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[Page 66]
base, and submarines transported overland to there through Turkish territory. Possibly German intrigue had this in view when they prompted the Turks to try their luck in these parts, but brother Abdul is somewhat - fortunately for Aden - lacking in initiative and before they could take advantage of their initial success, reinforcements arrived from Bombay, Abdul was pushed out of the Salt Mills and the isthmus freed from enemy every control. The Turks and their motley rabble then fell back to lines some fifteen miles North of Aden on the mainland, and we established our headquarters at a place called Sheik from which place a line of redoubts was thrown out connected by sand-bag trenches and gun emplacements.
From this time until the ultimate downfall of the Turk, the Aden campaign, if such it can be called betook something of the nature of a Comic Opera War, for in some of its phases it was positively Gilbertian.
For instance, did Abdul run short of quinine or cigarette papers, etc., he would send an envoy in to Aden under a white flag. This envoy would probably bring with him a bag or two of coffee, or perhaps a few pounds of goat cheese, and presenting his General's compliments to the English General Sahib, accompanied by the coffee or cheese, "and would his Excellency be obliging enough to grant him a trifle of quinine" or whatever article he happened to be short of.
Again, Aden relied on its supplies of fodder and much of its food from the interior, of course with the Turks guarding all the lines that led there, supplies could only be obtained by caravans being permitted to pass through the Turkish lines. What happened there, was this. A caravan, say of an hundred