Chapter XLII. Return Home.

All eyes were towards home, however, and some of the long service men were able to get away. Arrangements for embarkation were made for about the middle of March, but another duty turned up to delay the home-coming. Nationalist rioting, presaging revolt, broke out in the Delta area of Egypt, and the New Zealanders and some of the Australian Light Horse were rushed to Kantara, hurriedly equipped, and despatched to the infected area, over which martial law was proclaimed. Columns patrolled the whole region, each being responsible for a section of it. In this manner the rising was nipped in the bud. Some amusing incidents occurred through the military administering the law. Through rapid promotion some senior officers were very young in years, and while they were quite competent to order corporal punishment—the most efficacious form of persuasion in the land—they were hardly qualified to decide some of the matters brought before them. For instance, one youthful major of the A.M.R. was applied to by a woman to grant a divorce. Under the circumstances, this matrimonial trouble had to wait until the return of civil law, but it now seems rather a pity that the granting of divorce cannot be included among the achievements of the A.M.R.

A joke popular at the time was to the effect that in the year 1925, the War Office suddenly scratched its head and exclaimed, "Great Scott! The New Zealand Mounted Rifles have been forgotten. They are still in Egypt." All things page 240come to an end, however, and at long last the brigade embarked on the Ulimaroa and Ellinga and sailed for home. The Ulimaroa, which had the A.M.R. on board, reached Auckland on August 8, 1919.

Commenting upon the return of the Regiment, the "New Zealand Herald" said:—"Without wishing to make invidious distinctions, citizens will feel that the officers and men who arrive by the Ulimaroa to-day have a special claim upon their gratitude. They are the first body of fit troops from Egypt to reach the port of Auckland, and they include many veterans who have been on foreign service for years, and who have fought on Gallipoli and chased the Turks from the Nile to Moab. No soldiers deserve a warmer welcome than these mounted men, who count their campaigning in years and their conquests by countries. They may rest assured that New Zealand appreciates all they have done and all they have endured. Bare justice compels the conclusion that the soldiers who served in Egypt and Palestine have had a peculiarly trying experience, unrelieved by many of the relaxations which softened the hardships of the infantry in France. For them there was little pleasant relief behind the lines, no leave in England and no contact with European civilisation and the great movements of national life in Britain. Theirs was the rigorous campaigning of the desert and the torment of the sands. Theirs also was the privilege of participating in some of the most brilliantly planned and executed movements of the whole war, and of sharing in victories which brought renown to British arms, and contributed not a little to the smashing of the hostile combination of Powers. At least they saw war in the form in which every soldier desires to page break

The Main Body Men Still with the Regiment inDecember. 1918.

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An A.M.R. Troop on Parade After Hostilities had Ceased.

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Back to School after the War. 1. Wool classing. 2. motor mechanics.

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1. Splendid type of remount. 2. A Main Body veteran which went through the whole campaign, originally owned by the late Sergeant G. S. Bagnall.

page 241see it, and they acquitted themselves gallantly and skilfully. Auckland honours herself in welcoming them."

In another column it was stated: "Those who were on board the Ulimaroa before she berthed, and saw the partings between the Auckland and southern men, distinguished a phase of comradeship not often observed among homecoming troops. Drafts of troops from England usually are composed of men drawn from many units, who may never have seen one another before, but yesterday's draft was composed of men whose friendships were cemented on Gallipoli or in Palestine. In these campaigns—the most arduous men ever undertook—men were entirely dependent upon one another. Although the differences in rank were honoured in the traditional way, the officers who survived and the men who remained were comrades in the truest sense. Officially they were distinct, but humanly they were friends who had shared their biscuit and 'bully' whose water-bottles were common property, who thought of each other not as major this or trooper that, but who, in fact, were partners in a dangerous enterprise, the result of which might be annihilation or victory. Yesterday it was a common thing to see colonels, and majors saying good-bye to 'Jim' and 'George' and 'Jack' and there was no restraint or hesitation."

So parted a gallant company of friends. They had done their duty, and had left a record of service which may stand as an example for generations yet unborn.