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Letter No 71 - Thursday - Sept. 11th

Major J.H. Massey
6 Palestinian Coy, The Buffs
M.E.F.

My sweetest darling,

Well - the coy & myself have now
arrived in our new station - & it is still M.E.F.
The journey yesterday was a bit of a strain & quite
a mix up. We came by sail, instead of setting
off at a reasonable time of the day, we had to
start at 4.30 pm & arrive in the dark at 8.30.
Four hours for a journey of about 60 miles. One camp
is about 5 miles from the main station & so in
the morning I went to see a wonderful department
of the army called Movement Control & carefully
arranged with them to have the train stopped at
a small station quite near. These people are
rudely referred to as "Bloody little Movement &
bugger all control" - they certainly lived up to
their reputation yesterday. The train did stop, but only
long enough to allow myself, two Sgts, one Corporal
& one private soldier to emerge - then moved
off - just like that. I was wild & rushed into the
stationmaster's office, where four revolting Arabs all
talked at once. & made me wilder still. It was
Peter's first train journey - & of course he got
off the train with me.

We are partly in huts & partly in tents. The
Officers Mess is in a tent, & on the end of