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[Page 19]
beer, two men leant up against the cognac too heavily, and started an international scrap in a wine shop with dire results to themselves. While on this topic I may say that although Brindisi was peopled with soldiers and sailors I never once saw, either an Italian or a French sailor the worse for liquor. I think the latin races have a nicer taste in the matter of wine, beer, or spirits than we of the Anglo-Saxon; the former appears to like a little and good, while the latter don't mind so much about the quality as long as they can get plenty of it.
In one way our people were very well off. The "Lira" which ordinarily, ran twenty-five twenty-six to the sovereign, on our arrival at Brindisi was thirty-six and before we left forty-five. Thus, while an Italian still received so many Uri Lire per day or week, our service being paid in English currency was practically getting double pay, which very much more than counteracted any rise in the price of articles on shore. Beer for instance, was sixty centesimi per bottle in October 1917 about 3 ½d. at the current exchange, and eighty centesimi in May 1918 a rise of about 1d. per bottle. Considering, in England one paid a shilling for a bottle of Bass, and tenpence for the cheapest brand in Australia we were on a distinctly good wicket. If ones taste ran to vino wine or the wine of the country, you could get enough to drown yourself in for a few shillings and a most excellent tipple at that. Whisky was unobtainable and just as well, but a very good cognac might be obtained for 2d per glass. Brindisi posessed two theatres. Perhaps I shall should say one music hall and an Opera House. The latter place only got going in the early Summer in its legitimate line of business, meaning Grand Opera; during the major portion of our time there it was used for some very indifferent picture shows, which did not attract our people much. The music hall known as the Teatro Mazzari, however, was most popular among both rank and file of all the Allied nations there, and without it I do not know how we should have spent our evenings.
It was a two show place, 4.0 pm. to 7.0 p.m. and 8.0 p.m. to 11.0 p.m. and the sort of shows they put on appealled to the heart of both soldier and sailor alike. For 50 Uri Lire (about 22/6) we could hire a box for a month, and that is what many of our ships did. There True the box was only a portion of what in an ordinary theatre would be the Dress Circle railed off and enclosing half a dozen chairs, but as these boxes were