services were called for. The best of all the fellows on this beach,
however, were the Raratongas from the Cook Islands, the islands from
which the Maoris originally came. They were first employed at El
Arish, where they made it a point of honour to get a job done well and
quickly, and, on a given day, it was found that thirty of them had
done as much labourers' work as 170 British soldiers. They were men of
fine physical strength and endurance, and some one who knew they had
the instincts of sportsmen, devised a simple plan to get the best out
of them. He presented a small flag to be won each day by the crew
accomplishing the best work with the boats. The result was amazing.
Every minute the boats were afloat the Raratongas strained their
muscles to win the day's competition, and when the day's task was
ended the victorious crew marched with their flag to their camp,
singing a weird song and as proud as champions. Some Raratongas worked
at ammunition dumps, and it was the boast of most of them that they
could carry four 60-pounder shells at a time. A few of these stalwart
men from Southern Seas received a promotion which made them the
most envied men of their race--they became loading numbers in heavy
howitzer batteries, fighting side by side with the Motherland gunners.

However well the Navy and all associated with it worked, only a very
small proportion of the Army's supplies was water borne. The great
bulk had to be carried by rail. Enormously long trains, most of them
hauled by London and South-Western locomotives, bore munitions, food
for men and animals, water, equipment, medical comforts, guns, wagons,
caterpillar tractors, motor cars, and other paraphernalia required for
the largest army which had ever operated about the town of Gaza in the
thousands of years of its history. The main line had thrown out from
it great tentacles embracing in their iron clasp vital centres for the
supply of our front, and over these spur lines the trains ran with