Correspondence from George Leslie Makin to his family, 1914-1915 - Part 2

a bit of a nuisance. They take their exercise between
a file of armed men. I was on guard the other
night, & it is rather a strange thing feeling to have
a prince on the wrong end of a bayonet, for when
ever they move they have a bayonet up against their
ribs. We are issued with ball cartridge & told to
use it at the least sign of anything suspicious.
The Germans seem a decent lot & are very quiet.
They think it is the best thing that could have
happened them. They have a better time than we
do, & they say that the food is the best they have
had for 3 months.
They said they wondered what struck them when the
Sydney opened fire. It was good shooting on the
Sydney's part as the first shot, smashed their range finder.
And they had to guess it. When they did find it.
Every shot told.
Some of them cannot sleep some nights. They walk
about with their hands over their ears. They say that
they can hear the shells bursting & the wounded screaming.
It must have been awful.
We left Colombo on 17/11/1914 & expect to reach Aden
is a day or so. Of course our speed is reduced as we have
a few slow boats with us. I think we will reach England
before Christmas. It is possible that we will go ahead
of the others from Port Said.
I am enjoying the best of health & the weather is
beautiful. If it weren't for the dicipline & guard
duty, it would be a pleasure trip.
Since we came on board we have had a medical
inspection, been twice inoculated against Enteric &
vaccinated.
At present everybody is suffering from the effects of
vaccination. VIc Lusic got a severe dose & has to
lay up for a day or two.
We expect to reach Aden on Wednesday .25/11/1914.
Well Harry I think that is all the news at present
so will close. Wishing you and Essie every happiness
in the coming year & every other year
I am
Your loving brother
Les.
P.S. The reason for the scribble is that I am writing this letter
down below deck at our mess table & it is about 140 deg.
& the din is awful as the boys are drawing their beer
Les.
Troopship A.3
At Sea 29/11/1914
Dear Mother & Father
Since last I wrote you, things
have undergone a complete change. We have been
ordered to Cairo in Egypt. I don't know whether
it is only to complete our training or whether there
is any trouble with the Turks. The most popular
idea is that we garrison Cairo; Complete our
training during the winter & go to the front
in the spring. Anyway we are bound to have
a few scraps with the Turks if we are there
any time. There was great excitement on board
yesterday when we heard the news.
As Headquarters are with us, we have to go ahead
and we are now steaming at full speed up
the Red Sea. We will enter Suez in a few hours.
I think we land at Alexandria & entrain for
Cairo.
We arrived at Aden on 25th & left the next day.
It is a wonderful place. Practically the whole of
the coast is solid Rock.
The Arabs are something like the Indians
but seem more intelligent.
They come alongside in boats & sell cigarettes, cigars
postcards etc. They are like auctioneers. The highest
bidder gets it. You see one chap boasting that he
got 100 cigarettes for 1/- & another chap takes him
down by producing the same article for sixpence.
The weather is still very hot, but it is wonderful
how one gets used to it.
It is now nearly seven weeks since we left Melbourne,
but it is not so monotonous as Broadmeadows.
We are all very fit & are looking forward to some
solid work when we land.
The health of the chaps has been particularly good
on this boat. There have been a few cases
of appendicitis, but all were operated upon
successfully by Jim's old friend, Col. Chas Ryan.
There have been a few deaths on some of the
other boats. Mostly from Pneumonia.
Well dear Mother & Father I have barely time
to catch this post as it was only at the last moment
we were allowed to write at all.
Hoping that you & brothers & sisters are all well &
happy I am
your loving son
Les.
Tell Jim I am sending him a few
postcards of Aden.
[*Please tell Harry that I could not write to him as we did not get
enough notice. I barely had time to scribble this. Les*]
Egypt
9/12/1914
Dear Mother & Father
I am writing these few lines at our camp
where we have no conveniences yet. So you will excuse this
short note.
We arrived at Alexandria on 3/12/1914 & proceeded to Cairo by
train. After a weary journey of about 5 hours, we had to
march 11 miles to Mena where we are now camped.
We are at the foot of the Pyramids & are converting the
desert into a small city. We have no tents & just sleep
in the sand. It is very hot during the day & bitterly
cold at night. It rained last night & we just laid
down it it & soaked.
At present things are not settled, but hope to have things
straightened out shortly. We seem to be a bit short
of supplies, as some of our meals consist of dry
bread & tea.
At present we are navvying, making roads etc.
and could do with a Sunday dinner.
There are about 70,000 Troops here at present and
more arriving every week.
On the 21st the flag is to be hoisted & Egypt
proclaimed British Territory. I expect there will be
some fun then. There is a lot of sniping going on
around the Suez Canal. 120 Wounded were brought
in last night. They were mostly Indian Troops.
The Territorials here are a very small lot compared
with our own chaps & they say they feel like hiding
when compared with us. They are real decent
chaps however. Always ready to show you round
& preventing the natives from overcharging us.
These niggers always ask about 4 times the value
of anything.
Everybody seems a bit discontented at present.
Most of them are broke & we don't know when we
are to be paid. We only received 30/- since we left
Melbourne.
I am lucky as I saved practically all my money &
have about £5 lent to a few chaps, but I dont see
much chance of getting that at present.
It seems strange to be camped at the Pyramids
as I never expected to see them.
Of course if we we here touring everybody would
think them wonderful, but nobody takes the
slightest interest in them.
