Transport of Sick and Wounded to Suez
The arrangements for conveying the invalids from Cairo to Suez were interesting. They could not be conveyed to Alexandria or Port Said because one passenger placed on a ship at those ports enormously increased the charges made by the Suez Canal Company, and Suez was consequently fixed upon as the port of departure and the port of equipment. Patients to be conveyed to Suez were at Helouan, or at different hospitals in Cairo, and accordingly two trains were made up—one at Helouan and one at Palais de Koubbeh, Heliopolis. Each train was filled at a specific time, the two trains conveyed to Cairo, a junction effected in the Cairo station, and the whole conveyed to Suez. The journey took about five hours, and the necessary provision was made for feeding the men on the way. One of the difficulties in conveying such patients was to prevent them riding on the platforms of the carriages and falling off. A sentry was placed at each end of the carriage to prevent the continuance of these disasters, which had been too numerous in the case of healthy men in the troop trains. Men had even lost their lives or been mutilated from trying to ride on the buffers à la Blondin.
On arrival at Suez the train proceeded alongside the ship, the patients and their kit were moved on board, and a guard placed in the dockyard. Even then men straggled into Suez, and their recapture gave some trouble. The Australian is essentially a roamer.
The table on page 80 indicates the number of soldiers returned to Australia up to September 25, 1915, and the reason for their transfer.