Letters from Fred Leslie Biddle to his Family, 1914-1915 - Part 6 of 19

Mena 
28.2.15 

Dear Mother, 
A little item of news that 
I have put in a separate letter in 
case the censor objects. 
4 Battalions with Army Service, Engineer 
& Ammtn Column details &c left here today.  
Destination unknown, but probably 
France 
We will all be away before a fortnight 
& are under orders to move at short notice 
This is no secret here & I don't think  
the news can be kept quiet about leaving here. 
When we do go we won't be able to 
write letters & Army protocols will be the  
rule. 
Your affete son 
Fred

Mena Camp 
28.2.15 

Dear Mother 
I am sending out to you by  
first steamer some native Brasswork consisting of 
1 Tray with stand 
1 smaller do. without stand 
1 Gong 
3 Vases 
2 Obelisks (proper weights). 
These are all made in the Bazaar by native  
workman & the carving is done with a mallet 
& chisel by eye, without any design sketched on  
the tray before carving. 
When they are polished they will show  
up better even than they do now. 
The workman sit in the street making these 
things & are very quick & clever. 
I have not been able to get hold of anything 
for personal wear that I think you  
would care for. 
Mr & Mrs Lamb came with me & did the 
buying.  All the talk was in Arabic & I  
simply had to look disgusted when the prices

2 
were quoted & be ready to walk out of the  
shop when Lamb gave me the wink. 
Eventually when the price had come down 
about 25% the shopkeeper raised his voice to  
Lamb whereupon the latter immediately seized 
the opportunity of going for him right & left 
& we left the shop in high dudgern (sic) 
After pricing all round the Bazaar we 
knew we had got on to a comparatively cheap 
man so arranged a little bit of a play. 
Mrs Lamb led the way saying Come on whilst 
Lamb & I protested that we wouldn't go in the  
shop again. 
However we were dragged "unwillingly" 
near the shop whilst she went in. 
She told the man we were very angry 
& he was all contrition. 
Finally she asked him if he would 
accept a certain price in which case she  
thought she could persuade me to buy. 
After much thought & protestation he agreed. 
We were brought in & closed the deal 
Immediately he was all smiles & [[?frns]] 
& presented Mrs Lamb with a brass bowl 
as "backsheesh" for her Kind offices 
So you can see you never know what 

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the man's real price. 
Lamb told me he would never close a 
deal in one day, & that probably I could have  
got a still further reduction by coming on 
another day 
However the stuff satisfied him & he 
knows his way around the Bazaars. 
The whole lot cost me 200 piastres {£2.1.0) 
& the brass bowl given to Mrs Lamb was quoted 
at 20 piastres, so you can see what wonderful 
value the stuff is. 
Had I gone alone I wouldn't have got the  
lot under about £4 but the fellow knew as 
soon as Lamb started to talk Arabic that 
it wasn't a case of Tourist prices. 
I reckon that the Melbourne shops that sell 
this class of stuff would ask about £10.10.0 for  
the lot. 
I came across an excellent book on Egypt 
that & I intend to try & get a copy to send out. 
I hope that long before this time your 
knee has ceased to trouble you & that. you 
are in real good health now 
There has been a frightful row here about  
Beans' letter to Australia concerning the  
conduct of the troops.

4 
It isn't that there is any untruth in  
what he says. 
But he should know that the  
papers would make much more of it than  
there really was in it 
The fact is that out of 20000 the number 
sent back of for misconduct is 153. 
Just remember that this city of Cairo offers 
more temptation to the square in than Australia 
offers to the square mile, that it was impossible 
to expect that we would have no wasters, 
that it was also impossible to find them out  
in Australia & that a very large percentage of  
the men had never had to submit to discipline 
in their lives before. 
The liquor sold here is, except in the best 
hotels, very dangerous & decent, sober men  
have been sent stark staring mad with the 
awful stuff served out in apparently good 
cafes. 
It's no use beating about the bush & I  
may as well tell you that some of the stuff  
was analysed & found to consist mainly  
of urine & crude spirit. 
But that's all done with, as the analysis 
was read to all the troops a long while ago

