Letter from Roy Bruce to Maud Bruce

This last week has been
quite an exciting one. Events are beginning
to march. The whole of the infantry were
sent off to the canal at a few hours notice,
and there has already been a small
skirmish a few miles from the canal. The
Turks have managed to cross the desert, I
believe by building a line of railway behind
them. They are in large force I believe,
but I don't know anything else about them,
or even how many troops we have on the
canal, but there are a great number. There
are of course all kind of wild rumours
as to our movements but still I do not
think we shall go there unless it is
absolutely necessary, on account of our horses.
We may of course be employed to follow
them up after they have been defeated,
or possibly go by boat somewhere & get in
behind them. My own opinion still is
that we shall go to Europe about the
second week in March.

There was great disgust amongst

our fellows at the infantry getting a
show first, but at present our horses would
be quite useless there.

The infantry are very good now. I only
hope that we have improved to the same
extent. We have worked pretty hard to
get efficient & we must be improving
because we are not being worked so hard
now & get two half holidays per week.
Everyone is very keen to get away from here
& do a little.

The reinforcements are arriving. The
infantry are here having disembarked at
Suez . Guns went on to Alexandria & will
probably be down tonight. I had a yarn
with Seymour & Sparrow this afternoon.
They are both very fit and quite amusing in
their khaki. Pete is a mean as ever. They
are both in the Army Service Corps & seem
to like it. Andrews has not arrived yet.
Pete seemed quite pleased with the housewife
you made for him.

Yesterday afternoon I had a great time
with Marchant in the bazaars. I went to
look for a cat for you, but so far have
not been able to get one. We got into a
shop of antiquities in the Mousky Bazaar ,

and it was lovely. There was a copy of
the Koran 1000 years old, all hand written
on parchment only £500 - An opalescent
Persian bowl, a little larger than a finger
bowl, a sort of semi-transparent pale blue,
£180 - A copy of Omar Khayam on deer
skin with hand painted illustrations, hundreds
of years old £200 - All kinds of mats, brasses,
boxes, jewellery, parchments varying in price
from £30 to hundreds. A most glorious
collection. We spent two hours there & they
gave us tea in little glass bowls without
milk. All I could do was to gasp in
impotent rage that I could buy nothing.
You would enjoy yourself there. The only
mummy they had was a bird, but I
did not get it as they are going to try &
get me a cat. There were lovely Egyptian
scarabs (carved beetles) all prices. I have never
seen such a collection before except in museums.

Afterwards we had afternoon tea on
the balcony at Shepheard's & listened to the
band.

It is getting very warm here now, &
the heat in the middle of the day is very
trying to one's eyes, expecially in the desert.
I am glad I brought my smoked glasses with me.

I haven't touched this for nearly a week.
We are working night & day very hard now,
& I think the time is not very far distant
when we shall be making a move.

I saw Andrews the other day & he
nearly fell over at the sight of me. He said
he had never seen such a change in
anyone & he could not believe it possible
that I was the same person who left
NZ 6 months ago. He told me he had
had his doubts about my standing the
racket of field service but he was satisfied
that it had absolutely made me. I am
telling you fully what he said in order
that you may realise in his own words
"You are the picture of health you must
be as fit as it is possible to be ". ." So you
need not worry about my health any
more. You know really, I am enjoying
myself, & the longest days in the field
only make me comfortably tired.

Hardy is here & Mancanors both apparently
prepared to enjoy the 'flesh pots
of Egypt

The infantry have had one or two

small skirmishes on the canal, and a few
men have been wounded - none so far
seriously. We may go there yet but still
I don't think so. Europe may see us next
month, and unless the German lines are
broken we shall be doing mostly infantry
work as there is no scope for horses at
present.

I am sending some more photographs,
taken by Hammond which I hope you
will like.

There were some sports for the men
here the other afternoon, and the funniest
thing was polo on donkeys. Sometimes the
donkeys would go, sometimes they wouldn't.
It kept us very much amused.

I am sending you a copy of the
'Sphinx', a weekly paper here. There is
not much in it, but it may interest you
to glance over it.

More interruptions, the mail closes early
tomorrow morning so I must stop. I am
sorry this is so short but we have so very
little time just now.

Goodbye just now my darling . Kiss Helen
for me. Here is one for you +. If we move away
soon I will try & cable. Be happy sweetheart .
Roy .