Letters from Irving Russell Flett to his Family, 1915-1916 - Part 2

A Co. 23^rd Btn
6^th Inf Bde. A.I.F.
Dear Mother & Father
This time I can only
send you a hurried note to let you
know we are now anchored inside the
harbor at Alexandria awaiting orders.
We are already to disembark should
orders come through to that effect.
Since I last wrote we have been through
the most intersting part of our voyage
having passed through the Suez Canal,
which is really a wonderful place. We
entered the canal at 7.30 last Tuesday
morning & arrived Port Said at 9 oclock
at night. It is rather a nice looking
place & is very busy; of course you know
it is the busiest coaling port in the
world. There are thousands & thousands of
troops all along the canal. There are
Indians & British Territorials & I can tell
you the former are a fine body of men;
They are all dressed in khaki & it suits
them well. Our fellows were exchanging
messages all along & cheering till they were

(3).
fear. We have just now received
orders to disembark a 4 tomorrow morning
& proceed to Cairo, so now know where we
are going, which is satisfactory. Hope you
are all well at home Remember me to
all. Give love to Auntie Alice &
Lupra also Uncle Tas & the new Aunt.
I will write again soon but expect
from now on my letters will be a bit 
shorter and we will not have so much
time for letter writing. I will now
have to close as I have to get busy
on some work before landing.
Your loving son 
Irvy
P.S. Later We have arrived at
Heliopolis, near Cairo, & it is really a
fine place with abundance of good water
& tons of ice & cool drinks. In fact I have
never seen a place where ice & that sort of
stuff is more plentiful. I will write
more fully next mail so will now
finish up. This is to be our camping ground
IRF

(2)
hoarse, the others on shore doing likewise
They informed us las they had a pretty stiff
fight last week with the Turks who were 
easily repulsed & suffered considerably; we
saw many signs of the fight. There is 
a fresh water canal running nearly the whole
way along the Suez & was built, so the skipper
of ship told us, by one of the Pharoahs
nearly four thousand years ago & contains
good drinking water. A railway also
runs a considerable distance up the African
side of the canal & the trains are not at

all unlike our Victorian ones. There are
now barracks & military bases all along the
canal on both sides & some of the trenches
are fine fine. Of course all the dredges &
signalling stations or most of the latter are
French as the French have a large say
in the canal. The bitter lakes, which
run through the canal are very wide
being over 3 miles wide & in some cases
up to 6 miles. We arrived at Alexandria
last night at 9 P.M. & waited out in the
Mediterranean Sea all night, which
is a fairly risky job on a/c of submarines
but as we had come all the way without
an escort one more risk was nothing to 

A Coy 23^rd Btn.
 6^th Inf. Bgd. A.I.F.
Hiopolis, Egypt 19/5/15.
Dear Mother & Father
I was very glad to get your letter
this afternoon of the 14^th inst., in which you say you received a letter of
mine; I suppose it was the one I wrote from the Heads on the Saturday
night, & in fact I forget which one it was, as needless to say, I dont
keep copies of all outgoing correspondence, which would be too bulky
a job. As you will see the above address we are still in
the "beautiful" land of the Pharaohs, where we arrived last
Saturday, just a week ago. We disembarked at Alexandria 
last Saturday at 6.15 am, so you can see we had to have a pretty
early breakfast. The disembarkation officer said that the
landing of the "Euripides" - our - troops was the most orderly
& best managed proceeding that had taken place at that port,
& there have been thousands upon thousands of English as well
as Australian troops put ashore at that place, so that says a 
good deal for our men, as disembarkation of two thousand
men together with horses baggage etc. is an extremely big job.
We were really sorry to leave the "Euripides" as she is a beautiful
ship & we had every comfort on board, also the ships crew
& especially officers gave us splendid treatment & were thorough
sports all through the voyage. Even the hard old skipper, who
is really a fine man, though very hard as far as duty goes,

