The fortunate presence of the “Anzacs” in Egypt was due to Lord Kitchener’s constant apprehension of a Turkish attack upon the Suez Canal and the main country, in which it was natural to suppose that a nationalist and religious feeling would rally a large part of the inhabitants to the enemy’s side. At the outbreak of war with Germany thousands of the youth in Australia and New Zealand (including large numbers of Maoris) had eagerly volunteered, moved by love of adventure and a racial affection for the mother-country. After nearly three months’ preparation--a difficult task, persistently effected in Australia by Major-General Bridges, who for three years had been commandant of Duntroon Military College--the whole force assembled at King George Sound on October 31, 1914, and set sail next day (the day of Turkey’s entrance into the war as the Central Powers’ Ally). Thirty-eight transports carried the army corps, and they were convoyed by cruisers, one of which (the _Sydney_, under Captain Glossop) gained the distinction upon the route of destroying the active raider _Emden_ at Cocos Island, and taking her gallant and resourceful captain, Karl von Müller, prisoner (November 9). Having reached Egypt on December 3, the “Anzacs” went into camps at points near Cairo for further training, and some selected battalions took part in the repulse of Djemal Pasha’s attack upon the Canal near Ismailia in the first week of February 1915. A finer set of men than the “Anzacs” after their three months’ training upon the desert sands could hardly be found in any country. With the aid of open-air life, sufficient food, and freedom from grinding poverty, Australia and New Zealand had bred them as though to display the physical excellence of which the British type is capable when released from manufacturing squalor or agricultural subjection. Equally distinguished in feature and in figure--the eyes rather deep-set and looking level to the front, the nose straight and rather prominent, shoulders loose and broad, moving easily above the slim waist and lengthy thighs, the chest, it is true, rather broad than deep, owing to Australia’s clear and sunny air--they walked the earth with careless and dare-devil self-confidence. Gifted with the intelligence that comes of freedom and healthy physique, they were educated rather to resourceful energy in the face of nature than to scientific knowledge and the arts. Since they sprang from every Colonial class, and had grown up accustomed to natural equality, military discipline at first appeared to them an irritating and absurd superfluity, and they could be counted upon to face death but hardly to salute an officer. Indeed, their general conception of discipline was rather reasonable than regular, and their language, habitually violent, continued unrestrained in the presence of superiors; so to the natural irony of our race was added a Colonial independence.