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6. as time goes on. I feel this more & more & stronger & stronger. Never for one moment have I felt anything else, & there is not the slightest chance of my doing so. I feel so sure & confident of your love now, my darling - & there is only one possible way in which I can ever be worthy of it, & that is to love you with all my heart & strength, & to be utterly blameless. And those I shall do & be. So you must always have confidence in me, please. How I long for this war to end, & to be with you again. I know we shall ^be more deeply & truly happy & in love than ever before. And I long to start this life with you again. And oh my darling - you talk about being exciting & attractive to each other. If you knew how & what I think about you, you would blush. But your photograph just smiles, & looks so pretty, & almost seems to dare me & nearly drives me frantic. I think too, we are very lucky. Scores of men I have met out here, really don't think at all - & just write a 2-3 page letter every 2-3 weeks. But then, I have not liked any of them very much. This war certainly does seem to be shaping now. What with Bulgaria submitting, & Turkey & Greece Yugo slavia standing firm - & Greece & ourselves having successes & the marvellous American news. I feel things willh happen quickly - but other people think it will take a year or two. If only next winter could see us together again.
The men had a concert on Saturday, provided by the Jewish Soldiers Welfare Committee. It was lovely & I enjoyed it tremendously. It was the same string quartette
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7. which they had before, with the exception that one violin was different & this time was a young man of 16 called Segel (I am not sure of the spelling), who is said to be the coming violinist of the world. He was in the B.B.C Symphony Orchestra for a time, & Sir Adrian Bonet is supposedto have said that he will be greater than Jehudi Menuhin -& Menahim is supposed to have said the same. The leading violinist, was first violin in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra - & the cellist was also in that. We are really very lucky to have such a wonderful concert, given to us. The men appreciate it very much - they are different to British soldiers, in that way anyhow. They have gorgeous music, Mozart, Mendelson, Dvorjak, & some Hebrew music, at the end they played God Save the King, & another tune, which I took to be the Jewish National Anthem, & continued standing to attention. I then made a short speech, finishing up with a sentance in Hebrew, which everybody seemed to think was a good show, I hope very much they will come again. Palestine has certainly gained from Nazi Germanys refugees - like so many other places. Before the concert, the officers were invited for dinner, & we were very well entertained by eight gentlemen of the Jewish Agency - of eight shades of political opinion; apparently they have to be most careful who they leave out, & so it seems they were taking no chances on this occasion. But they were all a bit silent, so I seemed to have to take charge of the conversational ball all the time I came home. This is what comes of being a Commanding Ofiicer. On the same day, I had pranced onto a Hospital Ship which is in, & called on their R.A.M.C Colonel. And so we were asked for lunch on Sunday - & he & two of his Majors came back for dinner. We had a
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8. very good evening, & finished up again in the Colonel's cabin. And now we have been invited to their cocktail party on Thursday. These things help a lot to break the week up for me - & are quite amusing & interesting, & do not do away with much money. I am looking forward to having some books from you, darling. I wonder what the art book is - & I shall certainly enjoy Tolstoys Childhood Boyhood Youth", at the moment I am reading - have I told you? Macauly's history of England but very slowly. Frank Macaskie gave it to me, in Everymans's 3 vols, for Christmas - which was very sweet of him, because it was the only copy he could buy, he wanted it himself for the Desert. It is quite the most wonderful English I have ever read. I must find more time & push on. It is very good of Frank to want to give me a present, but goodness knows exactly what I want. I lost a part of my Dunhill holder, & have not been able to find another. I only like that size, & in black - & in Cairo, they only had long red ones: & they have none here. A holder avoids brown thumbs, & I smoke less. And then clothes, I suppose - a nice well fitting cardigan, in grey or fawn. Or grey socks. Or a tie or two. I don't know. You think of something darling. You have such good ideas. And what do you want, my ducky? Pants? seem to be in bed much before 10. There's no time to sleep all night - I must write to my lovely darling. All my love as always, my sweetheart, & give yourself & very big kiss from me, & I send you kisses on your lips - & all over the place xxxx Always your very own Harry