2
was blowing his boko very hard. We started on an inland
train journey at 6.45; the trains are not at all unlike our
Victorian ones & go at every bit as fast a speed as they do. Our
first impressions of Egypt were that of great surprise & not one
of us could help thinking what marvels the British have done
for this land & what a superhuman man Kitchener is, for along
the whole of the 120 odd miles from Alexandria to Cairo, on
both sides of the line is the most perfect irrigation scheme &
the greenest fields we had ever seen; there is nothing but channels,
rice fields covered with water, & green crops of all kinds, also
orchards; there is absolutely not a break in the cultivation the
whole journey. It is very queer to see the natives working in the
fields in their old fashioned clothes, using all the old devices, the
same as you read of in the Bible. There is also the old wooden
plough with oxen pulling it. There are also plenty of very
ancient buildings all along, but they increase as you get nearer
Cairo.. Donkeys seem to be the favorite means of locomotion
& transport by the niggers, but it seems to be quite fast
enough for them, as they are about the slowest beings you could
ever have the bad luck to bump against. We arrived at
Cairo at 12.35 P.M., & I can tell you the climate, to say the least
was not cool, & to say the worst of it would be too bad to put
in a letter. We have had the mercury nearly bumping the
roof off the barometer, the hottest so far being 121^o in the shade
& what we are to get the next 3 or 4 weeks even the black scoundrels

3
are frightened of, as we are told, so that is horridly comforting;
however the weather can be decent & today is perfect, - even
in the Sahara Desert. of on the edge of which delightful
spot we are camped. Of course it is right the other direction
from Mena Camp, which I believe is not broken up. When we
arrived at our camping spot we were still more surprised than
we were at what we saw from the train, for all about there
are spread any quantity number of grand shower baths, there are
ample for officers & men, & you can take it from me they are a
God send, most of us have two showers a day - at least I always
take care I do. The water for drinking & bath purposes is all
laid on from the Nile & with a good lump of ice in, it is a 
hard job to beat it for a drink. We are fortunate in having any
amount of ice & all sorts of drinks, but the food is very so so,
everything seems to smell & taste of nigger, this not making
the appetite keen. We always rise at 5 a.m., start work at
6 & on to 9, then come in to breakfast, we give the men lectures in their
sheds from 10.30 to 12 P.M. then we go out again to parade at
4. PM. till 7., after which the time is all our own, & if we dont
feel too tired take a look into Cairo at night. At 9 oclock on Monday
morning I with two other officers are in charge of a guard in Cairo for a
whole week, our duties being to keep down rows in the city, also to see
that the places of amusement etc. are clear of Australian troops by a 
certain hour at night. This will be a great experience for us, & only that
we miss our skill during the day time would not mind it so much.

Rest of no interest

A Coy 23rd Btn

6th Inf Bde A.I.F

Kasr-el-Nil Barracks.

24/6/15
Dear Mother & Father,

Just a few lines to let you know

how things are going with us in this place. In my last letter I

told you we were going into Cairo to do police duty & we are

now in the thick of John duties. My word it is an experience

& eye opener the like of which I have never had before.

Cairo, I think is the most cosmopolitan on earth. Every

race on earth is represented except the Japanese & Chinese,

why they are not here I dont know, it just requires them to

complete the beauty show. The longer one stays in this

country the more wonderful it appears, & I am fast beginning

to think that where we are is not half a bad spot; of

course the heat is severe & the driest very dirty & as good a

sample as you will get anywhere. We are at present 

stationed at Kasr-el-nil barracks right on the banks

of the Nile, & it is a very pretty spot. The barracks were

built by Napoleon & adjoin an old palace. Where we

have our meals in a fine old room with all sorts of antique

decorations & silk tapestries on the walls. Napolean

used to utilise this room to conduct xxxxxxxxx trials also

to use it for a banquet room, so you will see we are

in rather an historic spot. xxxxxxxx There is a balcony

at the end of the room which opens right on to the river Nile &

overlook one of the prettiest & greenest islands I have ever 

seen, the river is very wide here being,I suppose 1½ miles

the island is ¾ mile wide & about 4 miles long. On the 

island there is a sporting club, which is the headquarters

of all kinds of sports, there are three polo grounds

4 tennis courts, bowling greens & cricket grounds & all 

are beautifully green even although it is midsummer.

