The Anzacs and Imperial cavalry, who were covering the raiding detachments, reached within five miles of Beersheba, repulsing an attack by two brigades of Turkish cavalry. Mr Massey, telegraphing from the neighbourhood of Gaza on the 24th ult., says : "The Turks again felt the force of a British cavalry stroke. The British commander having decided to destroy most of the railway south-east of Beersheba, mounted troops of the Desert Column, under General Chauvel, by another of those dashing raids which have characterised the column’s operations since Christmas, simultaneously attacked 20 miles of railway, which was destroyed beyond repair. The operation is most important, because the Turks, owing to shortage of materials, were lately obliged to take up old lines in order to lay the new one. Two columns moved out on the night of the 22nd. The Camel Corps marched 32 miles to Anja, and destroyed bridges and culverts along the entire line eastwards.
Meanwhile the engineers and the Anzac and Imperial mounted forces, after a special training in destructive methods, attacked the railway between Asluj and Hadaj. These splendid forces marched 30 miles on an extremely dark night through a dust storm obscuring the stars and obliterating tracks, over sharp, jagged light-stone ridges. One party reached Asluj at six o’clock in the morning ; the other reached Hadja at seven o’clock, and the two worked toward each other, completing the destruction of 10 miles of track and three long bridges, substantially built of stone concrete, in three hours. Not a length of rail, not a single bolt, was left intact. While the engineers blew up the railway the cavalry made a strong demonstration against Beersheba. The cavalry destroyed a railway bridge northward and repulsed two Turkish cavalry brigades south of Beersheba. They returned to their bivouacs in the afternoon.
US abandons neutrality
It is because the United States has been unable to shut her eyes to the true position that, after her patience had long been tried, she has passed judgment against Germany, and, recognising the justice of the war aims of the Allies and the righteousness of their effort to frustrate Germany’s attempts at world-domination, has ranged herself as a belligerent on their side. In his speech to Congress in April calling for an American declaration of war President Wilson asserted that neutrality was no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world and the freedom of its peoples were involved.
"We are at the beginning of an age," he declared, "in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their Governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilised States ... We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight for the rights of nations, great and small, and for the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. We have no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of nations can make them." — ODT, 2.6.1917.
