LEFT BEHIND

Grey River Argus, 12 June 1915, Page 3

LEFT BEHIND

SICK IVIEN IN EGYPT

BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT

In a description of the departure of the Australian troops from Mena camp for the Dardnaelles, Captain Bean, the official Commonwealth correspondent with the force, refers to the eagerness of, the men to get. into action. In his account of the hustle of the last *few hours in the camp, when everything was being cleared away, he describes a batch of men who had not passed the medical examination, aiia who consequently would have to stay behind.

In one corner, he writes, were 10 or 12 standing in their full kit, with their black kit-bags containing all their worldly, belongings piled behind them. They were unaccountably dismal, the only dismal participants in all that briskness. Some were sitting on their kit-bags, elbows on knees, chin on hands, staring dismally into the sand. Away to the left, near the camp road, a huge bonfire was burning, into which men were pitching the rubbish of the camfy. The distant light of it flickered faintly on the faces of this particular group of men. They showed up, faded, showed up again, and then flickered for a Avhile into darkness. Before them stood the -tall, straight figure of the regimental medical officer, with his broad shoulders, and straight back, and wide-brimmed helmet. He had a difficult job. All day long he had been examining men. Ho had examined about a thousand, and these were the result, the ten or twelve to whom that inspection had narrowed itself down. He had to tell them that they would be unable to go with the battalion at the front, and they would be grievously disappointed. ,

"Poor chaps," he said. "There anj a couple there that I'm doubtful about even now. I'm rather inclined to let them go, and chance it. They might pull through, and they arc awfully ! set on going. If only we get a few good days' rest on the boat, I almost think we might rifk it. There are two fellows worse than uny of these. They ought to be here, but I can't find them. They have been dodging me all day. I know jolly well they are trying to keep away until we have started, because they think that once they start with us they'll be allowed to come on. Of course, it won't work, but it just shows you what a Avilling lot they are."

As a matter of fact, a hundred men got out of hospital that day and a hundred more tried to.