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was too much for other ‘khakied boys’ in Cairo. Not far from the terrace of Shepheard’s Hotel, with its wicker chairs and tables so favoured by the officers and the nurses they entertained, was Haret el Wasser Street, where Australian and New Zealand soldiers went for entertainment on their days off. ‘The Wazzir’, or ‘The Wozzer’, as it was known, was infamous for its gut-tearing alcohol. It was also Cairo’s red-light district. By the early months of 1915 the ranks of local and foreign prostitutes in the Egyptian capital had swelled to accommodate the leave-time needs of the Anzacs. Albert Facey, of the 11th Battalion, described the scene after his arrival in Cairo in February 1915, aged just twenty. While he did not find Cairo very interesting, ‘a lot of lads’ from his unit used to visit the city every chance they got. He had little doubt what was on their minds.
I was shy where women were concerned and we had been lectured several times about the bad women who had come to Cairo when it was known that the AIF was there. One lecturer told us that it was estimated that there were some thirty thousand women doing a roaring trade as prostitutes, and the authorities were trying to make them submit themselves for examination for venereal disease. Many soldiers had contracted this dreadful disease. The lecturers didn’t pull their punches when describing what could happen if you got a dose of venereal disease. So I completely refused to have anything to do with these women. 2
    Within a fortnight of their arrival ‘a startling outburst’ of venereal disease occurred among the troops. Over the next four months more than 2000 Australian soldiers were infected. One medical officer noted that No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital, consisting of tents and marquees, soon had under treatment about 800 cases. Official medical historian Colonel A.G. Butler wrote that it was soon obvious that the problem required strong measures. ‘The moral and patriotic aspects were forcefully put before the troops in a manly and straightforward letter by the Corps Commander, and with his approval, incoming transports were met by the registrar of No. 1 General Hospital for personal instruction.’ 3
    In a letter to General Sir William Bridges at the end of December 1914, General Sir William Birdwood focused on drunkenness and venereal disease among the troops. ‘I still hear of many cases of drunkenness, and this the men must stop, ’ he demanded. It would have been more in hope than expectation. ‘Cairo is full of temptations, and a few of the men seem to think they have come here for a huge picnic; they have money and wish to get rid of it. The worst of it is that Cairo is full of some, probably, of the most unscrupulous people in the world, who are only too anxious to do all they can to entice our boys into the worst of places, and possibly drug them there, only to turn them out again in a short time to bring disgrace on the rest of us.’ 4
    Birdwood said there was little time left for the two AIF contingents to make themselves efficient. ‘But there is no possibility whatever of our doing ourselves full justice unless we are every one of us absolutely physically fit, and this no man can possibly be if he allows his body to become sodden with drink or rotten from women, and unless he is doing his best to keep himself efficient he is swindling the Government which has sent him to represent it and for it. From perhaps a selfish point of view, too, but in the interests of our children and children’s children, it is as necessary to keep a “clean Australia” as a “White Australia”.’ At the end of January 1915, pay was stopped to men with venereal disease while they were absent from duty.
    The affected men were sent to the 500-bed Contagious Diseases Hospital at Abassia, near Cairo. When many of the patients escaped for a night on the town, a barbed-wire fence was erected around the hospital, and sentries were posted