Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

Letter No. 60 Tuesday-15 July Major. J. H. Massey. 6 Palestinian Coy, The Buffs Middle East Force

My own dear darling Barbara-

And still no letter from you since June 24th & have had two p.cs but I know both of them off by heart now, I seem to be perpetually in a state of nervous expectation, & as we have both said before, living from post to post you know exactly what I mean, & therefor we can understand & sympathise with each other. It becomes very wearing, doesn't it darling? I find my life to be not only affected, but almost controlled by the posts & my never diminishing hope of a letter from you, bringing with it some news which I am waiting for in the mornings & afternoons, at post times, I can hardly stop myself from running out of the office to see if the car has returned. And when I know it has arrived, I sit in my chair, straining my ears for the sound of footsteps from the Orderly Room coming towards me. And when the man just brings in a pile of bumf & nothing from you, it is very difficult to hide my disappointment, my bitterest moments are when a letter comes in from my ma - a shameful admission but to be understood surely, I wish so much that her letters would arrive with yours, then I should not have that guilty feeling of disappointment.

Very little has happened since I last wrote to you, & I sent off rather a flat Airgraph this morning to say so. I had a severe ache in my right ear the day before yesterday - & it hurt like hell when I blew

2 my nose & when I dried my ear with the towel. And I began to think at once about a nice mastoid, or some ailment which would demand a change of air & climate. England, for example. But the doctor syringed it & out came a large lump of wax, & I was immediately cured. For your information, wax in our ear is quite accidental & can as easily be caused by too little waxing as too much! Every single ache, pain, I get, I think of how it may get me home. But I am so blasted healthy - which I suppose is a very good thing really. But I often wonder if there is such an illness as will leave no mark or ill effect but which will send me home - but I am afraid it doesn not exist. And even if it did, I should not catch it. There is one thing I notice about myself, you remember how we both, & me in particular, because as you say, I am a chub - used to get lines vertically up the sides of our mouths from laughing. I'm afraid those don't appear at all nowadays - but they will again when we are together again. It used to be grand, darling, those happy, marvellous, times we used to have. Great lines up to the sides of our mouths, & a wonderful, gorgeous feeling of satisfaction & well being & contentment. Those lines will, there can be no doubt, come again. They will be happier, lovelier than ever before. but I do want them to come soon, don't you darling. I can picture & imagine so much love happiness, & interest & marvellous contentment

3 between us, when we meet again - I feel quite faint when I think about that time.

What else has happened. I have became a P.T instructor in the last three days - my Corporal who had been on his course in Egypt, had to be sent away on an escort to Dasmascus, & nobody else seemed to be particularly suitable or competent, so I took them myself. And I made them work very hard, they all seemed to enjoy it. This is more good training for me & I shall be able to take you when I get home.

The Hon. Mrs Samuel called to seeme today, in her capacity as President of Jewish Welfare, & she stayed & talked for over 1 1/2 hours. I have told you about her before, & she really is a very charming & clever woman. She was very insistent that when I next came to Jerusalem. I must come & see herself & her husband, & they would take me about & show me all - I really must do my bit to avail myself of the opportunity, as I am sure no two people are more competent to do this.

I have now told you about as much as I know of Jerusalem & Tel Aviv. And I will now describe something of Haifa. You will be able to see from the map that it is on a headland, at the southern end of the Bay of Acre. And the town is, of course, dominated by the sea. The port, Mount Carmel behind it. The population is, I think, about 80,000 composed of approx 60% Jewish & 40% Arab.

4 The Arab part is around the port area & mainly at the bottom of the Carmel - the two run into each other a little - but the Jewish part is on the lower part of the Carmel, to half way up - then there are a great many odd streets, small groups of houses & bigger houses by themselves all over the mountain, & particularly right on top you can perhaps imagine the marvellous view from the mountain. The port is looked straight down upon - you see the Mediterranean on either side of the headland, & right across to Acre & beyond & further along, to Syria. And way beyond all this, it is often possible to see Mount Herman, snow capped. 2814 metres, not feet. The town itself is very modern, but extremely well & solidly built, nearly all of this white stone again, & of course it looks beautifully clean & pretty & good looking. And being built on a hill, almost the whole town can be seen at once. From top or bottom.

Wednesday July 16th I have had the most awful day today, auditing the various accounts of the coy. They were produced by the wretched, ridiculous Tony, & in spite of much advice & help from me, they were in the most awful mess - & instead of auditing them, I had to practically correct them. I was at it from 10 this morning until 7 this evening - & it seemed pretty silly having to write across them "Audited & found" correct", after spending all that time putting them right. Anyway - I am bustling him off tomorrow.

Friday 18th July At the above point the day before yesterday, I just could not stay awake any longer, & had to

5. go to bed, at 10.O o'clock. I now sleep on the floor, all the beds having been withdrawn & put into use in hospitals, & my camp bed being rickety by now, & so I am saving it for when it is really necessary. But I have two mattresses, on top of each other, on the floor, & it is very comfortable, & I do not notice any difference at all. I still have my net, of course - down from the ceiling, tucked under the mattresses, this keep away all the things that fly & creep. Peter prefers it too, as he finds he can edge his way out one of the corners, by means of leaning his weight against the net.

The postal silence has been broken today, & at last your letter no 42 of May 11th came this morning - & this afternoon all together, 4 p.cs. - June 15, 19, & 25, & July 1. So I am way up in Heaven, or Devon, again, & hardly know myself. Dealing with the post cards first - our little Maxie sounds fine & healthy - though I am still dying for your letters to say what he looks like, & what colour his eyes are, & if he has any hair, & if he looks at all like Lisa did - & what sort of things he does. A little wind & constipation should not cause you very much worry - though squawking at 3-30 am must be jolly annoying. I suppose it must have a lot to do with a healthy appetite. I hope you find a good doctor down there. Some nice old man of a family doctor, who knows all about babies, their bits of ways & illnesses. I really do feel nowadays that such a doctor is best for children - somebody who can diagnose by instinct & years of experience. Though I am hoping you will not actually need one at all. I think you should have one, & get to know him & let him