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 25^th & 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 21^st 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 7^th & 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.*]