Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/3/1 - March - April 1915 - Part 3

73     18 21
March 31
remains of the cakes and chocolate (they
had already annexed the thrown-away
ginger beer bottle from which I had
carefully obliterated the label - otherwise
it wd possibly be filled with some mess
& sold age to the next tourist). In
return they brought up two old
grape shot about ¾ inch in
diameter.
I wanted to find where they
got this grape shot from. I tried
signs & Arabic from Baedeker (which
succeeded quite tolerably) & after about
ten minutes of this sort of thing the
little girl came up with two more
grape shot. About two minutes later
I had managed to get them to lead
me to the place where she had
scraped them out of the sand. It was
just below the outer scarp of the
fort, about a foot from the wall;
there was no question of fraud -
we dug up three or four more
then & there; some were only
half hidden below the surface of
the sand. I can only think they
 

73     19 22
March 31
must have been fired in one of
Abercrombies attacks, or in the
British fights campaign near Alexandria in
1807 or thereabouts when we suffered
a rather ignominious series of reverses.
I must look up the accounts of this
fighting & see when this fort was last
attacked.
I then walked in to Abukir fort,
on the point its - at least, the fort on the
point itself. I don't know the real names of
the forts. I was keen to see if there were
any trace of fighting there, & so climbed
down to the foot of the stone wall of the
fort where the sea washes up against
it. There was a ledge there on which one
could clamber all the way round. And
on a sort of _^ rock shelf, in an angle of the
wall facing the sea, I found a large
grape shot in perfect condition; almost too
perfect, I am afraid, to have been there
since Nelsons time.
I caught the train back to Cairo
meeting Irvine in the dining car - Brigade Maj.
of the 1^st Brig. who was in my house at
Clifton just before my time. Taxied out to camp
with him.
 

73    20 23
April 1
Thurs. April 1. There was a divisional field
day today in which the troops did
especially well. I went out with Divl
Headq. staff & after waiting till the
reports came in showing the attack well
started I pushed off by myself to a
position near _^ some of the artillery observation
posts & watched carefully, with the map
in front of me, the attack develop. The
serving General had sent on the Light Horse
to seize part of the required position
ridge which he was directed to occupy.
They got there before the enemy. The
1^st Inf. Brigade which was & attacl
advancing against the other half of
the ridge was held up; but as the
Light Horse were already on the other
end of the ridge with the 2nd Inf. Brigade
behind them, the 2nd Inf. Brigade
managed to get on top & then
swept to the left along the ridge, advancing
x beautifully. The _^ long line of the each company
suddenly springing into existence where
only a solid little bunch had been
hiding under cover before, &
sweeping one after another across the
 

24
The two brigadiers were in to tea, both very
satisfied. They asked for leave to go off till Sunday
- when Maclaurin had to be back because Birdwood
was coming to his church parade. & the N.Z. & A
Divn were having some show on Monday.

73     21 25
April 1
hillside was very pretty to watch, & so
was the deployment of the rearmost
battalions of the 1st Brigade on the plain
below. I waited till the 1st Brigade were began
abt to move _^ on again. I heard afterwds that
Col Skeen _^ of the Army Corps staff, who is as good a judge as any officer
in Cairo, said the deployment & the attack
by the 2nd Brigade could not have been
better. Jack was complimented afterwds
by Col. Howse on the work of his A.M.C. section
with the 3rd Bn. He himself was not
satisfied with it, but that is generally a good sign.
Certainly his _^ camp lines are now models of
sanitation. The t
→  About eating _^ dinner time there seemed an air of something
happening. One of the Army Corps staff
(Lesslie, I think) was out here _^ today to dinner.  I heard
the General's say in a cheerful voice just voice in his room remarking cheerfully,
just after ea dinner - "Well, thanks for bringing us
good news; thats the most cheerful
thing we've had happen to us for a long time."
Shortly after, when Jack was in here & my cousin
Jack Butler, who had come over to
see us (he is a signaller now) on Foster
passed me a note. "All leave stopped."
One knew of course what that meant -
 

26
Tonight a cable came for me from the High Commissioner
to say that my case the question of my going to the front
had been referred by the War Office to the Admiralty
"for early decision."

