Zeitoun Camp
13.1.16
Dear May
There is very little news this week. About the only thing worth mentioning is a big improvement in the food. We have shifted into another lot of huts adjoining & have a far better cookshop & for the past week or so we have had real good food & plenty of it. We usually have stew for breakfast, boiled bacon for lunch & a boiled joint for tea. They have taken the 6 of us all back into the mess-room again so they reckon it is the most satisfactory way. We have a good deal of spare time & today I went up to the Mtd lines & had a yarn with several Gore boys & also Holmes Hartley & Frank Marshall. They are both looking quite well. George Moffitt is also there but so far I have not been able to catch him, he just retd from England about a week ago & is alright now. They are the only W’side boys I know of here. Holmes says Rob Cameron would be buried at Lemnos. Jimmy McKenzie, of Gore says he was connected with the details base at Lemnos & was often at the N.Z. cemetery but remembered very few of the names. Before they left they put in 6d each & had crosses with the names on erected over each of the graves.
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I am sending a small batch of photos with this letter. There is nothing flash among them. Have taken very few about camp, partly because there is not much to take & partly because anything that would give you any idea of the show would be held up by the censor. However I hope to get a few snaps before we leave here even if I have to carry them with me. I have had an enlargement made off one of my negatives just to see how it turned out, a photographer in camp does them for 5 piastres each. I enclose the result & you will see he has made a very fair job of it. While I think of it – a good many of the photos I send are not great specimens & are only of interest to me so if you are putting them in albums you can leave out any that are not up to the mark & can keep them in a box on their own. I have written a few explanatory words on the back of each but if you are pasting them in it doesn’t matter as I will remember what they all are. Last Wed. Hargest & I went in & had a good look through all the Mosques & the Citadel. The inside of them is marvelous – all marble, ivory, ebony, etc & the mosque in the Citadel is pure alabaster inside. I could never describe them & photos give a very poor idea of what they are like.
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I don’t think there is much more news. A N.Z. mail arrived today, or at least 1st instalments did. A mail usually takes 4 or 5 days to dribble through. So far I have got 2 letters out of it but none from home. I think I told you to cut out the “21 Platoon” in my address as we have been reorganised since coming here. Time to get the tables set for tea so must stop.
Love to All
Len
P.S. Have seen no sign of Min. L. yet. I think she must still be at Port Said.
