Correspondence and photographs relating to Edward Randolph Cleaver, 1914-1918 - Part 1 of 3

 S.S. "WILTSHIRE"-TROOPSHIP A18 
AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 
VICTORIAN LIGHT HORSE

POST CARD

Somewhere in Palestine
10-6-17

Dear Papa Addie & Millie
I received
your welcome letter dated March 20^th
and am pleased to hear you are all
well, The weather has been very hot
here these last few days, but not nearly
so hot as it is out in the desert in Egypt
this time of the year, of course the green
fields and being nearer the coast helps
to keep it a lot cooler but we have plenty
of work to do We are kept going at all
hours of the day & night but it is not
near so bad as Gallipoli as the
there th enemy was always firing
shells & bullets at you day & night as
it is now we have our horses to
get away from them when ever we
wish and we can hear the shells
bursting away in the distance

(2)
which makes it more comfortable
when you know you are safe & sound
from them for the time being the 
only thing their may be a hostile aero
plane come over and drop a few
bombs amongst us and our horses
but a man is dead unlucky if
he get hits with one of them as our
anti air craft guns keep them up a 
good height, we have not heard
the result of the elections here yet
but their seems to be a lot of
squabbling amongst them over there
They want to come over here and they
will get all the fight they want.
We heard over here that the recruiting
Committe was trying to get 5000 new 
men to take the place of 5000 men
who came over under the command
of the late General Bridges so that
means the First Contingent to take

(3)
their places and give us six months 
furlough to Australia, but I do not 
think there is such luck. I think it 
is only a recruiting dodge to try and 
get a few to enlist which we can do with 
just now, We were all lined up on a  
ceremonial parade yesterday and their 
was a few medals presented to a few of the 
Heads Officers and Major Farn who married 
Miss Bowden received one also it was 
for the Battle of Romani that they 
got them for. I do not think the war 
looks much nearer the end not by reports 
we get which are very scant than it  
did twelve month ago anyhow America 
might make a bit of a difference This
is all the news I can scrape up this time 
hoping you are all well as it leaves 
me at present 
I remain 
your loving Son & Brother 
Randolph
 

Somewhere in Palestine
27-8-17

Dear Papa Addie & Millie
I received your welcome 
letters dated April 30 June 26th & June 11th and also local papers 
for which I thank you very much as it nice to get 
a bit of news about the district as we do not get much 
out here. We are still plugging away in the heat & dust 
and it is terrible at times, we are all waiting for 
the furlough to Australia what was so much talked 
about for a while, but it died out again, and only 
the other day they took the names & number of the 
originals in the Regiment and there was some guessing 
what they were wanted for, but the tale came through this 
morning that we were going in a months time and that 
it was in Divisional Orders but we have not got it officially 
yet but it seems too [[good?]] to be true, it would be grand 
to have six months spell and I think we deserve it after 
three years service without a spell and roughing it as 
we have to do, although it has not hurt me much 
it has broke up a good number, George Bingham 
has not been too good of late had a touch of Malaria 
Fever now has a bad cold so is a bit off colour 
I saw Laurence Jackson last week and he wishes to be 
remembered to you all and he also looks well 
but it is a long ride to where his canteen is and 
things a very dear a tin of fruit costs 10 Piastres

(2) 
in fact everything is dear it takes nearly all the 
money we got to keep us going in tucker the rations 
are very short of late. I do not know what the Army
are doing but they seem to be cutting us shorter every
day, we got 3 very small loaves of bread 1 tin jam & 3 tins
of Bully Beef to do four of us twenty four hours
so you see it is not much when we are all healthy
chaps and always in open even sleeping in it with
the sky for a roof but I feel very well satisfied
at the present time my mate just made some
custard & coffee & milk whilst I am writing this
letter I have just finished the custard and it was
lovely, I am very pleased to learn you have sold out
satisfactory and hope that the rest will restore you
to perfect health again for I am sure you have earnt
a well deserved rest and hope you get all your accounts
in [[satisfactory?]] you need not worry about me
as I can get along in this battle of life alright
they won't show me many points if i can help it
If I ever have the luck to get back alright, I do
not think I would care for Butchering again for a
while anyway although this country here is no
good to live in although the land is very good
in parts but you would have to keep a machine
gun on each corner to keep the Bedouins & Arabs
from shaking the lot and there is no fences at all

all they do is dig a drain around the peice of  
land they own and shepherd their stock by 
day and lock them up in the village by night 
men women cattle sheep & dogs all sleep under the 
one roof, you never see a pig [[here ...?]] 
their [[religion?]] to eat [[bacon?]] even if you give a  
half-starved Arab a peice of bacon he will not eat it, I see there 
has been a few ships been sunk with some of  
our mail on it is very disappointing to learn that your 
letters have been sunk after all the trouble there is here 
to write them as we do not get much time to ourselves 
we are often away from our bivouac for days at a time 
and one gets very tired after a long ride and lot of 
fighting and it takes a day or two to get over it again 
and of course we have to [[look?]] after our horses between 
times and it is a [[long way to?]] take them to water twice 
a day and [[?]] each way I suppose by now        
Millie is married and settled down  I wished her all the 
luck in my last letter which I hope you got as I 
wrote a good number which you do not seem to receive 
well I think this is all the news this time hoping 
you are all in the best of health as it leaves 
me at present 
  
I remain 
your loving son & brother 
Randolph

  
Somewhere in Palestine 
9-10-17 
  
Dear Papa & Addie 
I received your welcome letter 
dated 18 July and am sorry to hear Papa is so bad 
but all we can do is to hope for the best and that 
time & a good rest will restore him to perfect health 
again, you say there is a chance of us first 
Contingent chaps or what is left of us getting a  
holiday back to Australia by Christmas, I also 
thought there was a chance when first we knew 
of it, but things are totally different now and I 
think our cake is dough as far as getting furlough 
that way is concerned, I put in an application for 
three months furlough to Australia last Sunday 
it is Known here as Compassionate Furlough and 
I had attach Addie letter to it to show them 
the reasons why I wanted it, but I suppose 
it will take a good while as it has got to go 
through a lot of different departments, you 
know what a lot of red tape there is in any -  
thing the goverment have anything to do with 
, But my Commanding Officer gave me an 
excellent recommendation, he put on the 
recommendation that I had been with the