Ismailia
March 4th 1916
Dear Mother
I have just had a visit from Geo Hicks of Gore, he is on the Maheno & is going back in a day or two so I am sending this with him to save the censor the trouble of reading it. There is not much news that I have not told you. At present we are at Moascar camp about a mile from the town of Ismailia which is a port on the smaller salt lake on the Suez canal. The whole mainbody & the Trents are here, also the flying corps & the Otago Mounteds. The whole N.Z. force is being re-arranged into a division composed of three infantry & one mounted brigade, and the Otago Mtds are attached to the headquarters of our Brigade. All reinforcements later than the 8th will probably go into a different brigade to us. I don’t quite understand why they should make every available man a member of the fighting force as they can never hope to send reinforcements to keep them up to strength & if we happen to get a smack up, one brigade will have to be broken up to mend the others. At present the Maoris are divided up among the Companies of the mainbody & I don’t know that
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they will ever be a separate force again. At present we are supposed to be guarding Egypt but it is not expected that we will have to do much here, the attack on the canal is not likely to be more than a skirmish & if they don’t come within a week or two it will probably be right off. What they will do with us is the problem. There is a very persistent rumour that we are going to France to be part of the 3rd line of defence. The officers all expect it but we have nothing definite to go on. We are all hoping to get there & possibly before you get this we will be in the trenches around about Flanders. If the trip doesn’t come off we will have to do garrison duty here through the summer & might have to go home without firing a shot. The desert work is getting very monotonous & we would welcome a shift to a cooler climate before it gets any hotter. A lot of the lower class of Mahomedan natives are inclined to be troublesome & on at least two occasions troops have been called out when we were in Zeitoun to quell riots among them but the sight of troops soon settles the matter. I don’t think there is any more to write about. Moffitt, Marshal, W. Hume & Holmes Hartley are all here & we are all quite well.
Love to all
Len
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