73   April 1/2    22 27
We - or rather they, the Division, - were off.
xxxxx. A little later I saw Maclaurin
coming up the stairs grinning. His holiday
was gone.
Men who were catching the Luxor train
were Frid. stopped.
Good Friday April 2.  There was to have
been general leave today; & as the
division is not to embark until
tomorrow leave has been granted to
25 percent of the men.
I believe that quite
early in the day some slight trouble
occurred. But it was not till about
5 that matters grew at all to the stage
of a serious riot. It is hard to ascertain
the facts. But as far as I can do so
they were as follows:
Some New Zealanders who
had picked up certain diseases in a
particular street near Shepheards Hotel
seem to have made up their minds
to go in & pay the house back for what
they got there. About five o'clock
 

73    April 2     23 28
the evidence of this scheme
they had started from first began to appear
this plan first began to have visible
results. Mattresses & bedding were
car probably torn up inside the house or
houses first - but the first the public knew
was when these then this debris began to
be piled into a bonfire in the street. The
Australian Town Picket (about 30 light hors which happened to be
from a Light Horse Regt) under its officer was
called up; the officer found that a lot of
damage was going on in certain houses
& he concentrated his efforts on stopping
the bonfires as soon as they were started &
trying to clear the men out of the
house or houses that had been attacked.
In doing so he arrested five men.
All the this had of course collected a
bigger crowd. The Greeks in this neighbo
street & others like it habitually sell vile
doctored liquor to the soldiers - (the Cairo
authorities are to some extent to blame for
never having stopped this) - and some of the
men were very drunk. Of course most of
the men were onlookers, the majority of
them by now being Australians _^ there to see the fun (there are three
times as many Australians as of any other
 

73   April 2   24 29
force in Cairo). The men who were actually
fighting and smashing window furniture
were a handful. But the crowd wouldn't
let the picket get away with its prisoners.
Four of them were relate rescued & the
picket carried off one. The xxx officer of
the picket was hit heavily on the hand
by a big New Zealander who was
holding a staircase - he dodged _^ in under the
New Zealanders arm & was hit with some
iron implement.
The picket - or officer of this picket, or else some
other authority who was dealing with the
trouble, called in the military police. This
military police - or red caps, as they
are called by our men from the colour of
their _^ peaked forage caps - are English soldiers, who
are selected for this force special force; they
are mounted & carry pistols. They are
bound to turn out if called on; & the
whole posse, perhaps 30 in all, trotted
through the streets to the stre quarter in
question. Australians & others, seeing
the police trotting, of course ran along
with them - as they would after a fire
engine - to see the fun. I spoke to one
 

 73     25 30
April 2
big artilleryman who did so - a fine
chap of about 22 who was in the thick of
it.
He said: "that came When we came to the street
they call the "Wozzy" it was the fun of
your life. There were bonfires blazing
down below, & up out of the windows
came furniture, bedding, clothes, which
those below threw on to the fire. A
certain number of fellows were hurt
by these things from the windows falling
on them. The wardrobes & chests of
drawers were sometimes to big for
the windows so they men were carrying
them out onto the roofs & throwing
them into the street below.
"The red caps rode their horses
through the crowd - I meant to keep at
behin the back of the crowd, out of trouble,
but this brought me to the front of it.
The men were throwing All sorts of things
were being thrown at the police, kettles,
bits of furniture. They formed when
they got through the crowd & the officer
or N.C.O. in charge tried to get the crowd to

73     26 31
April 2
disperse. Of course they did not. The chap
in charge told the crowd he must fire on
it if it didnt disperse, & after at last ordered
his men to fire. They fired their pistols
over the heads of the crowd, but no one
took the slightest notice. It sounded like
letting off so many crackers. The police were
withdrawing Well the _^ towards the end of the road & tins and kettles & implements
were being thrown at their horses. Finally
they fired into the crowd. That didn't
disperse the men, either, not in the least.
Four or five dropped, but the others
simply went on facing the police (who
were about 5 yards away) as if
nothing had happened. I was right in
the front. I felt a man brush me on the
arm, - he fell & looked & saw that the
man behind me had fallen at my
feet. I picked him up - he seemed
to me to have been shot through the
heart. All the others were wounded in
the legs as far as I could see ; for the
police must have fired low. But the
chap who shot the man behind me - I
saw him fire, & his horse shied just as
he did so. All sorts of things were being
 

32
(The fire brigade was brought along & the hose   >
turned on the fires & _^ on the men & this cleared >
the crowd for a little; but after a bit they
got hold of the engine & cut up the hose.
A second fire engine later seemed to have
better luck. Some of the firemen were badly
pomelled - there were drunken men there
who didn't know what they were doing).

73     27 33
April 2
thrown at them & their horses were
very restive.
"There was nobody there to take
charge so I decided to get these wounded
chaps into motor cars straight away.
I commandeered a doctors car &
got some fellows to help me shove the
men in - started the cars off, & then
we I decided that it was best to be
off but and out of trouble so I got out
of it as quickly as I could & went to
some friends for tea.
"A pal mate of mine got five photographs
of the whole business. He was up in one
of the verandahs with his camera,
taking snap shots. Just as he got the
fifth a bullet carried away his view finder
- he showed it to me afterwards.
I heard this chap "After tea I
went back again & there was still a
crowd there. They had for called out
the territorials, at first without arms,
afterwards with arms; & when I
got there they had just formed them
across the end of the street in the