ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 22 July 1915, Page 3

ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT

A PICNIC BEFORE TROUBLE

THE following is a letter received here from a " Russell Boy," who left New Zealand with the Fourth Reinforcement draft for the front. It is dated from the Zoitoun Camp, Cairo, May 29th., 1915 .— ,

We have arrived here at last, after a long and tiresome journey. We called in at Hobart to land three or four of our men, one of whom had to undergo an operation. It was night when we got there and as we only stayed half-an-hour I did not see what the city was like. Our next port of call was Albany, where we went ashore for a route march and very glad we were to stretch our legs. In the afternoon the whole force was allowed leave ashore, which we enjoyed to our full extent. From there to the end of our voyage we never struck a bad day, and lots of us slept up on dock. We called at Aden and stayed there an hour, which was quite long enough ; it looked a miserable hole. We arrived at Suez on Tuesday morning (24th), and were very pleased to get to the end of our sea voyage. No sooner had we anchored than we were surrounded by natives in boats trying to sell us all sorts of things, but the Captain turned the hose on them, and they scooted away in all directions. We got to camp at 10 p.m., it being about seven hours journey from Suez by train. The heat was something awful; it was 120° in tho shade yesterday. What little drilling we do, is done in the early morning and late in the evening. We put in all our spare time eating ice-cream and drinking lemonade. Have just heard we are leaving here for the Dardanelles tomorrow morning, so that by the time you get this we will very probably be in the firing line.