Show il till to the oldest historical A ACCORDING document relating to the subject the song of deborah tho the lady who sat under a palm tree judges 5 there were forty thousand men capable of bearing arms when moses attempted to personally conduct the Israelit lc nation across the sinai peninsula from egypt to tho the promised land the journey took several years and not many of those who started lived to reach their destination according to the announcements from constantinople kaiser wilhelm wants to send or twelve and one halt times as many fighting men from the promised land to egypt but he ha plans to do it in a few months the sinai peninsula lying between el maan where the german emperor purposes to mass his troops and the suez canal is a place practically without water the teutonic turkish plan it is announced noun ced is to form the basis of this supreme attack upon suez at aleppo A part of the distance from constantinople doul doubtless Aless may bo be covered in a comparatively short time aleppo Is situated in the midst of the great recruiting crul cr ting fields ot of asia minor where there are no railroads thousands of laborers have been crushing stone and paving the way for the horde that Is expected to pass that way over much of this distance great engineering works have been going on for many years and while wo we have no certain knowledge it is likely that the way to damascus has been made comparatively easy pilgrims railroad from damascus to medina one of the holy cities of arabia runs the ile he baz or pilgrims railroad it is a privately owned and privately operated road load for the convenience of pilgrims on their way to the tomb of the prophet and to mecca many days beyond a distance stanco dl that must be covered by camel many blany writers apparently english sympathizers feel certain that the rolling stock of this little line will not be sufficient to provide transportation for the hundreds of thousands of men who are to be massed at el maan aan a station less than miles 72 7 2 Is J 7 AND THC COURT OT garat 5 distant from damascus perhaps the germans will be able to overcome this difficulty and get the men to maan by the commencement of operations in the spring as threatened when they leave maan alaan however and start westward a different story the arabian desert and the sinai peninsula aro are so little known to europe europa and america excepting in regard to their history and geographical position that the announcement in regard to marching a great number of men across to the suez canal and supplying them with food and drink by means of motor trucks sounds reasonable the arabian desert is a barren land of mountains hills and deep valleys perhaps motor trucks could climb the elevation or pursue their way through the bowlder boulder scattered valleys but motors of the dimensions now known cannot pass along rocky trails not more than eighteen inches wide and there are many such on the way from baad maad to suez perhaps wide detours would obviate trying to pass but with such a sun as beats on the arabian desert frequently degrees and a scarcity of food and water every mile ia tremendously important matter in the transportation of a halt half million men precarious undertaking the israelites complained to moses that they remembered the cus umbers and the melons of egypt as they attempted to struggle along through this wilderness that was close to years ago men have become accustomed to even great greater luxuries than the cucumbers and melons of egypt in A D 1916 it looks like an impossible and it if not impossible a precarious undertaking der taking even the teutonic allies themselves would not bo be pleased with having 25 men of the original arrive in egypt but in all these years the nature of the country has not changed to any appreciable extent excepting no doubt to become more barren than it was oases nave have been abandoned where ta ge were palms and trails have been covered by the drifting sands but n and valleys are doubtless about as they were ivere when moses started out from egypt on his divine mission ac bording to the news reports the carser ut rusts to leopold of bavaria this similar mission and lie he gives him a much more serious task to perform than that undertaken by moses ills his men will bo be stocked with provisions no doubt as the israelites could not have been but there are twelve and one half times as many of them and instead of years he will be expected to accomplish hia bis work in weeks and bring his men to suez in fighting con for the beginning of their real offensive campaign in that region and to combat their fighting strength they will be met by hordes of abyssinians Abyssinia ns indian troops groat great britain and her european allies who have made voyages in ships to the battlefield blefield tle field thus the contemplated attack on suez seems to be one of the most tremendous moves of the present world war and one never equaled in this territory where men were fighting soon after they began to inhabit the earth |