Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 108
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[Page 108]
[At the top of this and following pages of this letter is the letter M. Not transcribed.]
Mena House
The Pyramids
Egypt
14th Fevrier 1915
My Mollie dear:/
And did you hear that this year of grace is a bad one for the people of Egypt on account of the war? If you have not and you do then remark. This may be so in regard to the places where the individually wealthy of the world do, in times of peace, sojourn, but it cannot be correct when applied the actions of less gilded folk. Why do I write thus. Because my eyes are looking at the Grand Pyramid, and see there the forms of the Australian adults, in the prime of life, on the gigantic steps of stairs and the flat top, in numbers such as to suggest flies around a honey pot. People who have gained the reputation in these parts for letting money flow out in such stream as has not be equalled before. If those who are accustomed to take £s per day from the visitor are doing less well than formerly, it appears certain that those that usually take but piastres – 1 piastre (PT) = 2½d –, such as guides, interpreters, lower grade cafes, & restaurants reap just now harvest unequalled in any anterior year. The average Australian deserves the title, improvident, because there is no necessity in a country where food is in such plenty, to lay by store for a rainey day. Here he keeps to his reputation because the money he has or gets is freely poured forth on the humbler people and the mockery of the country. Did ever invading host behave as does the present one? On their first few days in Alexandria the inhabitants of that ancient port, were made to think that each Australian was a gold mine in himself, and