Evening star., 1916-01-02
of water shut off the invaders from the

route from Syria to Egypt passed be-
tween the old Lake of Tinen and an
other lake that of Balai. through the
bed of which the canal had been laid.
A gap Of two or three miles here. pro-
tected only by the narrow ditch of the
canal itself. led into Egypt. Apparent
~. however. the gap was too strongly
fortified, for no serious attack was
made here.
South of the Balai lake there is an
other gap. this some eight miles wide
between Balai lake and Timsah lake.
Here the canal passes through the
Gishr cutting, which recalls Culebra,
and was the one considerable obstacle
that the engineers who built the ditch
had to deal with. Here there is a
ridge some flfty-two feet above the sea
level. But again the Turks made little
effort in this gap. confining themselves
to a demonstration while the main
operation was going on.
South again there is another gap.
some five miles wide, between Timsah
lake and the Bitter lakes. which tor
water more than ten miles long. 1t
was at this gap that the Turks aimed
their main attack last year. The inn
portance of the point is plain from
town Of Ismailia. the railroad. coming
east from Cairo. forks. sending one
branch north along the west bank of
the canal to Port Said, on the Medi-
terranean. and another south on the
west bank to Suez. Cairo is less than
a hundred miles due west from 1smailia.
and from the Niles there comes east
parallel to the railroad a fresh water
canal.
Had the Turks been able to cross the
canal at this point they would prompt
ly have cut the railroad isolating both
SueZ and Port Said and opening a road
straight to Cairo. To do this they
launched series of attacks upon the
small villages of Tusum and Serapeum.
both west of the canal
Failure of the Movement.
For the attack the Turks had brought
with them large number Of small
boats. constructed by German mechan-
les Under cover of their artillery, and
taking advantage of a fog, the Turks
made a general attack and succeeded
in launching a number of boats, but
these were promptly overwhelmed by
British artillery fire and none of them
ever reached the western bank of the
canal.
Meantime the Turks were heavily
bombarded by number of British and
French warships, which had been sta
toned at intervals along the canal.
For their part the Turks succeeded in
disabling temporarily one of the ships,
but their defeat was complete. The
bodies at one point. and the total loss
Of the expedition was estimated at
above 10000.
One more attack the Turks did make.
stration against the final stretch of
the canal, between the Bitter lakes
and the Gulf of Suez, but this was
easily beaten off. After a very brief
delay the whole expedition took to its
heels and fed back across the desert
he frSf ia 1Jr
ining the map, it is plain that the new
attack. if it comes, will be directed
either against the Tusum-Serapeum
front or else to the north. between the
Ba!ai and Timsah lakes. because a
successful attack at either point would
cut the railroad and isolate the bal
ance of the force defending the front.
In their first attack the Turks dis
closed few heavy guns. and were
actually defeated by the heavy artil-
lery of their foes it may be expected
that in any new attempt they will be
provided with very heavy German
artillery, and that one of the purposes
of their attack will be to destroy the
waterway, even if they are unable to
force a way into Egypt. Quite as plain
ly the British purpose must be to pro
tect the waterway to save Egypt, and
to lose the use of the Suez canal for
some months would be, if not defeat.
very real hardship.
The Limit of Profit.
On the other hand. it must be recog
nized that to destroy the canal tenn
amount of profit. While the through
traffic with the east, with India and
China, would have to go by the cape
route, involving an extra 5000 miles
of steaming, there would still be open
the railroad and river route by the
nd wnuid
able the British to move troops to the
east or the west, and, If the SueZ-
Cairo railroad were not destroyed, 1t
would be possible to send them by
Alexandria. Cairo and Suez
In point of fact. 1t is plain that the
Germans have considerably exagger
ated the Importance of the Suez canal
to Great Britain. If they are able to
and conquer Egypt they will have sue
ceeded in landing the first heavy blow
on Britain that has yet fallen.
But such a blow will not cut Great
imperil the imperial edifice. because
there are other roaus to India-by the
cape, by Canada and by Panama. From
Egypt Britain draws nothing that is
purely one of exploitation. PEI
haps the chief advantage for Germany
might be the acquisition of cotton, if
the crop were not destroyed by the
British
BY taking Egypt Germany will deal
a heavy blow to British prestige in the
east; she will threaten all North Af-
rica, and il will be in her power to
destroy the great public works that
the British have constructed in Egypt.
This will be a very heavy loss for the
British, but it will not be such a loss
as they would have suffered If the Ger
mans had been able to reach Calais and
command the Strait of Dover; it will be
an injury but not the sort of injury
that makes a nation give UP fighting.
The more one examines the Suez
project the more plainly 1t seems des-
perate venture, dictated by desire on
the part of the Germans to obtain pos
session of something that will enable
them to talk peace. not war. with the
British They have French. Belgian,
Serbian, Russian territory: they have
basis of negotiations with the Ital-
ians; but Britain has entirely escaped
them, and only through Egypt is there
a way of approach left open.
Says Britain Should Win.
But what reason is there for German
success here? The British have at
their backs a line of railroad parallel
ing the canal and a line going to
Cairo. They have sea base at Alex
andria, at Suez. at Port Said. They
command the editerranean and any
amount of munitions and supplies to
Egyp. both from Europe and from Asia. 1
South Africa and Australia.
To match the resources of an assail-
ant who has to move his troops for
fifteen hundred miles over a single
track railroad. and then for more than
a hundred over terrible desert. the
British are able to bring their troops