Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 485
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[Page 485]
shall keep tapping away here till he returns, the train is due about 11.15 and the distance is but fifteen minutes drive in the motor. Thereafter I hope to get through a letter to Mollie, and perhaps some others. The Catholic Press, The Advocate, from your end and the Daily Telegraph from Hyman arrived this afternoon, they have not yet been opened. Mrs Reynolds is responsible for the first, Mrs Knowles for the second, and the little Jew for the third. Good of them.
What is rain like? What a sensation would there be in this region if there were to come a heavy thunderstorm? The houses and all other structures would be battered to pieces in very brief space. All construction is of very poor workmanship, and appearances do not belie the material and the manner of work man who built. Good night. I must to the other letters.
[A line of Xs and Os.]
Tabbie. Geordie. Kitty.
24.7.15 10 p.m. This morning when I was at a book shop in Cairo, a young man came to me and said: "Are you Dr. Nash? I am Coppin from Elsternwick. Are you Carrie Coppins brother? Yes. How do you do? What sort of soldier are you? I belong to the fifth field ambulance, and have been in Egypt five days. Good. When will you come to see me? Come tonight and partake of tea with me, humble fare". He came at 7.45 P.M. We had tea and a chat. He told me that Carrie was married and that she would soon be on her way to England, that she and her husband proposed remaining in Melbourne for a few weeks before setting out for the Old Country. I have a little doubt about the genuiness of his information because he did not appear to know as much as a brother should about the affair.
He further said that his second sister was in Bendigo and that his father was living in lodgings. He is by profession a dentist being a graduate of the Melbourne University, having taken the L.D.S. & the B.D.Sc. If this be correct he is a well qualified dentist. I enjoyed my talk with him over our salmon and other viands down to the grapes. Like most men from the units in Egypt he complained of shortage of food, which is entirely due to bad management, as the money provided is ample to feed every man on the best that the country produces, and more on the very best that can be imported. I live here on government rations from which the porridge, the rice the bread and the beef are better, or as good as you can buy in Sydney, the first second and fourth are better than can be obtained in Sydney even when the highest prices are paid, the beef comes from Australia yet when you paid 1/1D. per lb. for it you did not get it as good. This may appear strange, but it is never the less true. I have had three months experience of feeding a large
[Private, later Lieutenant, Arthur Coppin, 25, dentist, of Elsternwick, Victoria, embarked from Melbourne on 4 June 1915 on HMAT A31 Ajana with B Company, 6th Field Ambulance.]