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[Page 60]
They practically made no move in the matter & H.Q. gave the soldiers no satisfaction. So a crowd of Australian soldiers marched into the village & captured some Turks & shot 20. They were court martialled before Allanby who said he was disgusted at their behaviour. It appears in his report to London he mentioned that the English, Welsh, Scottish troops did well omitting mentioning the Gallantry of the Australians. This we heard from a Australian officer of good position, he considered the troops did the right thing by retaliating. Since H.Q. seemed to make small of matter, the Australian General told Gen. Allanby the Commander in Chief of the Palastine forces that if he went to extremes with the Australian troops, he would not be responsible for what happened in the future as it would mean the whole of the troops would mutiny. So Allanby let them off with a caution. Yet the Huns did deeds of the most cruel nature. The Irish troops complained of the food & of the slow demobilision at Cairo. They approached Head Quarters & mention the fact that the majority of them were volunteers & had been fighting for the past 4 years & Brig. General treated them so bad placed hundreds of them behind Barbed wire & threatened to send them from Cairo into the heart of Palastine. The result was one night 14 days ago a bomb was thrown into this particular Brig. General's quarters whilst he was asleep & now he lies at the hospital not expected to live.