Zeitoun
25/12/1914
Dear Everybody
Well here it is Christmas day & I hope you are all having a jolly good time & a real good dinner, with a goodly muster of the family. Personally I cannot yet realize that it is Christmas, although from where I sit, I can hear our ordlies arranging our Christmas tree, & what we are going to have for dinner, which will be served in our mess room at the hour of seven PM, that being our usual dinner hour. Myself & Lieut McKay spent Christmas eve in Cairo, & really I had the fun of cork; at the best he, McKay, is a very dry stick, & last night after having dinner, which by the way cost us 3/-, we indulged in a visit to the best picture show in Cairo. We were a little early & of course sat down & waited, & by the time it got a start he began to get sleepy. Well, before the first picture was through my noble friend grew very quiet, & after passing the remark that the picture was beautiful & very steady, he quietly went to sleep. I of course threw in a word now & again, never looking side-ways, until I realized I was
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talking to myself. Well, I turned my head to the left with a click & here was poor old McKay sprawling all over the seat sound asleep, mouth wide open & breathing heavily. Occaisionally he would unconsciously lift his head up, but just to let it gradually nod back into its former position. He seemed to cause a great deal of amusement to a couple of French women sitting in the next seat, & by jove no wonder, for it was really too funny. When the picture finished he woke up in a hurry & asked what the time was, but really too sleepy to realize he had only been asleep ten minutes. Before the next picture got a start he was sound asleep again, & slept right up till half time when we left. Well we got on to the street, I walked anywhere & he just followed me like a little dog, until I turned round & asked him where we were, his only reply was “I’m – if I know,” & we broke up completely. We stood on the street & laughed & laughed & laughed, & the people passing looked at us the same as if we were drunk. Well really it was simply awful he could not remember a single thing, but just stood like a dummie, & when I made a move, stoutly declared I was going in the wrong direction. Ultimately we reached home about hlf past one, after having to wait for half an hour for a train, & to be roused out at 5.30 in the morning; so much for Xmas eve. To day has been perfect as for as weather is concerned, clear sunshine but not so hot as usual. We have had no parades except a church parade at 10. AM for
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which we paraded at 9. o’c. & had to wait for about 3/4 of an hour as a consequence. This parade included only those from Otago, & the New Zealanders from London. We had the distinguished honour of having “God Lordlie” & the Honourable Tho McKenzie at the service, & of course everyone expected that Thos. would have a word or two to say, but alas, he was as silent as the grave. He I think arrived here a couple of days ago, & the New Zealanders I spoke of, arrived here last night. These N.Zs. are just men who happened to be in England or in foreign lands, & concentrated their for the purpose of enlisted. Some of them, in fact a good number, are University students, others have come from various parts of the world without a brass farthing to their name, having to work their passage from where ever they were to England. They are all a fine looking lot, & quite a good sample of the average soldier, in fact I believe they are a bit sharper in their drill, otherwise they are just the same, in regard to dress. There is 200 of them altogether & they were all in camp Salisbury Plain, up to their knees in mud & very miserable generally. No mistake everything seems to happen for the best in regard to this force. Had we landed in England we would have had a pretty rough spin, & possibly lost a number of horses. Here we are quite comfortable, the climate is very like the N.Z. summer, except that it get pretty cold at night. The camp is going up apace, mess rooms are being built for the men & cook houses also.
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For ourselves we have been extremely lucky, we are camped just across the street from the suburb called Zeitoun, & about 5 chain from the officers lines a newly married couple live in a big two storied house. They are both English, & they have given us two big rooms & a verandah free of charge, for as long as we stay here, rather a good thing for us isn’t it. We have a very good mess going new, at a very moderate charge, in fact were it not for the strict discipline & long hours, one could easily imagine that we were only holding an annual training camp in N.Z. However we are quite aware of the fact that our good time might be stopped at a moments notice. I do not know how much you know in N.Z> but if certain people here could get their way we would be shoved across the canal & engage the Turks in Palestine & Syria. In fact it is quite on the cards that that is what will happen before we leave, & I believe it would be a good ting for the troops too. There is not the slightest doubt but what we have a strong enough force here to wipe the Turks right out of Palestine should we be given the chance. On the other hand Sir John Maxwell, Commander in Chief of the forces in Egypt, says, that if the Turks like to try & cross the canal we will meet them there, but that we are not going to invade the territory on the other side. It was quite common concern when we came here first that the Turks were raising a force to cross the canal & invade Egypt from that direction.
