Diary of George Booley, 5th Battalion, AIF, 1914 - Part 8 of 8

up with the novel ride & the Gardens 
to think of the Niggers, for about half 
an hour 20 minutes we were going through 
this kind of thing & crossing over 
Locks for which Barrage is known 
in fact these Locks are all the one 
scheme called the Barrage, it was  
put here by the British Government 
at a great expense to regulate the flow 
of flood waters from the Nile & save  
it from flooding the whole of the Nile 
Valley, it is a great scheme & is considered 
one of the best of bits of Engineering 
of its kind in the world 
after examining the workings of 
it as best we could, we had no 
guide, we started on our back 
journey & about half way back 
our trolley man was anxious for 
us to see the Museum of Models, we 
could see the reason of it after, this 
little Museum in itself is worth 
going the distance to see, the Models 
are of all the Water works of these 
parts, they are wonderful, quite  
out of keeping with the Country 
  
they are in, these Models are mostly 
working ones & would please any 
Engineer who should see it, our trolley 
man was very anxious for us to look 
at these things well, after we had 
seen all that was to be seen there 
we went back to the trolley & the 
pusher with the aid of two or three 
more villanous looking fellows to  
help him got very excited trying 
to explain that the hour was up 
we had no watch with us this time 
but took no chances & things looked 
pretty willing for a while, there is  
one thing we have found out here 
& that is that to mention a Police 
man has a great effect on a Nigger 
so we told the Nigger to push us 
to the station & we would get a 
Policeman, that settled it, he started 
to grin & away we went, by the time 
we got to the station it was 10 minutes 
overtime but the Nigger never  
mentioned anything more, but asked 
Charlie for some Bachshees he gave 
him a Piastre so I think he got paid 
all right, seeing as the Piastre was his

own, the other belongs to the firm he 
has to give a ticket for that. We had 
a fairly long wait for our train to 
go & amused ourselves with a mob 
of kiddies alongside the train, we 
would throw them two Milleam pieces 
they are little or no good to us, a Milleam 
is about equal to 1/4^d, we had a great 
audience, poor old Charlie is more 
taken up with the little Kiddies especially 
little girls than anything 
else here, if a dirty little girl comes 
up to him & asks for Bachshees, he 
cant help but give her a half Piastre 
I often find it hard myself but if 
I was to give it to each one who asks 
my 10 Piastres a day would'nt go far. 
By the time we got back to Cairo 
& had tea we felt like home as we 
call the camp, when we got to camp 
we went to a Picture show there. 
These holidays make it worth 
being in the place & I can tell you 
since we have got it & a little 
less work & more food there are 
not nearly the number on sick 
parade & much less growling. 
  
My third days holiday I went to 
Heliopolis, it is a suburb of Cairo 
& the only decent part of the place 
I have seen, the buildings there 
are some of the finest I have seen 
one Hotel is a lovely building it 
is considered the finest of its 
class in the world, it is built 
on a square block of land about 
the size of some of the blocks 
in Melbourne, it is built of 
a yellow stone & over all the 
windows, & doors are all fine 
Arches with Oriental designs 
you can't describe it in writing, 
but imagine one of the  
best buildings in Melbourne 
& they are not in it with this 
one, at present it is used 
by the Red Cross as a hospital 
I almost envied the Patients 
their lot when I saw them  
in such a place, I was told 
that it has 900 bed rooms

& each one has its own bath 
room but I did'nt see this so  
wont vouch for it. Even here 
the look of the houses are spoiled 
by the ugly surroundings, as 
Heliopolis is built on desert & between  
the houses you only see a 
big patch of sand, the roads are 
splendid though, they are all 
stone rolled down on top of the 
sand. There are a lot of English  
people living here & the other Europeans  
are all of a good class, after 
seeing the people in Cairo that we 
do, you can have no idea what 
a pleasure it is to see a decent 
English Man or Woman & there 
is one thing I would like to do 
before we leave here & that is 
go to Heliopolis on a Sunday afternoon,  
there is a Luna Park there 
it is much the same as the one 
at St. Kilda & on Sunday afternoon 
  
one of the Military Bands play 
there & a lot of English people 
gather there, but I am afraid by 
the look of things that I wont get 
the chance, however I am getting 
ahead of myself, I had better keep 
writing about things I know. 
There is a fine train service to 
Heliopolis, it is Electric & does 
the trip in about 15 minutes, 
the travelling is very cheap all 
over Cairo, it only costs 1 Piastre 
First class to Heliopolis & from 
the Pyramids to Cairo 12 miles 
it only costs 1 . Piastres of course 
that is for Soldiers it costs more 
for Civilians. The next thing of 
importance is the affair at the  
Canal with the Turks, two of our 
Battalions went up there to Ismaelia 
the 7^th & 8^th, you can have no idea 
how disappointed we were to see 
others go away before us as they are 
in our Brigade we thought we

should go with them at any  
rate, we had at this time a 
lot on the sick list, this was 
 at the time we were getting a 
rough time of it & our Dr would 
let anyone on light duties who went 
to him & said they wanted a spell 
& this affair just came at this time 
& we were caught napping, however 
we expected to follow them in a 
few days, the sick list dropped 
about 60 per cent at once, but just 
as were hoping to go the 7^th & 8^th 
returned, they got to the Canal 
the night the last of the fight took 
place so they saw no fighting & 
did not fire a shot, the Turks got 
such a warm reception that after 
a day or two's fighting they turned 
& went back, they had done wonders  
to get over the Desert to the  
Canal, & there are many things about 
their attack that I can't make out, 
one of them is how they got the 
  
