LAND AND WATER 
December 12, 1914. 
is associated with the Royal Chapel of the Savoy, of which I 
have the honour to be the Warden.— Yours, etc. 
\V. H. GOSCHEN. 
All orders or offers of help from ladies should be ad- 
dressed to the Hon. Secretary at the above address. 
AEROPLANE v. ZEPPELIN. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Sib, As it seems accepted that rifle fire is useless against 
the airship, and the success of an encounter depends upon 
the aeroplane attaining a greater elevation and accurately 
dropping a bomb (during all which manoeuvring the aeroplane 
is exposed to the quickfirers of the airship), I should like 
to ask whether, as a weapon of offence, a rocket of the old 
Congreve variety has been considered. 
Such a rocket requires no heavy stand for firing, and, 
owing to the nature of its propulsion, the recoil would not 
appreciably affect the stability of the aeroplane from which 
it was fired. If it missed, it would leave a trace of its course 
for the better aiming of the nest ; while if it hit the envelope 
I imagine an explosion there would be inevitable, which 
would be communicated to the other compartments. 
As against another aeroplane, it would be more dis- 
turbing than a rifle bullet; and as a refinement, if (on the 
principle of a coast life-saving rocket) a few yards of light 
chain (with, of course, a loose end) formed its tail, I imagine 
a good deal of havoc world be worked among the stays and 
guides through which it passed ; and especially if, after the 
manner of a fisherman's line, there were at intervals some 
small hooks branching out from the chain and its end. 
Would Mr. Jane express an opinion? 
Yours obediently, 
12, Bloomsbury Square, W. E. Tyee. 
December 8. 
THE TURKISH RAID ON THE SUEZ CANAL. 
To the Editor of Land and Water. 
Sir, — It may interest your readers if you will permit 
me to augment the comments of Messrs. Hilaire Belloc and 
Fred. T. Jane concerning the defence of the Suez Canal and 
the projected raid on Egypt by Turks. I can speak with the 
knowledge gained by fave years' residence there. In your 
issue of November 7 the possible routes of invasion of Egypt 
from Palestine are discussed — namely, tJiat from Gaza via 
El Arish"1o Kantara, and that from Akaba through Nekle to 
Suez. But there are other routes. 
There is a road from El Arish via El Maza direct to Port 
Said, along the seashore — a fairly narrow strip of desert land 
between the Mediterranean and the shallow sea-water lake, 
which lie6 parallel to the Egyptian foreshore between Alex- 
andria and the Syrian frontier. This road is frequently used 
by Bedouins and the Egyptian police (Egyptian Army) that 
garrison El Arish. It is not so good as that between El Arish 
and Kantara, but neither of them could now be employed for 
heavy gun tra£Bc, and certainly would soon become impass- 
able for motor lorries. !Nor, on the other hand, could they 
bo dominated from the sea, for here the coast is very shallow 
and there is a heavy surf. 
Your article mentions that the wells on these routes 
through the desert are few and far between ; but, in addi- 
tion, the water in them is brackish, being very different now 
from that found by Napoleon. It is indeed unfit to water an 
»rmy of considerable numbers, and has altered completely in 
character under the influence of modern Egyptian irrigation. 
The ancient estuary of the Nile which formerly debouched 
near El Arish has now dried up in consequence of perennial 
irrigation, the building of barrages, and the cutting of the 
Suez Canal. This estuary was well described by Miot in his 
Memoirs sur I'Egypt, written in 1805, and published in Paris, 
in 1815. 
, There are other equally bad roads from the Turkish fron- 
tier via El Maza and Ismailia, and via Nekle and Ismailia. 
Their wells, too, are very salt, and are usually used to water 
camels only, even Bedouins carry water for their own con- 
sumption on these journeys. Nekle itself, being the headquar- 
ters of the Sinai garrison of the Egyptian Army, has a fairly 
good water supply. 
The statement made by Mr. F. T. Jane in your issue of 
November 14, that the Germans might scuttle something in 
the Suez Canal at a lock or the equivalent thereof, is not 
reasonable, because there are no locks or the equivalents 
thereof in the canal ; it is a deep water canal direct from sea 
to sea. The mere scuttling of a ship in the canal would be 
of small moment probably, as in the case of the ss. Chatham, 
which, full of dynamite, sank therein in 1905 ; the block was 
removed in a week. There is a considerable current in the 
Suez Canal — a constant one from the Mediterranean to Lake 
Timsah (Ismailia), and a tidal one from thence through the 
Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea. Therefore, bridging would nob 
be easy by " slinging " a ship across, for in addition the 
average depth is 32 feet, and the banks are rarely steep-to. 
Contrary to the generally-accepted idea there are many 
heights bordering the Suez Canal. Fifteen miles north of 
Ismailia and between that town and Balah station, the canal 
stream is cut through cliffs of 100 feet, where warships could 
not operate their guns over the surrounding desert; and to 
the south of Lake Timsah there is a range of low hills which 
could well dominate the Bitter Lakes. Near Suez again the 
Sinai desert has several elevated ridges of sand on which 
artillery would be a serious menace if it were possible to get 
guns there and to mount them on the sand. But, as slated 
in Land and Water, the transport of water will be the chief 
difficulty to be encountered by the invader of Egypt. 
An action fought by the forces of the Allies about the 
Suez Canal against Turkey would open questions of con- 
siderable international importance and diplomatic interest. 
The Suez Canal is the property of an Egyptian Company to 
which the concession was granted by the Egyptian Govern- 
ment by the authority of its suzerain, the Sultan of Turkey. 
No nation, other than Turkey, has the right to allow inore 
than tEree warships to be in the canal at the same time unless 
they are in actual transit. Therefore, if Great Britain or 
France were to put a fleet into the canal for punitive pur- 
poses, or to bombard a Turkish army on its banks, it would 
constituto an act of piracy equal to, if not surpassing, that of 
the sinking of harmless trading ships by the " heroic " Emden. 
Probably the best way in which we could excuse such al 
defence of the Suez Canal against Turkey would be to confis- 
cate Egypt first, but this would be an act of aggression which 
our successive governments have promised not to undertake. 
But we could justify a defensive action of the canal, should 
the Turks be likely to damage it in any way or harm its 
usefulness or threaten its freedom to neutral shipping. Then 
we have tlie right to guard it in common wjth any of the other 
Powers signatory to the convention granted to Ferdinand de 
Lesseps. In view of this it will be most interesting to watch 
the march of events in the near East, and to follow closely 
the Egyptian raid of the Turks. — I am, sir. 
Yours faithfully, 
C. Halford Ross, 
Surgeon, R.N. (retired), late 
14, Sackville Street, Health Officer, Suez 
London, W. Canal. 
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LOOKING BACKWARDS. 
Readers of the special articles appearing in^ this Journal 
on " The World's War by Land and Water " will doubtless 
wish to retain in correct rotation this remarkable series 
of articles by HILAIRE BELLOC and FRED T. JANE. 
We have, therefore, prepared special cloth binJe.s to hold 
the first thirteen numbers, at a cost of Is, 6d. each. 
Or we will supply the thirteen numbers BOUND complete, 
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Owing to the big de.-nand fcr back numbers already 
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