5 
& there has been no trouble worth talking 
about since. 
I have been on picquet in the lowest 
quarters of the native part of the city & found 
practically no trouble.  In fact the few  
Australians we found were warned they 
were out of the bounds & promptly got out. 
The corporal of the Imperial Military 
Mounted Police told me he thought that  
considering the large amount of money they 
had to spend the Australians were 
wonderfully well behaved, & I know they are. 
If a comparison is to be made with  
regular troops the latter suffer by it. 
This corporal told me, & anybody can 
confirm it, that the famous Gordon 
Highlanders who were stationed here when 
the war broke out were the toughest lot 
they ever struck 
For months after they got here there 
were riots every night with the police 
In fact it took 12 mos to get them 
settled down & that even then there was 
always some trouble. 
This is solemn fact & I have 

6 
confirmed it from many sources. 
If they had as much money to spend 
as our fellows Heaven knows what they  
wouldn't have done 
So much for that unpleasant subject. 
I know that the men here are the  
equal of any troops that can be put  
against them, physically they are probably  
superior. 
We are all expecting a move shortly but  
do not know where. 
Probably we wont know where we are  
going until we find ourselves about to land. 
I got Isabels letter of 26^th Jany a few 
days ago. 
She refers to my letter about the 
Pyramids having been received that week 
There's a frightful delay somewhere. 
I seem to have written dozens since then. 
She asks if I have seen any of East 
Melb. boys. 
Well Holmes is in the 6^th Battery & 
I see him often but we never speak of  
course 
I met Arthur Harbeck for the first time in 
Egypt last night & had a few words with

7 
him.  He looks wonderfully fit. 
I haven't seen Joe Pearce at all but 
Ern Fairlie has come across twice. 
I met McCormack (Bibs.) once.  He wanted  
me to go have a drink which was of course 
impossible; & he ought to have known better  
than to ask it, as it immediately put up  
the barrier which i was quite probably  to keep  
down whilst having a yarn to him. 
We had a Brigade Tactical shoot at 
the beginning of the week. & the 4^th Battey 
had to do a night firing series 
I was given the job of making the  
daylight reconnaissance 
This means that you sneak out 
unobserved measure off the angles to  
any targets on prominent points in the  
daylight, mark the exact position of the 
guns, plant aiming posts for the lines of  
fire, & prepare landscape sketches &c &c. 
At night siege lamps are placed at  
the aiming posts & the guns laid on a 
line of light 
We fired 6 rounds only & got all over 

8 
the target including one direct 
hit. 
The target consisted of 2 screens  
representing guns & offering the same 
target. 
A direct hit is a hit with the shell 
itself, as compared with an ordinary hit 
from bullets when the shell bursts in the air. 
Of course direct hits are of more value against 
guns than air bursts as they probably put 
it right out of action 
Phillips was very pleased & so was I. 
We fired at 9 o'c & worked till 3.30am 
digging the guns in ready for opening fire 
at 5a.m. 
Next day we were in action all the  
morning against surprise targets & my  
lines worked out all right, not a single 
correction having to be given for parallelism. 
I am having a shoot tomorrow, & 
probably the subaltons also. 
So far all the shooting has been done 
under the majors & the remainder of the  
training will be all casualty work. 
The senior officers & N.C.O's being temporarily 
wiped out so that the juniors step up one

9 
& get my necessary practice. 
Our training is now practically finished 
& all that remains is Army Manoeuvers 
which we cannot do here as the sand  
is too fatiguing to allow of operations on 
the proper scale. 
The horses & men could never stand it. 
We will no doubt do it in France or 
somewhere else before going to the front. 
Sorry to see by Isabel's letter that  
there is trouble over Gran's estate. 
Hope the miserable business will soon 
be settled 
I had a letter from Cissie this week 
(nothing much in it). 
Cecil has been called up in some months 
for Home Defence & is somewhere on the East 
Coast. 
Corrie's husband has joined the R.F.A. &  
she is going to live at the Chequers till the  
war is over. 
Corrie has been living on the East Coast near  
where the raids were. 
I also had a letter from May Souls 
some time ago.  She replied to one I 

10 
had sent her mother Aunt Pattie 
Well there's not any more news & so 
I must close. 
Hollis will be able to look after the  
stuff I am sending out. 
One of D&W.M's shipping clerks will 
clear the stuff for him, if he asks 
I will send the papers out to you when 
I get them fixed up. 
Remember there's no duty to pay. 
Fondest love to Father Isobel Hollis 
the Frys all relatives & friends & to your  
own dear self, 
Your affete son 
Fred