Battle of the Wazzir

The soldiers were reported to have had an assortment of complaints, including recent price increases, poor quality drinks, and concerns about the spread of venereal disease.

They had an accumulation of grievances against the entertainments in the Birka: beer adulterated with water or even urine; high prices; much venereal disease among the area's prostitutes; theft and general dishonesty; an incident when an English soldier from Manchester found his sister serving as a nude dancer and prostitute there (she had accepted an offer for a job in domestic service, but her purported employer took her to Cairo and left her there: see white slave trade), and when he tried to take her away, the brothel's staff threw him out of an upstairs window.

[3][4] About 4000 troops rioted and wrecked and burnt many buildings, and threw prostitutes and pimps out onto the streets and their possessions after them; furniture including a piano was thrown out of upstairs windows; and they rescued the English soldier's sister.

A much graver class of crime was appearing--heavy drinking, desertion, attacks upon natives, in some instances robbery[7] In fact 322 soldiers were sent back to Australia for various reasons including disciplinary.

[9] Even a recently as 2015, a blog written for the Australian War Memorial on the centenary of the incident describes it as Some highly spirited Anzacs participated in the Good Friday rampage, while others cheered or hid.

Well this action only made matters worse as the soldiers hacked the hose to pieces with their knives, just at that moment some mounted native police arrived and started firing on the crowd with the result that two soldiers were killed and a good number injured, the action of the native police in firing was very foolish and they had no orders to do so, however the news got round very soon and not long after a squadron of Light Horse arrived and restored order there must have been an awful lot of damage done to property, this affair is to be regretted as it only makes other people form a very bad opinion of us, the papers have kept silent so far, but you can reckon things being true when they are seen with one’s own eyes, in a very short time all the soldiers were told to go to camp and they did this without a murmur, thus ended the most exciting day since we have been in Egypt but unhappily some lives have been lost.

"[12] He identifies that the Court of Inquiry (convened 3 April 1915) "found that the riot grew out of an incident arising from two or three disgruntled Australians trying to extort money from some prostitutes who they said had given them VD.

A rush of soldiers soon took place to the scene, and the doors being smashed in, the crowd set to work heaving the furniture out — the only revenge left them, as the occupants had fled through the roof, and away over the neighbouring houses.

Not content with stuffing bags with spoil, the maffickers passed on the Anzac Hotel, making a wreck of that institution, though it has been almost entirely a Tommy concern since the Australian infantry's departure, and has provided them with the only lodging within their means, together with the cheapest good quality meals.

A descent was also made on the Australian and Maorilander Soldiers' club, and one small patch of Aussies left us, but a few willing Diggers soon settled that argument.