Sullivan letter diary, 27 October 1915-9 October 1917 / Eugene Sullivan - Page 34
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[Page 34]
(page 3)
said he would only fight with his bare fists and then only when in a bad temper. He is a rather slornley and unkempt looking individual and would not strike me as a very prepossessing parson.
I got a great scare the other day as a person sleeping near me got the measles and I was afraid I would have to go into contact camp. I managed to hear of it in time though and moved my bedding to a spare place further off and thus avoided being sent away.
Concert parties come out from town every night and regale us with a feast of music. Some of them are very good, others we don't deign to listen to.
I hope to get my uniform to-morrow and then I will feel as grand as the rest. All the A.A.M.C. are grand, in their own opinion at any rate.
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Occasionally the fellows here break loose and run amok over some grievance, imaginary of otherwise. Generally the former. There was a terrible shindy the other night over some grievance, real this time, which all the fellows had against the Military Police, otherwise known as the cold-footed brigade (since they will never be sent to the front). Many of the MP's are rotters who have spent their lives evading the Civil Police, and now that they have turned hounds themselves they take it out on the soldiers.
A large crowd or rather mob of infantry charged the main gate where the MP's were on guard and bombarded them with every available missile. A squad of Light horse, armed with batons, were turned out to assist the guards and charged down the road right through the centre of the mob, which had by this time assumed alarming dimensions. This only increased the ire of the men and they broke across a small bridge at which they had been held up and burned down the tents and all the belongings of the Military Police. The light horse charged several more times but the men had placed a barricade across the bridge, the only connecting link at this point, and thus kept them at bay.
All authority was set aside for the time being and the officers had absolutely no control over their men. The men were finally pacified by one of the majors