Wazza Riots (so-called) took place in Cairo's brothel district on 2 April and 31 July 1915. They seem to have started when Australian and New Zealand troops sacked brothels because of grievances against the prostitutes.
Although the involvement of the military police did exacerbate the situation during both disturbances, the military police were quickly withdrawn when this became apparent and left the situation to the local piquets and to the large numbers of soldiers who were mere onlookers, who worked to calm down the small number of men actually involved in the disturbances and convince them to desist.
In both instances, only a few hundred men of the thousands present were actually involved and it is probable that these men represented the ‘bad element’ that Bridges and Birdwood worked hard to eliminate from the AIF. Contrary to popular myth, both incidents were confined to one side of one small street, rather than the whole Haret-el-Wasser, as generally stated, and in neither incident was there any conflict between the soldiers taking part and the local Egyptian population.
Damages in the first instance were recompensed by the Australian and New Zealand governments at the ratio of two-thirds by Australia and one-third by New Zealand. Damages for the second disturbance on 31 July , which popular myth holds to be the lesser of the two outbreaks, were in fact six times higher and on this occasion the whole cost of compensation was charged to the Australian government.
Graham Wilson
How to cite this entry:
Graham Wilson "Wazza Riots" The Oxford Companion Australian Military History. Ed Peter Dennis, Jeffrey Grey, Ewan Morris, Robin Prior and Jean Bou. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 31 July 2011