We expect to be living in this comfort for about a week or 

fortnight, which is the length of time we anticipate being

on police duty in the city There are a lot of English

officers & they are jolly fine fellows; there is no doubt

about the English officer being a gentleman and a

good fellow. Our duties are loaf all day, start

on our rounds to see that all the pubs are cleared &

closed & places of ill fame, of which there are hundreds, 

all of which we have to visit, are all empty by a

certain hours; we commence on this round at 6 oclock 

at night and get back at barracks about 2 oclock in

the morning. The work is very interesting & quite a new

experience for us, of course we have to visit the very

worst parts of the city & you would have no conception

of what they are like; there is a place named Wassa 

& it is absolutely the limit for filth both morally &

every other way, & the stench is enough to knock you

over half a mile off. There are men & women of all 

nationalities there especially women & I can xxx tell you

they are the last thing in "beauty" One thing is noticeable

& that is th we have not come across a son English woman

in all our rounds of these places & we visit them all, & 

having English Sergeant Majors who have been here for

years in not worth knowing. The night before last we

had a very busy time & and made a lot of arrests, two or 

three of our men, however got a rough time, but we always

got the best of it. All the trouble is always with

the Australians & they are giving our country a very bad

name in Cairo, we have not arrested a single English

soldier. Our wounded men who have returned from the

Dardenelles are the worst of the lot; they trade on their

wounds & if you try to force them out of a hotel they cry you

down for touching a wounded man, some of them are about

the most cringing & contemptable creatures you could get

anywhere & you begin to think ^what a pity it is good fellows were killed

& such creatures only wounded. However we settled one

party of 4 wounded heroes & they are now in jug for

3 months after which they had a good chance of being

dismissed, the charge against them being drunk & disorderly

& resisting arrest, also insulting the police. Last night a

new law came into force & that is the early closing

of hotels at 10 o'clock, we thought there would be something
doing, but everything in the city was very quiet.

The Cairo people are a very quiet law abiding crowd

& seldom give any trouble, but when they do the native

police take very drastic steps to quell any disturbance.

It is a funnier sight than you could imagine more

about 3 or 4 policemen chasing a crowd of a couple of

hundred natives down the street with sticks which they

lay on with all their might. We nearly died laughing,

as a fight between a policeman & a civillian last night;

they were rolling over & over in the footpath & by the screaming

and yelling you would think a cage of monkeys had

been let loose; the policeman eventually won by bumping

his opponents head on the ground & yanked him off to the

lock up to get patched up. The electric railway & tramway

system here is very good & you can get anywhere in the 

city by tram. It is a terribly hard place to find your

way about in, the streets being all in and out and 

anyhow; you might learn to find your way about if you were

here long enough, but never would you have the names of

the streets, they are terrible concoctions. There are plenty

of americans here, & if we ever you feel a little down in the

dumps there is always the Casino to go to where the

programme is varied & lively, there is dancing & all very

good music. Cabmen like cabmen in all other parts

are terrors for sticking on the charges & the only way is to pay

them what you think fit & leave them glaring at you & arguing

the point, which does not concern us, as not a word can we

understand. A lot of our officers have been in hospital,

but so far I have been lucky enough not to have a day's illness

& have never felt better in my life. My word this open

air life is the life & it will be very hard for any of

us to go back to the old style of living although we

will all be jolly glad to get back to dear old Melbourne

How is Walter getting on at the shooting. I suppose he is

winning all the club spoons & trophies & becoming expert in the

use of the rifle. Is Auntie Alice keeping better now & able

to get about. I suppose she is frozen with cold while we

are having weather that is knocking the top off the barometer

Give my love to Aunties & let them know all the news

Also to Uncle Tas & his Missus I hope they are not having

any news. No doubt Tommy is just as mad as ever & still

gives you plenty of fun, I would like to have a look at

some of his capers occasionally. Get Walter to remember

me to all the fellows. Write soon & give me all the

news as Melbourne news is horribly scarce here. I will

now have to wind up for present & will write again

soon         

I remain your loving son

Irvy

[*Just address letters as

usual, dont take any

notice of the Barracks*]