which every man carried in a special
pocket on the inside of the skirt of his jacket. More than one of the
stretcher-bearers lost his life, or was sorely wounded, when bravely
setting about this duty. The wounded were then taken to the Regimental
Aid Post, where the Medical Officer patched them up temporarily.
Afterwards they were conveyed in stretchers, or walked, to the nearest
forward dressing station of the Army Medical Corps, and thence passed
to a Casualty Clearing Station, where they remained until embarked on a
hospital ship which took them to either Lemnos, Alexandria, or Malta.

As sickness accounted for more than one-third of the casualties in this
short space of time, it may be as well to touch on the factors which
affected the health of the individual. The climate in September, and
early October, was similar to November weather in Western Australia.
Thereafter it became cooler, with occasional falls of rain, up to the
end of the eleventh month. This latter date marked the downward limit of
the thermometer, and the subsequent weather was almost spring-like until
the evacuation. On the whole the climate was not disagreeable to the man
from the Antipodes, and even when he did find it a little too warm for
comfort he met the situation by discarding his jacket and shirt and
moving about with a sleeveless undervest as the sole covering for the
upper part of his body. Occasionally he was seen garbed only in hat,
shorts, and boots.

Another reason for being rid of every unnecessary garment was the
prevalence of vermin. Whence they came nobody knew; but within a few
days of landing on the soil very few men had escaped their attention. No
effective arrangements for dealing with the pest were practicable, and
the scarcity of water, with the consequent difficulty of securing
changes of clothing, made the discomfort all the greater. A fortunate
few argued amongst themselves as to whether the services to the Empire
of a certain insect powder manufacturer had ever been adequately
recognised. The soldier's relative who sent a cutting from the "West
Australian's" agricultural column headed "The Vermin Board. Position of
the Squatters" showed both an appreciation of the condition of the
soldiery and the phase of strategy which the campaign had reached. And
here may be retold the story of the exasperated man who interrupted a
conversation by exclaiming, "The Kaiser! I wish he had _two_ withered
hands and my shirt!"

But th