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Djemal had been reinforced, and Kress von Kressenstein
had decided that it was time to give the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force a better justification for its rather
excessive existence than squibbing off at German
aeroplanes or scouring after Bedawin raiders. So he led
a small Turkish force of fifteen thousand men to Katyia
and attacked some thirty thousand British and nine
batteries in their entrenchments near Kantara (August,
1916). The Turks retired with a loss of some four
thousand prisoners, and the British, stung to activity by
this audacity, slowly advanced, and occupied el Arish
(December, 1916). Thence they attacked Gaza (March
27 and April 117, 1917), but were heavily repulsed. The
Expeditionary Force then again sank into a supine de-
fensive, its long inertia having deprived it of all initiative.
From this lethargy it was roused by the substitution of
General Allenby for General Murray (June, 1917), by
a transference of G.H.Q. from Egypt to Palestine, and
by the beginning of an offensive campaign to relieve
pressure on Russia in the Caucasus and on the British in
Mesopotamia. Under this new commander in this new
campaign the Egyptian Expeditionary Force recovered
its morale and its mobility. But thereafter Egypt was only
concerned in so far as it contributed the camel transport
and labour corps. Allenby 's advance excited no en-
thusiasm in Egypt, and the further the force went into
Syria the less money there was to be made out of it by
Egyptians and the more men it required from Egypt for
its auxiliary services. Allenby 's victories did little to
remove the unfortunate impression left by Gallipoli, Kut,
and by Gaza.
The departure of G.H.Q. and of the bulk of the
garrison allowed the Egyptian Government to recover
some power of self-assertion. But by then the political