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But lately it has come out that the German officers who are in charge of the Turkish army, consider invasion impracticable, 1st that were it possible to cross the immense tract of desert, the force here is too strong for anything Turkey could afford to send here. So now you have it, that if it is too big an item for the Turks to cross the desert, so might it be for us. Over & above all this it has been given out officially that we are to leave here in the early part of Feburary, & I sincerely hope that that plan will be adhered to. The above was written on Xmas afternoon & it is now Sunday afternoon following, the hour 1/4 to three. The Xmas dinner went off in great style, & a number of the party were quite elated by the time it was finished. We started at seven & finished about 8.30, after toasting first the King, then a number of other minor ones that I cannot remember, but amongst the number was one to absent friends, & really it was wonderful the effect it had on the members of the mess. After dinner we had the Xmas tree, which by the way was given by the caterer, & it was very amusing some of the things that were drawn, for myself I got a plain packet of lollies. Amidst it all we did not forget to remember just how things would be at home, & thought that we were a great deal better off than what we thought we would be; when we left home. I wonder if you managed to get all the work finished this year, & able to have a good gathering round the family table, with all afternoon recuperate for a good day at the regatta. If by any chance your boxing day
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was as fine as ours I can easily picture the red noses & dabs of cream that would be sitting round the old kitchen table, & discussing the number of relations that were met during the day. The day here was simply glorious, a misty morning & a nice warm day to follow. We did not get a whole holiday, but had to go to the range for shooting practice which was abandoned at 11 o’clock to allow the fellows a clear half day. Mr McCurdy & self were in charge of a party of twenty men detailed to do all the marking & registering for the 12th Squdn. which was the only squdn. to fire. We had to leave camp at 6. AM. with only a cup of coffee & half a slice of bread for breakfast, the first bit of work we have done that we thought resembled active service. The morning was very cold, with a heavy fog & we had to cross about a mile & a half of desert to the range, & I can tell you it was tickly work, just like walking in a dense bush. However after a little twisting we arrived safely, to find a tip top range, absolutely the best range I have ever seen or heard of, nothing in New Zealand to compare with it. We returned to camp about 1. o’clock, had lunch & then went into Cairo for tea, & while there, who should we run across but Garfield Stwart, who used to be teaching in Riverton. He is a Lieut in the (army service corp) & seems a very nice fellow. He is a cousin of Howie’s, who was with him at the time. We have had quite a big time here in Egypt, what with the proclaiming of the country as British territory, & the placing of the new Sultan in his new charge, we have had quite a big time. It was thought for a time that there might be trouble when he arrived, but on the other hand he has bee welcomed with open arms
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as you will see by the papers I am sending you. I have collected a number of the papers that we get here, because they will give you a better idea of what is going on, than what I could. There are only the two papers, the Egyptian Mail & the Times of Egypt, the latter being considered the best. I have invested in a small Kodak vest picket camera, & I hope to be able to sen you home a few snapshots of some of the things we see every day. There’s a thousand & one little incidents happen here, that if I could get them on to paper would be very interesting I do not know whether any of you have ever seen one of these cameras or not, but they are very simple, & enabe one to do all the developing & refilling of the camera in the daytime. It takes a little while to get into the way of working them, but once you know how they are simplicity its self. About the various places we have been to, it would take pages to describe, so I will have to hang on & write a book some day. There is not the slightest doubt but what if Egypt once becomes properly governed & modern ideas & mode of cullivation are once given a chance, it will become one of the richest possessions Britain possesses. It is very amusing to go through the country & see the primitive methods they have for cultivating the land; old wooden ploughs & two oxen to pull them, make up the sum total of the implements availiable. Mr McKay & self took a trip out to the famous Pyramids & Sphynx last Sunday. The route to there run through what
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is truly stated to be the richest land in the world. with out a doubt it is a wonderful country, we had to cross the Nile proper & a number of its tributaries, between which lies the country I speak of. When we arrived here the flood was just going down & all this land was under water, but when we went out the place was just a green mass of lucerne, barley, maize & a number of other things, the names of which I do not remember. The growth in that shot time, something like 14 days was about one foot, a very favourable comparison to anything we have in N.Z. Well time is running on & I have to have all the letters I want to write posted by one thirty tomorrow so as to catch the mail. There is a great deal I would like to write about but I suppose it will not come to hand until after this is gone. I received the first instalment of letters last Tuesday & needless to say I was not a little pleased, in fact I think it affected the camp generally, for next day everybody seemed quite pleased with themselves. Strange to say we got the mail that was written about the 15th October after that which was written on the 29. Oct. The list I got was first a P.C. from Lizzie, letter from Kate, one from Lottie & then one from Char. & Jessie. The one from home informed me that it was one of the worst springs on record, well things must have taken a sudden change after we left. In fact I can hardly believe that such could be the case, because of the weather we got on the voyage.
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When you wrote from home you said Tom was very bad with influenza or congestion, & that you had had the doctor up. Well I most sincerely hope that things are all right again, & that you Tom are suffering no ill affects. I do not know whether I told you or not, but the influenza that was going about amongst the troops before we lft followed us on board, & that I h[ad a] pretty crook sping[?] four days because of it. There seemed to be a fever going with it which made it much worse. so I hope Tom old chap, that seeing that it did not bring Buller any luck at Gore, it will have brought him some at Winton. Howie & I have just had a little aside, & he was telling me about the trip he had to Stewarts Island, Jessie & Ruth will remember it. Major McKenzie has been in Hospital for ten days, since we arrived here, with influenza & what they call an Egyptian stomach, just how it affects one I am not very sure. We have all had our turn of it now, & unless something els happens we ought to be clear for actions. I have a couple of views of the camp & I am going to send them home to you. I will post one to Kate so that she can send it on to Jeanie, & I will post one to Lottie & she can sent it on home. Well I want to send a line to some of our relations that I promised to write to, so as time is short they will have to be satisfied with P.C.s.
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I have not received anything in the shape of a letter from the kiddies yet, but am living in hope of doing so. Oh! Eileen I stumbled up against that young fellow Gaobetes who was stopping at Mrs Scott’s. I know I have spelt the name wrong, but I trust you will be able to understand who I mean by the attempt I have made. I have also seen young Jack Deacon, he is with the crowd from Hawkesbay. you can also tell the Hamiltons that Bob Hamilton is with the Australian troops & that he came over to see me one night, but I was out. Also that one of the Pattersons that Hamilton used to work for is a Lieut [in] the 12th Squdn. Well I think I had better close now or I will run on all night. all the lads that any of you know, are all well & in good form. Especially Crawford, Hutton & McIlwrick. Personally I am as fit as a fiddle, & trust you are all likewise.
Your loving
Brother Ernie.
