniabi troops and terrtorals iron Australia and New Zealand There have been slrmishe
 they might be called battles-at Fl Kanara near th northern end of the canal and Ismaia Toussoum rther south The British thus far have easily euoug rapulsed the attacks aided by the guns of their owl varships lying in the canal
 The Turkish strategy is obvious. It is of vital in l7rtance Great Britain to keep the canal open in o dor to maintain her commerce with the Far East am uc Antipodes and bring fresh troops from India an Australia. The ditch is also a good defensive barrier t.e invaders must cross it under fire.
 There will doubtless be fierce battles around tfa old canal among the shifting sands. The Turks, how er at the worst can do little than take posse sion of and block the passage of the allies ships The cannot destroy It. It's no use dynamitng ditch Th nal is at sea level without locks or other works k ose of the Panama Canal whose destruction wou b, fatal so even if the British lose possession all ths v be necessary to get into running order when fh var ends win be a little dredging
 MORE CREDIT FOR SETTLERS.