The news from Egypt is satisfactory. Not only was the
attack on the Canals complete failure, but the twelve thousand Turkish troops of various sorts who struggled through the desert and were repelled have retreated in such hot haste that there are said to be none of them now within thirty miles of the great ditch. Whether it will be possible for the German Staff to flog the main body into activity again and get a new and greater effort made remains to be seen. It is of course always possible, but we think it far more likely that the Turks will insist on cutting the loss and keeping their Damascus army in being to prevent that counter-attack on Syria which they so greatly dread. The Turkish position is going from bad to worse, and the Porte is beginning too late to realize that in the opinion of the German General Staff the only use of a Turkish force is to spend it freely. If anything big can be accomplished by that expenditure, well and good If not, Germany is no worse off than before. That is good military philosophy for the Germans, but it is a somewhat dreary one for the Turks.
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