Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

6. become fitted for whatever may lie ahead. In point of fact whether they agree with me or not see my points are [or?] not, does not make the slightest difference, because they still have to do & do do just what I say. But I prefer people to understand, if it is at all possible to make them do so. I understand from Ben-Arzi, who is my Intelligence Officer, both officially & unofficially, that my various talks have gone over very well & have made the men think & begin to understand & I hope this is so. This weekend is the Jewish New Year, & this morning I had a Company parade. After an inspection & lots of drill & marching past - I formed the Coy up in 3 sides of a square, & delivered another speech - wishing them a happy, prosperous, & victorious New Year, & outlining once again what we are fighting for. I managed to refrain from referring to Hitler as "that evil man" or "that wild beast" - but it was quite a histrionic effort. I do believe that it is a good thing to talk to the men, otherwise the C.O. is such a man apart & quite unknown & if not misunderstood, at least not understood. All this is certainly excellent practice for me if ever I do take a plunge into local politics or politics themselves. But I find the weakest part of these Coys, & in other words the Jews (I do not mention

7. the Arabs - because they are utterly useless & hopeless) is the officers & N.C.Os. With the shining exception of Ben-Arzi they are for the most part gutless & unwilling to take responsibility & the officers suffer, or seem to me to do so, from a mistaken impression that now they are officers & all they have to do is to buy (with their grant), the uniform & wear it. And the N.C.Os that they may wear stripes - get the pay for them. Just now, my main task is in correcting those wrong impressions. I have a subalterns parade at 7-o'clock every morning, & knock ---- out of them. I go through the points & lecture them at 2-15 each day - they go on a P.T. instructors class at 5-0 p.m. every day - they get a special lecture from me from time to time. And I rebuke & insult them individually & collectively several times every day & without fail. As a result of all this, I'm quite sure they dislike me but by God, they jump about for me & I even believe they are improving. And one day, if they go on improving & have any sense at all - they will thank me. The enclosed drawing is by the Coy artist, who is really very clever & has drawn some excellent cartoons & sketches. Ben found him doing this one & promptly

8. confiscated it. Pte Ranger is too observant.

Your habit of enclosing things in your letters & then forgetting to is catching, my darling. I wrote you about Damascus in my last - said I would enclose a hankie & forgot to do so. But here it is now & as I said before, it was 2 1/2d - but I still send my dearest love with it.

Our wealth appalls me darling. Though I shall certainly be equally, at least, appalled by the Income Tax but with your marriage allowance increased to 7/6 - & me being on field allowance at 3/6, any total income is now £1110 p.a. - £268 p.a. of which is free from tax, & £844 pa taxable. Nobody can say we do not deserve it. And still I do not feel the slightest wish to spend any more money - & here in this place I shall probably spend less than before. Please do not stint yourself & worrie in any way at all, my darling. You will not Max in any case - & you must not yourself either. I go along fine & I have tons of food - as much as I want to smoke & drink - what I save & we save together is for you. Or may I say, the two of us, to build up our lovely new home. If only we could know when - & less important - where. Sweet darling - I'm always thinking of you & always lovingly & passionately & affectionately & admiringly - & longingly, God bless you my sweetest darling Harry.

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Angel sweetest -

I nearly forgot to send you this hankie. I bought this, & a brown one which I will send with my next letter - in Tel-Aviv. I do hope you will like it. On that evening, I went in with Salamon, Headley - & Ben-Arzi - to be taken out to dinner by Burstein, of the Jewish Welfare. We had a lovely meal, & then went round a few bars & places. Burstein very kindly got us all a bit tiddled - but I was home in bed by midnight.

This Burstein is really a kind man. I was talking to him on that evening about books you had sent me & which had never arrived. Today, came a parcel from him containing - "The Knapsack" edited by Herbert Read - The Penguin New Writing edited by John Lehmann - "What is Art" by D.S. Mac coll - "russia" by Bernard [Parus?] - "Death at Swaythling Court", a thriller by J.J. Cannington - & Ian Hay's "The 1st 100,000." and it is even kinder on account of the fact that they are mostly from his own shelves, & can no longer be obtained here. I cannot help looking at them as something to read on the way home - soon. I must eliminate this wishful thinking.

This has been a frightful ten days. The Jewish New

[page 10] Year - then the Day of Atonement on Yom Kippur - which entails a 24 hour fast & restraint from sharing. I am just about fed up with holidays - days off - & it has been a difficult matter to balance between good order & military discipline, & freedom of worship. I have been amazed really to have had to give them so much time off, because so few of them are religious - & they are merely using the occasions. But it is all over by now.

You should have heard the weeping & wailing - they all went into the dining hall - ironically, I thought - & just made a hell of a row for nearly all the day. I really feel that all this is bad for them, as they merely revive again their past misfortunes & feel sorry for themselves. I feel they need someone like Ataturk to put an end to all this. As it is the Rabbis are too powerful & go on insisting on all these things, to keep they themselves where they are.

But, about the hankie, sweetest, all my dearest love & passion & longing for you goes with this little gift.

Oh darling Barbara - I love you so much - I just cannot [underlined] tell you. And I miss you even more. x x x x x x x Harry.