If you go near them, the guides swarm around,
and tell you more lies in a few minutes, than you
ever heard in your life before.
We are allowed leave every 5 nights, but it is hardly
much good going into Cairo. The tram service is
rotten & hardly anyone there understands English.
The City itself is, with the exception of one part filthy
It is full of evil alleyways, where nameless orgies take
place. They don't cater for civilized amusement at all.
Will write again by next mail.
Love to all from Les
[*I DRL473*]
Mena, Egypt
Sunday 13/12/1914
Dear Mother & Father
I am terribly dissapointed at not receiving any
word from you. I expect the mail has gone astray, but it is very hard
to see some chaps receiving as many as four letters & get nothing yourself.
I got a card from Mrs Spence at Port Said & could not make out not
hearing from you. I cannot tell you how much I am looking
forward to some news from Melbourne.
We are now much more settled down, but the work is hard &
the feeding arrangements are simply rotten. How they expect men
to work on dry bread I don't know, but that is our main diet.
No doubt things will improve, but at present the men are very
discontented. The people in charge make foolish promises & when they
fail to keep up to them, of course that makes things very
unpleasant. For instance, we were promised every Wed & Sat
half holidays. Well on both Wed & Sat we not only worked, but
worked harder than ever. And to make things worse instead of
giving us our usual Sunday holiday, they took us for a
5 mile march across the desert. When you consider that it
is as hard walking here as on our own beach & our breakfast
consisted of a thin slice of dry bread, it is hardly playing
the game on the part of the heads.
Mind you, there is hardly a man here that would not do
twice that amount of work cheerfully under ordinary
circumstances, but deceiving them as the heads have been
tend to make them lose confidence in the officers.
I don't want you to think that we are being treated badly
I am just giving you the real facts & I think you will agree
with me when I say it is just want of thought on the part
of the men in charge.
It will take some knocking about to settle us just at present
as we are all in great nick. Norman Spence came round to
see me the other day & hardly knew me as I have got so fat.
I didn't notice it so much myself so I went and got weighed
& scaled just under 12 Stone. But I dont know how I am
going to keep it up on dry bread.
Of course we were well looked after on the boat. The other
regiments are quite jealous of us. Most of them had a bad
passage across.
As we were marching across the sand yesterday we passed
the 7th & somebody called out. "That will take some of the
Orvieto fat off you" which was quite true.
We dont have much time for amusement as it gets dark
about 5'oclock. We drill untill 4 and by the time we have
had tea it is quite dark.
In our spare time we go for donkey or camel rides or roam
around the Pyramids.
There are lots of old ruins round about. Under a hill near
the Pyramids there seems to be a ruined city. An American
University has a permit to dig up anything they think of
use. They say they have been digging for the last six
years.
We have been here now about 10 days & troops are still arriving.
Of course it takes time to get the horses in.
There are three camps around Cairo. The New Zealanders form one
Aust Light Horse another & the rest of our division the other.
In addition there are three barracks full of English Troops.
So we have a tidy little army here.
We get very little news of any sort here, so if you see anything
that would be of interest to me, I would like you to send
some cuttings from the papers.
The Egyptian money is a source of annoyance to the boys.
The counting is all done in piastres. One piastre is worth
2½d of our money. There is a half-piastre coin & 1 - 2 - 5 - 10 & 20 piastres.
The natives took full advantage of our ignorance at the
time but I think we can show them a few points now.
There is only one way to deal with them. That is there own
game: Robbery. A party of us went out the other night for
revenge & without spending a bean, our haul consisted of
1 cigarette holder 1 pair sock suspenders 10 pkts cigaretts 2 watermelons
30 oranges & nearly every man stole a cane. Of course
everb everybody carries a swagger stick here.
You will not receive this letter till after Christmas, but I
know you will be thinking of me on Christmas day, as I
will be thinking of you all & wondering if ever I will have
another Xmas dinner with you. Dont think I am at all downhearted,
but one does not appreciate home till he has left it & I
am always thinking of my darling mother.
Best love to
Brothers & Sisters.
Your loving son
Les.
Mena, Egypt
Sunday 20/12/1914
Dear Mother & Father,
Today being a half holiday, I am taking the
opportunity of sending you a few lines.
Since last I wrote, things have improved a lot, although there is
still plenty to be done.
We now get Wed & Sunday half holiday & the food is much better.
The daily routine is as follows. Reveille at 6.15 Breakfast 7.15. Parade
at 8. Training till 1.30. We are free at about 3' o'clock. & have tea at
4.30 as it is dark very early.
The work is rather hard, but I expect we will get used to the
sand in time.
Last Wed. afternoon Vic Lusic, Tom Parker & myself climbed one of the
Pyramids & carved our names on the stone tablets at the top,
alongside the late King Edward's name.
From the top, you get a view of the excavations. They are digging
up a ruined city right at the foot of the Pyramids, and it
looks like a huge rabbit warren.
On Thursday a proclamation was read in the city proclaiming
Egypt a British Protectorate.
I was in Cairo on Saturday, seeing about my teeth, which have
been giving me trouble. They are costing me £3/10/-.
That is all the news at present. I am writing by every mail.
Love to all
from Les.
[*Some of the chaps
got letters yesterday
but I am still
waiting for mine.
Tell Jim I am
sending a packet of
cards by this mail
Les.*]

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