Artillery there, the Desert is about 
100 mile across, it is said that they 
have had guns buried there for  
some time in readiness, some 
more of Kaiser Bills handiwork 
I expect, however it turned out 
a complete failure for them, their 
prisoners were brought in by the 
hundred to Cairo & we have been 
told that about 1000 were buried 
there, our Casualities were very 
light & I think the Turks have 
had enough of trying to take 
Egypt, there is one thing certain 
& that is that the Turks were 
 not in a fit state to fight against 
such a well fortified & equiped lot 
as our chaps are, a lot of the Turks 
had out of date rifles, & were poorly 
equiped, some of them only half  
dressed & by the way the prisoners 
are being treated they are much 
better off where they are, I am glad 
to say that some of the German 
Officers were put out of action, it

is another one of the in human 
things they have to answer for being 
an Army of men to sure defeat 
& if they had fought death, just to 
gratify their dirty pride, one of 
their spies was caught in Cairo 
lately, he was dressed in some of  
our Uniform & was asking some of 
the New Zealanders questions about 
the rifles etc, & they took a tumble 
when he could'nt tell them what 
Regiment he belonged to. Small 
Pox has broken out in the Camp 
some of the N.S.W. chaps got it & 
we have heard various reports as 
to the number of deaths from it but 
I think it is 3, all hands that 
did not take on the Boat when 
we were Vaccinated have been 
done again, it was funny to see 
the Niggers working in the Camp 
they lined them all up & vaccinated  
them, they did'nt know what to 
make of it, however these places  
dont get cleaned out with Diseases 
  
of this kind beats me, I think they 
must die fairly free as every time 
I go to Cairo I see plenty of funerals 
they seem to take it as a matter of 
course, I think most of the mourners 
are proffesionals, some of the men 
who walk in front singing, look 
just as if they make their living 
at it, the men walk in front singing 
& the women behind & they 
do a bit of wailing, There is one ugly 
thing about the men & boys in 
this part & that is the number 
of them with sore eyes, I think 
I can safely say that 75 per cent 
of them have something wrong 
with their eyes, some of them burned  
all roads & others with scums over  
them this is caused we are told by 
their Mothers putting a hot needle 
in the eye when they are young so 
that they wont have be soldiers 
& it certainly looks like it, it is 
only noticeable amongst the Males 
the Women are nearly all right.

There is another custom they have 
I was told it was a religious one, 
nearly all you see have their face 
disfigured by cuts in it, some of 
them on the Temples others on 
the cheeks, but always on both 
sides of the face, it is said it is 
done when they are children, if 
they are sick their Mothers do it 
as they think it will cure them 
to let out the bad blood, they 
must use something very sharp 
to do it with as the cuts are always 
very clean & generally about three 
on either side of the face, another 
custom they have is to have things 
tatooed on their faces, small birds 
& all kind of things, these are generally  
on the Temples but sometimes  
they have them on other 
parts. I often think what a  
nice thing it is to look forward 
to the Summer here, it is about 
as warm as I want to see it here 
now, & when it comes properly 
  
with millions of flies & these wretches  
coming out of the sore eyes 
of the Niggers, the flies here are 
every bit as persistent as the  
Australian breed & I think in 
the Summer will be about three 
times as thick. I went on my 4^th 
days holiday yesterday & as we have 
reason to believe that we may not 
get another here we made the most 
of it, I might say it was the best 
of any I have had. I arranged to go 
with Sam & Bill Gowdie to go to see 
the Virgin Tree, these chaps are Brothers 
& Batmen to our Company Lieutenants  
Gilmore & Hooper, they all belonged  
to the Victorian Scottish & 
the Officers asked the others to have 
 a look round with them so I was 
included in the party. We were a 
bit late leaving camp but we made 
the most of it when we got going. 
After a good dinner in Cairo, the 
5 of us climber into a Garry & drove 
to the Station & started for a place 
named "Matarieh", it is here that

the Virgin Mary rested when escaping 
from the Egyptians, there is the tree 
that she rested on & a well, that one 
of the Miracles you read of in the Bible 
took place the water was salt & was 
changed to fresh, I had a drink out 
of it, I am sending a bit of Maiden 
Hair fern from the side of the well 
& some leave off the Virgin tree, I  
am also sending a medal from the 
Church near the well also a photo 
of the Church & tree, the picture on the 
medal is the outside view of the church 
I must now put off writing as I  
have to pack up my few little things 
now to send home, it seems a bit 
like being cut off from Australia as  
after this week our mail is stopped 
we move away, goodness knows  
where to but we believe to Active 
Service. In reading this you must 
make allowance for any all kinds 
of humours that a fellow gets in 
& I have been writing whenever 
I could get a chance, there are 
  
hundreds of things I would like 
to add to this but I dont care 
to trust this book to the Post 
so must sent it with a trustworthy  
pal is who is being 
send back after an operation 
for appendicitis, so I must 
now say Au Revoir to all 
who read this & with good 
wishes to all of them. 
 I remain 
 as ever 
 Private, G. Booley 
__________________ 
A. Company 
5 Battalion