Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 54]
for convalescence. A rest will do him good. McLaughlin & Claude Smith are alright. I am glad you get your money alright from the Defence Department, and that you can manage on your income. Your frequent assurances on this matter give me much pleasure. I would like to hear that you had had a trip away sometime my dear old wife. You do not refer in any of your letters to a cable. I sent you a cable, about May 10th, to say that I was alright, in case you were anxious. A cable from here has to be written to the Australian Intermediate Base Depot, Cairo, with the request that "the following cable be sent, and charged to my account". Tell me if you got it. When I found later that bad news of me had been written from Egypt to Rockhampton I was glad I had sent the cable. Now I am afraid you have been suffering needless anxiety, my pet. So I am careful to send at least one letter a week to you. I wrote to Jess a few days ago. We are perfectly safe here, though hemmed in by Turks, who have their nearest trenches nowhere more than a mile from the sea. We have about 2½ miles of coast line; and our men are greatly delighted whenever the Turks attack. They tease them, and coax them every night; but they rarely respond. The last time they came on was the night poor Nash was killed; and the Turks lost about 500 that night, and our men not more than a dozen, all told & including wounded. I am so glad that my being near the fighting is a source of gratification to those who have people here. To those who want to know if I am near "the front", you may tell them say that the expression is often used very loosely, and may mean anything or nothing; that the Turks are within a mile of the Beach, and that all those on shore here are at the actual "front"; that the trenches within a few yards of the Turks are the safest places, that many of the men get a sea bath each day; that there is unlimited good food; that the climate is delightful; that we can shove the Turks back several miles any day we choose (though to do so till the Southern force is nearer would give us a weaker position than we hold now); that our position is a tremendously strong one, and our system of trenches magnificent and impregnable; (that the men are not all very lousy and have time to catch the ones they have) that I am located on the Beach, and if they are seriously sick or wounded and are sent by their Regimental Medical Officer to the Beach that I will gladly see them and help at any time if they will ask for me.