Pte Ralph Goode (Lilydale), 2^nd Field Ambulance: In a letter to his family – ‘I had a grand trip but am not sorry to be off the boat. We were on board eight weeks, all but a day – a long time. How it was that we were so long on the trip, was on account of being anchored at Port Said and Alexandria waiting for a berth at the quay. I had two lots of leave granted at Alexandria and I can tell you I’ve seen sights that I never thought existed in this world. Poverty! We don’t know what it is in Australia.

I think the natives are the most filthy people in the world. I went through the native quarters. The streets are only as wide as some of our lanes and here you find the utmost filth of every description – rotten fruit, vegetables, meat and stinking water on the ground, to say nothing of the mangy dogs and donkeys and here the natives buy all their food – meat hanging in the street, bakers with cakes something like dried pancakes lying on the ground and fish fried in some kind of oil. It is no wonder that the place reeks with disease.

The natives pestered the life out of us trying to sell oranges, dates, walking sticks, post-cards, etc and we often had to get the assistance of the native police to clear them off; the police do it properly, and often treat the natives unmercifully with their sticks. I saw women and children struck across the face. We remonstrated with the police, but they only laughed at us and told us the natives are used to it and know what to expect if they don’t do what they are told. The police treated us with great civility and often came to our assistance. The business portion of the city is very fine and there are some beautiful buildings. The shopkeepers are all French or Egyptian and very few of them speak English’.