Letters of Athol Cluny McPherson, April - August 1915 - Part 2

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Mena Camp
Egypt 18/3/15
My Dearest Jook
I was delighted to receive all of the letters from
home this week & also one from Marion, is was very
thoughtful of her to write, you cant imagine how
we look out for the Australian mail here, I
got eight letters altogether by the last mail, which
was a record for me & we expect another one by
"the Egypt" ^next this week, its a strange thing but that
was the boat that brought the first letter I got
from home after leaving Australia, It came into
Port Said as we were waiting there, close past
"the Orvieto" & you Remember you addressed one
care of the Naval Officer, as far as I remember I
got one from both you & Mother, its funny how
a boat by the same name as the country we were
going to land in should have been the first.
I'm very anxious to get your next letter to hear how
the election for Grampians went, I do hope "Bushy
Hair" meets his waterloo, if he is a German Sympathiser
he wants booting out of the Country, I'd like
to drop across a brute like that in Australia
Its bad enough to think of what Germany has
already done without people in Australia
showing any sympathy for her, he,s a terrible
 

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twister & is only trying to gain some of the German
votes, but I think he'll have his work cut out as
a German may sympathise with his country, he
wont vote for a man that is likely to draw
more money out of his own pocket, that is how
they show their manly qualities, if he gets in
the hill on the left of the Railway line as you
go through ararat would be the best place
for the Electors to go, what a turn the votes
took at Bendigo, the Labouritesmus must have
got a bit of a shock there, it should almost
make them think that the Grampians would
go I dont know how I got it into my head
that the Liberals lost Dundas, but fancy I must
have mixed it up with Port Fairy as Duffus
was beaten "wasnt he". What a turn the
votes took in West Australia at the last State
Elections, old Scaddan just got a majority by
the skin of his teeth, there are a terrible
lot of Labourites out in this part, I suppose
a lot of the Crawlers got in through Labour
influence. I hope Ross gets on well at
the Horsham State School, he would at least
have to work a bit there, or he would get
a friendly reminder across his shoulders. I'm
sorry Stevens went away, isnt it funny to
 

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think that he is at our old house, If anybody
writes to him from home I wish you would
please Remember me very kindly to him, he is a
tip top fellow, we used to have some bonzer games
of tennis together, he was about the best player
we had at the Pres Court. I'm glad to think
that Jim Gray is keeping on the square now
it must be a great relief to the Grays to know
he is keeping straight, I dont think I ever felt
so sorry for a man in my life as I did for Poor
"Old Tommy" the day he told me about the way that
Jim had been carrying on & he was missing at
the time. I'm glad your fowls are likely to
pay this year & hope they turn out as you expect
This is our holiday & I,ve been writing nearly all
day, I wrote to Dick this morning, I'm sending
Ess a photo we had taken on the river nile one
day five of us went in with very little money
we took our dinner & bottles of water, three
of us walked about nearly all day, Ill most
likely send another Photo, three of us on donkeys
we hired one a piece for the afternoon, it was
taken in front of the Citadel, Napoleons old fort
it is a very solid structure & is used now as Barracks
for the English Troops & a lot of the wounded
from the Canal were sent there, including some
 

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of the Indians, its a strange thing but the Indians
always look down on the blacks here, if ever there
is a row in the street & Australians are in it
the Indians always take the part of the Australian
There was a pretty big row a few weeks ago in Ciaro
one of the Sergeants of the Australians was killed
I believe there was a free fight in the street &
Egyptian Police & Civillians against Australians, the
Egyptian Police drew their swords & I believe four or
five Australians were badly hurt & a Sergeant was
killed, stabbed by his own bayonet, an Indian Soldier
came along & started laying into the Egyptians with
a stick, he laid seven of them out, they seem to
be marvels in a bayonet charge, they dont use the
bayonet, but they catch hold of the enemys bayonet
with their hands, tear it off & slash them with
a knife they carry, they say that nearly all of the
wounded in at the Citadel, were wounded in the
hand through catching hold of the bayonets.
Well Jook I have pitched you a fair yarn & I want
to write to Mother & Father by this mail if I have
time so will close with heaps of love to you
all & kind Regards to all Horsham Friends
I remain
Ever yr loving brother
Athol. C. McPherson
 

Envelope- see original document

Miss J. S.M.
"Clyne Milton"
Horsham
Victoria
Australia

MELBOURNE
YOUNG MEN'S
CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION 
ON ACTIVE 
SERVICE 
WITH THE 
AUSTRALIAN 
IMPERIAL 
FORCE 
IN EGYPT. 

