One hundred years ago this week a blush of shame was being brought to the national cheek. The papers were publishing the shocking reports of Captain C. E. W. Bean, the official reporter with the First Australian Expeditionary force in Egypt.
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Sydney's Sunday Times noted that "Capt. Bean says that some of the troops in Egypt are 'losing Australia her good name in the outside world'."
"Capt. Bean states that some of the men have been drinking and disgracing themselves in Cairo. He reports that 'one of the most distinguished men in the British army' said to him, 'They are as fine a body of men physically as I have ever seen, but do all Australians drink so much?' "
" 'Australia is losing her good name through these 'wasters,' Capt. Bean says. They are the 'one or two per cent' who go into Cairo and paint the town red. Some of them, we are told, will be sent back with unmentionable diseases, or because their drinking proclivities have damaged their country's reputation.
"WHERE ARE THE OFFICERS? Capt. Bean's letters constitute not so much an attack on the men as upon the officers. It is the officers' duty to see that discipline is preserved.
"The cruel part of the whole matter is the pillorying that Australia as a whole is getting on account of this 'one or two per cent.' Captain Bean says: 'The reputation of Australia is slowly vanishing before the actions of a handful of rowdies who do not really represent the country.' "
