Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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Your letter was also telling me about Norths was being the nucleus branch for [illegible] etc. I can hardly imagine how it will work if all those managers are there, & nobody strong enought to lead them & take command. You can imagine how little Willie will be making up to all of them, & trying to pose as the big businessman, while Frost & [illegible] & Gelder just carry on & take no notice of him & do all the work. By God, it will be one hell of a tangle to unravel when I do get back. I also had a letter from Jack McCallum the other day, addressed to Lieut Col. JHM. & congratulating me heavily on my further promotion. It is really extraordinary, how that rumour got round. He said it would make P. Caldwell think a bit - & that he had been quite funny at the last Board meeting, shaking his head, & saying "fancy Harry, a colonel". You know, darling, if you had thought carefully, you could have been sure that this was note true. This Coy is a major's command, & I am commanding it & in order to obtain promotion, it follows that I must also change my address. And you can be sure that if & when I do that, I shall go on cabling you until I have an acknowledgment. Quite apart from you, I am much too anxious to receive your sweet & lovely letters, not to do all possible to make sure you have my correct address.

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It seems that Jack's son, Gordon, has has been in Malaya for the last year. I hope he is alright. And Lucy, of course, has not been well. They have had another schimozzle with maids, of course, & have been buggered about from hotel to hotel ever since. Really, Jack, in spite of being pretty inward, when opportunity presents itself, is an incredibly kind & long suffering husband.

You were talking in your letter about my recruiting ventures, & saying that you thought that the Jews of all people, should have wanted to have a crack at the Nazis. Well that is just the point - they do not get the choice. These Coy's you see are not fighting much, they are not really intended to be, & only kick around Palestine doing guard duties. Jews are also enlisted into the R.A.S.C & R.E. & R.A.O.C Pioneer Corps. They have seen service in France & Greece & Crete & the Desert - but they are only services. The work in these Buff Coys is pretty dull soul destroying - & so you can understand how it is not easy to arouse enthusiasm & appeal to them "to take up arms against the common foe," when they know only too well that they are only going to be glorified policemen, playing at soldiers - but still exposed to all the rigors of military law.

It is all a deep & wide political problem - the Jewish - Arab questions enters into it very largely. In these Buff coys, there are Jewish Coys, Arab Coys, but they are all classed as Palestinians, & receive the same rates of pay & allowance & conditions of service. That in itself is a difficult beginning, because the Jews look upon the Arabs as backward & inferior people, in [spacely?] the same way that we do. And finally, it is ridiculous & unfair - [strikethrough] the Arabs live mostly in

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hovels, feed on bread & onions, seldom wash & are generally improvident. Whereas the Jewish standards are [?], & in civilian life, they could not exist on Arab civilian rates of pay.

Then again the Jews do not look upon themselves as Palestinians, but as Jews, that is Zionism. What they really want is a Jewish National Army, with their own flag & what all - in the same way as the free French, Poles, Greeks & so on - but they realize that they have not the tradition & experience. And so, for the moment, they want Jewish [?] etc. - & they want to fight & be more useful & important & [?]. But, you see, the official British policy is pro-Arab - the High Commissioner of the Palestine Government are very muich that way. And nearly all the Government officials etc out here look upon themselves as orientalists - in some cases, minor [?] - all that of course, means interest in & sympathy with the Arabs. And, hostility towards the "common" Jews who try to be as good as they are.

The official British attitude persists in the romantic notions about the Arab - whereas, in reality, he is a dirty, idle, untrustworthy type, & can be bought by whoever pays the best price. The Jews on the other hand, are an energetic people - (mostly very much) more efficient & clever than the British people of the classes they have to deal with - civil servants & Regular army officers.

My last letter told you about the [?] disaster - a direct result of the insufficient & dilatory manner in which the Govt dealt with Jewish immigrants. And yes, around the same time, the Govt

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permits the entry into Palestine of the friends & relations of the ex-Grand [?] & of [Rashid?] Ali of Iraq.

Saturday - 7 March. I must finish this theme for you. Though, what I am telling you is very much of an outline & you may say that, being in a Jewish [?], I am only seeing one side of the question.

But I am perfectly certain that the Administration is very much to blame - both for their casual attitude & lack of war effort & for their frantic & undignified efforts not to offend the Arabs.

Even though there are a good number of lazy & unwilling Jews, who should & could join the Army - as there would be in England if we did not have conscription - I find it difficult to blame the Jews as a whole for not rushing forward, when I consisder the lack of real encouragement. Even so, they have about 12,000 men in the Army, about another 8-10,000 in the police, & innumerable other poeple working for & with the army in an indirect, civilian way. And recently, they have [started?] Palestinian A.T.S, which is going quite well. Have I answered your question a little, darling? But God knows what is to happen about the Jews & the Arabs after the war. It is a great problem, & has been going on & has been mishandled for so long that by now they both have right on their sides - therefore any solution must seem unfair on one side or the other.

I seem to be going along very slowly with my letter - but it has been a very slow & unhappy week.

The time has now arrived when I am expecting & hoping for a reply to my [?] application, every minute of every day. And so that means that I am very restless &

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rather uneasy. during the few days up to Monday, I had been thinking hard about whether to chance taking Peter with me or not - & telling myself that I must make a decision, because the news might come suddenly & leave me little time to think, when he was killed, I began to think that perhaps [Pete?] had made the decision for me, & that I should leave the M. E. with my heart & body & mind reaching out to you & remember Peter as a little dog who had just about saved my reason & certainly been my best friend & companion this last year - & that at least, I need not worry about him being well ooked after. But now, I am beginning to feel very nervous about failure, & being left here all by myself. But, the next few days will show.

It is ghastly luck, isn't it, darling? Receiving your letters, & writing to you, I was just able to hold on. I could talk to Peter - you understand? - about all my intimate things, about you [?]. And it is not the same talking to myself. And he made me laugh, which nothing & nobody else has done out here. But do not worry about me, darling, if by the time you get this, you have had word that my 2nd application has failed, you must not think of my position as hopeless - because it can never be that so long as you love me & wait for me to come home. And I shall certainly not be idle about getting myself home. I shall never stop trying, by one means or another.

And in any case, sweetheart, I always remain in