The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1943-03-25


replaced by air transport and the
wounded taken care Of, and, of course,
coordination can be insured between
various detachments."
The General laughed when I men
toned to him a story l had read in
the French press here about dra-
matte camel charge that told of the
Meharistes whipping their mounts
into a sort Of desert version Of the
Charge of the Light Brigade at Bala-
clava.
Only In Fiction"
That happens only in fiction he
said. "The camel trooper fights essen
TALLY as a guerilla infantryman and
uses the camel only as a means Of
transport 1t is a big target except
when made to kneel down on the sand,
and against modern automatic Weap-
ons, with their ultrarapid rate of fire,
has to be taken into action only with
extreme caution, owing to the serious
ness of losing it in the limitIess des-
ert eXpanses."
The camel can be described as the
most economical form Of transport in
use in the war today. 1t can 90 a week
without water and eats only simple
fodder easily carried OF such plants
and shrubs as it can find enroute
The camel, which is a paradoXical
beast in many respects, is both eX-
tremely tough and extremely fragile
1t has to be rested for at least as long
a period as it works-that is to say,
if on trek for a month or two on
end, it must be rested for the same
continuous period
And it knows no compromise be
tween being fit to keep moving long
distances and being unfit to move at
all.
The Meharistes themselves-Arabs
with the exception of commissioned
and noncommissioned officers, who
are French-are among the most spec
ialized Of troops. A platoon Of 60 Of
them, setting out with 1870 camels-
half Of them ridden, the other half
resting from having been ridden
on an operation that may keep them
months in the terrific heat Of the
desert, carries a commissariat that
provides each man the following IA
tions for a month: Is Kilograms of
flour, four Kilograms of macaroni.
two Kilograms of rice, 500 Kilograms
of coffee for the Frenchmen and the
same amount of tea for the Arabs, one
liter of oil, 112 Kilograms of sugar
one kilOgram of salt, and variable
quantities of dates, of which the rid
ers eat the fruit and the camels eat
the stones.
Each camel is the personal property
of the trooper who provides it, and is
issued along with his arms and his
picturesque uniform of blue trousers
and red vest under white burnous, the
one-piece cloaklike garment worn by
the Arabs The troopers pay now is
about 1900 francs a month, but be-
fore the war it was only around 500
francs. In the absence Of modern
weapons they need so badly, their
standard weapon is the French rifle
of the pre-World War epoch.
They carry, of course, camping
equipment, which is of the sketchiest
variety.
One paradoxical feature of the cam
els is that they are not really camels
at all. They are dromedaries, which
have only one hump to camel's two.
The Meharistes derive their name
from the word Mehar, which means
saddle camel, the name camel being
applied generally to pack animals.
This is only one of many misconcep-
lions which exist in regard to cam
els. Another one held by me on the
strength Of distant childhood riding
experiences in the sociological Gar
dens was that it is easy to ride.
More intimate acquaintance with
the Arabs good friend picturesqueIy
called "The ship of the desert" and
subsequent intimate acquaintance
with the solidity of the aIlegedly
soft desert sand when sat upon sud-
denly from considerable height have
adjusted this misconception while
evoking Endorsement for the nickname
above quoted 1t also has made it
easy to understand why even the Me-
haristes fail to develop the same de-
gree of affection for their horse
The camel is an unresponsive crea-
ture. 1t doesn't register pleasure to
the approach of it's master or respond
to demonstration of affection. which
/ therefore are not manifested With a
novice aboard, it doesn't respond even
to the rein or kick in the neck, which
is the accepted method of inviting it
to proceed
In my abysmal ignorance of the
subject it was a great surprise to find