Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 502
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[Page 502]
C/o. D. M. S.
Cairo
Egypt
10.8.15.
My dear Girls/:
After dreaming about the boys from New Guinea, the idea most upper in my mind relates to the part which alcohol played in the giving to the members the reputation which they gained. Sorry. Very sorry. Both the boys with me last night seem to have been all right and to have survived the ordeal, but they were very loath to speak about the expedition. I hope that such will not be the case with those of us who return from this show. Alcoholic consumption gets the wild boys here into trouble, but amongst the chiefs its use is on a very moderate scale. Alas how sad it is that any can be found who will pour an enemy into their mouths and will steal away their brains, and make them lose controll of all their goodness.
Another train load of wounded in tonight. They speak of slight progress about Maidos, but of little advance in the neighbourhood of Achi Baba. To fight the Turk under trained leaders is not an easy task. The routing of the Russians by the Germans will put fresh life into every one of the men who is fighting against us. The German officers leading the Turks will be clever enough to know of the effect that knowledge of successes on other fields will have upon the fighting men, and they will find means to tell all and sundry about the running away of the defenders of Warsaw and Riga. Riga is a most important town for Russia, because it is the chief port in the Adriatic sea, through it flow inwards and outwards much of the trade of the Russian people. Any port further North is closed for a large part of the year by ice, and there is none to the South, possessed of it the German dominates much of the Russian output. If the Dardanelles cannot be opened Russia will be in sorry plight, both of her outlets being closed, the roads being in the hands of the enemy.
Good night. Good night. Good night.
[A line of Xs and Os.]
Caggie. Geordie. Kitty.
11.8.15. 9.30 p.m. Last night; or rather this morning when I was walking across the grounds to my sleeping room, I was, as is my custom, examining the sky. Away up in the Eastern heaven was to be seen in full brilliance the Pleiadies, not far away A in the head of the Taurus, and the belt of Orion with the dagger in its accustomed relationship. These all reminded me of home sweet home, and of the heaps of times that my eyes have rested upon them when my feet rested upon the pavement of Macquarie Street. Away in the