Item 06: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1918-April 1919 - Page 337

[Page 337]

it is all over and you are now a member of the Port Said Rest Camp. There are big sheds to mess in at the camp, and you sleep in bell tents with three blankets and an oil sheet. That is really a very good issue of blankets, but my goodness you do feel the sand cold and hard the first night, after the nice warm bed over at the hospital. Harold Thomas was in the camp while I was there, we spent most of our time playing tennis in the morning; afternoon tea at the hospital, and pictures, or concert at the Y.M.C.A in the evening.

The Y.M. at the Rest Camp is about the best one in Egypt, I think, Instead of picture decorations on its walls, the man in charge has got a lot of illuminated sentences framed and hung up. The same style as those "What is Home without a Mother" ones that you often see, but these ones are rather original, I think. A common one that is in most Y Emma's is - "When did you write to Mother last?" and in this Y.M there are, "Character is what a man is in the dark!" and "Genius is one part inspiration and three parts perspiration, Slog in", also, "If you sware at home, sware here we want you to feel at home", etc.

That jolly nice cake Mother and Miss Anderson made, came while I was at Port Said so Harold and I took it over to the hospital and gathered three mates there, got a cup of tea each from the Red Cross, and then attacked the cake. It was beautifully fresh and not a bit broken, and was voted A.1. by all concerned.

I went to see Captain Trelawney again, he was at home this time, and no doubt, he is a jolly nice man. He is a Commander now. I went and saw him in his office one morning and he asked me to come to afternoon tea, so I did, and was introduced to some naval officers, and had a pleasant afternoon generally.

Iwas greatly amused at the nigger flunkeys there though. You see the Port House is a two story affair, the family live upstairs and the offices are down below. At the front door down below, are stationed two naval gyppo police, and when I first went there I had to bribe one of these wretches with cigarettes, to even find out whether Capt Trelawny was at home. Most Gyppo's are very polite to Australians; they have learnt to be by bitter experience, but at the same time, on account of meeting so many "merry" ones, they treat us as a sort of joke, or slightly mad men who must be amused. I don't mean "the merchant class", they are always terribly polite, but these flunky niggers; although they keep pretty polite, yet they always seem conscious that they are servants of officers, and so are awfully superior to the rest of the world in general.

Well after some argument I managed to get one of the naval police to go and ask Capt Trelawny if I might see him. I only spoke to Capt Trelawny for a few minutes in his office, as he was busy and wanted me to come back in the afternoon, so the niggers were not very impressed by my reception, and as I was going out the main door, one of them said "Good-bye Johnnie" to me. However they changed their tune that afternoon. I met Capt Trelawny in the town and walked down to the Port Office with him! of course the niggers saluted as we entered and as Capt Trelawny had to go into his office for a minute, he asked me to go on upstairs to the sitting-room. I did so, and at the sitting-room door, met a gorgeous, silk-robed flunkey