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[Page 216]

the Dervishes made their last charge at Omdurman no such naked army has ever been seen in the field. The British Tommy likes to move and work and fight with the majority of his worldly goods hanging round him no matter the state of the temperature. The men in our front trenches sit with their packs on sewating in the broiling sun and will dig trenches without moving a garment.

But to find an Australian now ewraing anything except a pair of shorts' is extremely rare whether he be in the trenches in a rest camp or or fatigue. One by one they have thrown aside their various articles of clothing. First the coats went then the shirts then underclothes now a very large number have chucked aside their boots and putties and only a lingering feeling of decency still kept alive by memories of the mixed bathing season at Sydney preserves the 'shorts' which staring a few months ago as full length trousers have now arrived half way up the thigh. In this primitive costume the Australians and New Zealanders live and work and fight. Their huge frames and giant limbs are now burnt by the sun to a dull brick red.

Some learned ethnologist suddenly arriving for the first time at Anzac would hardly classify them as belonging to the Aryan Stock rather would he believe he had suddenly discovered a surviving branch of that race of Red Men who swarmed over the plains of America until swept away by the by the ancestors of the present day Shell Makers. Someone remarked very truly the other day that this campaign at the Dardanells has only be rendered tolerable by the excellent bathing. I do not suppose any other factor has counted so much in keeping the

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