I. Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, with senior British officers serving with Middle East Command in the grounds of the British Embassy in Cairo; among them are Major-General Richard O'Connor, commander of the 6th Division, and (on his right) Lieutenant-General Henry Wilson, General Officer Commanding (GOC) Egypt. With one foot on a chair, Eden signs his autograph for Brigadier A S Allen, commander of the Australian 16th Brigade.

II. Eden arrives at a transit camp at Qantara to inspect the first units of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force to arrive in the Middle East. Met by Brigadier A S Allen, he inspects Australian soldiers and nurses drawn up on parade in company with two senior Army officers and Admiral Sir Admiral Bromley [?]. At the conclusion of the inspection, a black American limousine (registration 'A1297') rolls by, followed by a Humber staff car carrying Eden and Brigadier Allen, as the visitors leave the camp

III. Clutching enamelled mugs and mess tins, Australian soldiers line up in two ranks during a brief pause at Rafah (?), Palestine, in their rail journey from Qantara in Egypt. They are served hot tea by a soldier serving with a local Palestinian unit (?). Three Arab civilians, an Arab member of the Palestine Police and a railway official watch the newcomers being served tea from a distance. Australian officers drink their tea from proper cups and saucers. At el-Majdal, the Australians step down from their railway carriages and form up into ranks of three to march to a collection point where they board a long line of civilian Egged Company (?) buses commandeered by the British military authorities in Palestine for the last stage of their journey to their new camp at Julis between el-Majdal and Qastina. Australian soldiers riding in one bus wave at the camera as they pass by. The convoy of buses makes a left turn at a road junction. A group of Arab males sit with expressionless faces on a low embankment near a railway level crossing watching the arrival of the convoy of buses at their destination. The Australian soldiers disembark from the buses at Julis and march towards their camp. A view of the camp with lines of tents of different sizes arranged in rows. Soldiers drive tent pegs into the ground and adjust guy ropes as they put up new tents. A view inside a tent with two rows of five camp beds each facing each other and SMLE Mk III rifles neatly stacked in an upright pile in the middle; one of the beds is occupied. A platoon of Australian infantrymen performs parade ground drill with and without their weapons in the parade ground between the lines of tents. An armed sentry paces up and down outside the hut used by an Australian Army unit as its headquarters. As a bugler steps out to blow on his bugle, the camera tilts up to the Australian flag flying above. The bugler who blows his bugle has the badge of the Australian Imperial Force on his slouch hat. The Australian flag flutters in the breeze over the camp.

IV At the entrance to the camp, local Palestinian Arab boys sell oranges to the troops. Glimpses of life in an Arab village nearby (Julis ?) showing a man smoking a 'hubble-bubble' or, as it is known throughout the Middle East, a nargileh, an elderly male villager and a young girl sitting on the ground with her head covered by a headdress. A camel tethered to a pulley at a well is seen at work. Water is poured from a leather pouch and a young Arab splashes his face with water.

V. Soldiers serving with the 4th New Zealand Brigade, the advanced element of the 2nd Division New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in the Middle East, and Egyptian youths are shown around the Sphinx on the Giza plateau, ten miles south-west of Cairo, by a local guide; in the background to the north-west of the great statue is the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops). As they do the tour and wave at the camera, the second great pyramid at Giza, dedicated to the Pharaoh Khafre (Chephren), can be seen in the background due west of the Sphinx. The New Zealanders seated on the ground listen to their guide lecture them on the history of the ancient site.

Unedited and uncensored footage showing Australian troops being inspected by Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, shortly after their arrival in Palestine, the arrival by train of Australian troops in Palestine and New Zealand soldiers sightseeing ancient Egyptian ruins outside Cairo.

Notes

Summary: Eden fought during the First World War with the King's Royal Rifle Corps, winning a Military Cross and reaching in 1918 the rank of Brigade-Major at the age of 21, making him the youngest man in the whole British Army with that rank. However, despite the description in the cameraman's dope sheet, it was only a temporary rank and Eden left the army as a Captain. The Egged Bus Company in Palestine was (and still is) Jewish-owned.

Technical: Part I is 23 feet long, Part II 121 feet, Part III 405 feet, Part IV 72 feet and Part V 120 feet.