V.C., is well-known in California and was at Leland-Stanford University.




PART IV

THE WESTERN FRONT




CHAPTER XVII

FERRY POST AND THE SUEZ CANAL DEFENSES

The first attack on the Suez Canal caused the authorities to realize
the need of protecting the canal by having a line of defense in Arabia
far enough east to prevent the enemy reaching the waterway itself. For
if the Turks should again appear on the banks of the canal, they might
easily put enough explosives in it to blow it up. So vital is this
artery of the British Empire that a German general stated that if they
struck a blow there they would sever the empire's neck. The Turkish
attempt to cross the canal was easily frustrated, and of the Anzacs
only a few New Zealanders had a part in the scrap; but the iron boats
that they carried across the desert are in the museum in Cairo and will
be for generations "souvenirs" of this enterprise.

After the evacuation of Gallipoli there were constant rumors of another
attack being contemplated, and for several months the Australians and