Letters of Athol Cluny McPherson, January to March 1915 - Part 8

Mena Camp
Egypt 7/3/05

My Dearest Mother,
Sunday is round once again so
I must send you my usual weekly letter to let
you know that I am well hope you are all
the same. We have just returned from
Church Service, it was held in a place that
was built for a picture show, it was dead
funny, the place isn't quite finished & these
Arabs dont take any notice of Sunday, they were
nailing boards on until the Service started &
they also knocked a few seats together while
we were waiting as there werent enough
in the building & when it started they sat
on the floor of the platform beside the band
& the Parson, you can imagine it is a fair
sized picture show when I tell you it 
had two Battalions inside the 5^th & 8^{th, t}here are
four or five in the Camp, all put up since
we came here, the Arabs do all of the building
here, they built all of the rooms for us to have
our tucker in & that meant a fair amount
of building, as every man in camp has his meals
under cover, about 250 to each room. This
place is very much like a town ship.
 

2
these people here are terrors for fancy goods
they have fancy goods shops all over the camp
the things they sell mostly are silks, they sell some
longer silks but most of them would take one
down for his socks. We have a Sergeant
in our Coy who comes from Ararat his name
is Vanstan, he knows Miss Willett very well
as he used to teach in the same school as
she did in Ararat, I think it was the
Ararat school, his christian name is Stanley.
I believe young Greggy is in a hospital
in Ciaro, they say he has gone as deaf as
a stone. The allies seem to be making
good headway at the Dardanelles, Ive seen
two of the warships that are bombarding the
forts there. The Swiftsure & the Askold, the
Swiftsure was at Port Said as we came
through & the Askold was at Colombus & 
came some of the way from there as our
escort, she is a fine funnelled cruiser, but
as Father will know is fairly old, having been
in the war with Japan. I was talking
to an Englishman a few days ago & he told
me that the guns of the Queen Elizabeth
would go through fifteen inches of steel
at nine miles & the range of her guns is 25 miles
 

3
so a person could quite understand the
Squareheads wouldnt fancy coming out to face
her guns. We are anxiously looking out
for the mail which should be here tomorrow
or next day, we never got one this week.
I'm anxious to see how Fred & Cyrie got on at
Murtoa & only hope that they won.
I'm glad you sent on of my photos to Mrs
Austin, I always intend to write to her
but by the time that I have written home
there isnt much time, but Ill write to her
one of these days, I often see Brut, he has
his meals in the same room as I do.
Captain Laker has been promoted to a Major, he
is in charge of our Coy & Captain Gregges second
in command. Well Mother Dear my news is about
run out so will close. Hoping you are
all well & wish heaps of love to you all
& kind regards to all Horsham Friends
I remain always
yr loving son
Athol. C .M^cPherson
P.S. Give my love Marion.