Item 01: R. T. Vowles diary, 22 August 1915-23 February 1916 - Page 37
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[Page 37]
threatened them with the same. The result of it however seemed to be a complete relaxing of discipline, for practically free leave was given all throughout the camps.
Shortly after this, the men began to refuse to pay fares in the trams & trains because for one thing there was insufficient means at Liverpool Rwy Station for the thousands of soldiers to obtain tickets & secondly & a good reason too was that the full fare was charged to the men, who had not chosen this out of the way place to camp in. Men in & around Sydney could get home for a few pence, but those at Holdsworthy had to pay as much as six shillings in fares to Sydney & return only. To a married man who leaves an allotment to his wife this is considerable as he only gets 5/- a day. Had a deduction been made there would have been no trouble as all were prepared to pay reasonably in comparison to their means. Well, the pass words that were used to the Ticket Collectors were "Put it down to Kitchener" This got so general