New Zealand officers as governors

The army makes strange and unexpected calls upon the soldiers, but (remarks the New Zealand Herald) none of the men of the Mounted Rifles who left New Zealand in the early days of the war even dreamed of the responsibilities which were to be thrust upon them after hostilities ceased in the East. When the Egyptian riots broke out in March last, as a prelude to a revolt, which

would have meant the massacre of all Europeans in the country, it became the duty of the New Zealanders, together with the other forces in the country, to restore order and uphold British prestige among the millions of misinformed Egyptians. The New Zealand Mounted Rifles helped to patrol the Delta region, but their work had more than a military character. Many of the senior officers who had left New Zealand as second lieutenants were required to take charge of areas and administer martial law entirely at their own discretion. They had no code of law to work on, the system apparently being to use fairness, justice, and common sense. They could not impose the death penalty without the decision being confirmed by a higher authority, but in almost every other respect they had autocratic power, and many were the strange problems they were called upon the decide. The administering of punishment for ordinary lawlessness was a simple affair, in comparison to

other matters. Experience proved that the best way to keep order was to order the lash for offenders, and to show weakness in nothing.