At Suvla Bay / Being the notes and sketches of scenes, characters and adventures of the Dardanelles campaign, made by John Hargrave ("White Fox") while serving with the 32nd field ambulance, X division, Mediterranean expeditionary force, during the great war.

To MINOBI We played at Ali Baba, On a green linoleum floor; Now we camp near Lala Baba, By the blue Aegean shore. We sailed the good ship Argus, Behind the studio door; Now we try to play at “Heroes” By the blue Aegean shore. We played at lonely Crusoe, In a pink print pinafore; Now we live like lonely Crusoe, By the blue Aegean shore. We used to call for “Mummy,” In nursery days of yore; And still we dream of Mother, By the blue Aegean shore. While you are having holidays, With hikes and camps galore; We are patching sick and wounded, By the blue Aegean shore. J. H.
Salt Lake Dug-out, September 12th, 1915. (Under shell-fire.)
Sirt—summit. Dargh—mountain. Bair or bahir—spur. Burnu—cape. Dere—valley or stream. Tepe—hill. Geul—lake. Chesheme—spring. Kuyu—well. Kuchuk—small. Tekke—Moslem shrine. Ova—plain. Liman—bay or harbour. Skala—landing-place. Biyuk—great.
I left the office of The Scout, 28 Maiden Lane, W.C., on September 8th, 1914, took leave of the editor and the staff, said farewell to my little camp in the beech-woods of Buckinghamshire and to my woodcraft scouts, bade good-bye to my father, and went off to enlist in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
I made my way to the Marylebone recruiting office, and after waiting about for hours, I went at last upstairs and “stripped out” with a lot of other men for the medical examination.
The smell of human sweat was overpowering in the little ante-room. Some of the men had hearts and anchors and ships and dancing-girls tattooed in blue on their chests and arms. Some were skinny and others too fat. Very few looked fit. I remarked upon the shyness they suffered in walking about naked.
“Did yer pass?”
“No, 'e spotted it,” said the dejected rejected.
“Wot?”
“Rupture.”
“Got through, Alf?”
“No: eyesight ain't good enough.”