Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 11]
up town to procure the eaters if it! Absolutely laid themselves out to do what was possible for the Australians. I can tell you we enjoyed it. They were two married ladies so goodness only knows what their hubbies will say eh. The lady whose house they took us to was a grand old scotch dame who called us wee laddies, or Sodger boys, and who shook hands with both hands. At the finish of the meal she first impressed us with the danger of being found supplying men in uniform with liquor, then took us into a room where she had poured out a glass of stout each. I don't think anyone could have been kinder to their own relatives. They trusted us about the fine old house and invited us to come again. Well, we were entertained in England and in Colombo, but this is hospitality I will never forget and which could not possibly be surpassed. This is only my experience, and I dont exaggerate when I say that, during the two days we were there every man of the units on board tasted more than once just the same hospitality from some source or other.
In Durban as in Cape Town we were surprised at the number of young men, eligible for active service, who paraded the streets in whites with Tennis Rackets. Had we not enquired concerning this from some English residents we would have gone away with the impression that the men folk were rather of the wrong kind. The truth of the matter is this. There is really an undercurrent of anti-British feeling in this colony still, and many of the citizens are at present times even if not pro-German, they are anti British to a certain extent. Old Boer war scars remain open. Those deeds of the British which it is British policy to hush up, the rounding up of Boer farming families in scurvy stricken compounds, the isolation of the men, the burning of the farms, the liberation of these non-combatant farmers to find their families – wives & children – all dead of the fateful disease due to overcrowding of human beings, has left a feeling in these men's minds which will take generations to blot out. British Rule they have thrived under, and they admit it, but British they are not, nor will they stir to help Britain. These are facts I gathered there & facts perhaps unknown to people in Australia, and