Proof, 12th July, 1916

Component identifier:

Item 39

Content Summary:

Originally F.S. Shenstone's copy, with his autograph note thereon: 'Omitted from Ginger Mick. Censored.' One sheet folded to 8 pages. Unopened. Printed at head of first page: 'Unrevised proof - '

In full morocco folder together with series of autograph notes by Hal Gye, together with caricature of Sir George Pearce, Minister for Defence, during the 1914-18 War. Gye writes: 'Den told me that it had been tipped out of the book. I snorted, but he made no comment. We believed that Pearce, the Defence Minister, was the bloke responsible...I think that Den was a bit sore beneath his vest about it. I remember seeing the first typed MS. that's all. Cecil Mann wrote in the Red Page about the poem: '...but they were women'. The soldiers had nothing to be proud of.

The 'Wazzir' or 'Wozzer', was a street known as the Haret el Wasser, which lay at the rear of Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. It consisted mainly of brothels and was much frequented by the New Zealand and Australian troops, when they were quartered in Eygpt. Many of them, of course, suffered 'casualties', and prior to the departure for Gallipoli the troops decided to even the score. A number of soldiers primed with the bad liquor sold in the neighborhood, fired the houses and a riot ensued. Despite efforts by British troops an the Cairo Fire Brigade, much damage was caused, to the great satisfaction of the soldiers concerned. Censorship tried to smother news of the incident, hence the elimination of the poem from the book.

It has been stated that only 12 copies were pulled, but in a printing shop when the boys were at work, they could easily have run off more copies than were intended.

Tipped in is typescript of poem 'The bar-room patriot', 3pp, fcp., signed by the author. Dennis endorses Kitchener's advice, to refrain from treating soldiers to intoxicating liquor.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was purchased from Harry Chaplin in 1981.

Names:

Chaplin, Harry F.

Access and use