 Back of envelope- see original document
 

[*P.S. Please get Mrs Gray to send
my Kind Regards to Miss Hoygarth when next
she write, shes Mrs E now but I forget who
A C M.cP.*]
Mena Camp
Egypt 20/3/5
My Dearest Mother
As the mail closes again tomorrow, I must
write you my weekly letter, to let you know that I am
quite well, as you will know when I tell you that
we went for a route march of about fourteen milles
miles today, in full marching order I like marching
a long way better than sham fighting, as it is
always on the sand & the Route Marches are
always carried out on the hard road.  I 
felt my knee for a long time after coming out
of the Hospital, but Im pleased to say it is completely
right now & I dont feel it at all.  I dont
know if I told you at the time but it was Ceptic

Poisoning, it swelled up to a tremendous size from

the knee to the ankle. We had a very interesting

march today, round through agricultural

country, we were going through Date Palms from

for about eight miles, they grow all over

the place & are very pretty where they grow

close together & all the ground underneath

has green stuff of some sort, either barley

or lucerne & we passed a crop that our

Sergeant said was hops, you should have

seen the Artichokes, great big patches

2.

of about half an acre, they grow them all
over the place here, the barley crops are splendid
they grow so thick, but they should be fairly
good, as the Arabs irrigate them, they dont
seem to mind how they work at them, they
nearly always draw water in a bucket &
pour it into a drain to run it over the
crop, they dont have very big areas in, you
never see more than about five or six acres
but that would be solid enough to look after
like that, another thing we saw them doing
today, was carting soil ∧digging packing the ground
down about a foot deep & shovelling it into
baskets, which the niggers carried on their heads
about a hundred yards & tipped it into a
cart to be carted away, it went towards Ciaro
there must have been about twenty of them
at it, but that sort of game certainly wouldnt
suit Australians, they seem to work just like
slaves, the soil seems to be very deep & is very
black, it will grow anything, but I dont think
any nation but these Egyptians or Arabs could
knock so much money but of it, they always
seem to be working in it, these flats are
green from end to end, between here a Ciaro
they look just A1 from the top of the
 

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big Pyramid, but on the west side of the
camp it is nothing but sand & stone, not even
a solitary bush, it is the NE & East side that
is green, there are channels cut all through it
They grow a tremendous lot of tomatoes as
well, but we never buy them as the Arabs
are such dirty wretches & unless we can wash
them, wouldn't think of eating them, they come
to us on the march selling tomatoes & "(aringus)"
Oranges, we nearly always buy "Aringus" from
them as they are safe to eat when we peel
them & sometines we buy "eggs a cooked" as they
say, they follow us out on the Desert as far
as we like to go, oranges are getting dear now
the most we can get out there now as a rule
is three four for "a Riastre" which is about 2½.
We were out one day this week near the Pyramids
one day this week & a fox ran over the hills
its the first I,ve seen in this part, they dont
seem to be much like our foxes, they are a
long way lighter in colour & seem to have
heavier bodys. I didn't know that the mail
only went fourtnightly some times from Egypt to
Australia, we were under the impression that
it went every week, but theres one thing about
the mail going from here you can tell when
 

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the mail is in by the paper but they never
make a mention of it in this local rag, some
of the fellows get the melbourne papers now
& agaln & I looked at the shipping advt &
saw that there is a mail following the one
last week, the Egypt is due about tomorrow
& the mail last week came by the Osterley, after
the Egypt we wont get another for a couple
of weeks, its a pity the boats werent running
weekly. I always write three or four letter
home, never less than two, so you will be sure
to get one, In the last letter you wrote, you spoke
of having got eight altogether, fro from me, Im pleased
to know that you are getting my letters alright
I think I get every letter that is sent to me
here now. I wrote to Marion by the same
mail as this, also Father & Dickie, I believe
I wrote to Jook as well but Im not sure
I write so many times that I forget who I
do write to. I intend going down to have
a look at the 8^th Battalion tomorrow, its alright
to go down there for a yarn now & again
I sent "Ess" a Post Card this week of ∧four three
of us taken on the Nile river, we had us
money, so took our dinner & water bottles
with us, & had it on the river, we