ENPages
p.
6/ that she is no person for you to live with It is ridiculous that she cannot settle down with Ethel. As far as the money is concerned, you must not worry for one moment my darling, or talk about "my money" or any such nonsense. You know that I never think of it in that way for a moment, + everything is ours + nothing is mine. As you say- the great thing now is to maintain our savings + perhaps add a little to themI think we shall be able to. I really am remarkably careful. + literally have not bought a stitich of clothing since my new pair of suede shoes last September. Two weeks ago, I have changed into summer pants- I find that I only have two serviceable pairs + they are rather full of holes. But I have set my face against buying any more. + [?] is cooperating with me by doing the washing himself + so insuring a quick turn round. I'm quite determined to spend the absolute minimum on clothes + everything else. You are being a darling about money too + I'm sure that the money we save during this was will bring us wonderful dividends when it is over, by way of happiness + joy together, + the purchase of more lasting things which we can enjoy together. But as I keep saying, you must not be too stingy with yourself my darling. Your position is quite different to mine + you need to spend more money on Marie + yourself- + living is much more expensive in England than in Palestine Thursday- Apr 16 I'm sorry to appear to be giving
p.
7.
you a running commentary on how I feel - but this morning my cold is terrific + so I have confined myself to my room. And now at 10.30 on a rather lovely morning I am sitting down at my table to carry on with this letter. And now about last week end. Ben + I set off at 12-30 on Saturday accompanied as the result of a last minute decision by Senior Commander Pine of the A.T.S. - who will henceforward be known as Helen; + by one of her new Jewish subalterns. Ruth Berman who is the one I had the long talk with last week at the R.E. dance The [?] reason for taking Helen was in order that she might do some recruiting propaganda too- but the main + instrinsic reason was the education + instruction of a woman in a very important position + who pretty well classes the Jews + Arabs together as Palestinians + natives + certainly as inferior people to ourselves. I think we opened her eyes + woke up quite a good deal but it was not too easy, & I'm afraid that when she gets into the hands of more Regular Army officers & Government officials & so on, she will not have the strength of mind to resist, & our good work will be undone. And Ben & I were pretty sorry that we asked them to come with us. At the dance, & as a result of a few drinks, Helen seemed rather a good sort if you know what I mean, & also fairly intelligent & with a mind of her own. On further acquaintence she has those qualities, but only in a limited way. & she turned out to be rather dull & boring & infernally English & narrow; & also not a little
p.
8/ inclined to flirtatiousness, which is not very good in a large plain + heavy confirmed virgin of 36 Ruth is a very pleasant + intelligent + clever girl of 28 + rather Russian looking- the reason being that she is Russian ; she was an interested spectator of the work of Ben + I on her C.O. + plainly delighted that we were making the attempt to lead her into better ways of thinking. She has now gone off to Egypt for which I am rather sorry , as I found her very sensible + interesting + with a sense of humour too. She has a brother who is something quite important in the General Federation of Jewis Labour, + I have promised to get in touch with him. We drove north on Saturday along the main Haifa road until we turned off through Zigron - Ya' [?] + down to Mishmas -ba- Euneq where I have been several times before, + which is the first [?] which I described to you, + the first one which I visited in March last year. The Maktas was very pleased to see us again + showed us round- but there was nothing very new since the last time I was there, except a very handsome + healthy five months old baby girl belonging to him- + a new rabbit Jason which was asked for by the W.D. There was a conference going on among the older school children from the surrounding settlements - + there was a red flag flying over the school building the Maktas explained with some relish + mischievous look in his eye that their politics were Labour
p.
9. with a strong leaning to the left: Helen looked rather embarrassed - + so the Muktar drew attention to the fact that he had no beard- + carried no bombs about his person. We then went on to a place called Nahalal, just a few miles away. This is a most interesting place, + is a girls farming school. It was started 18 years ago by a Russian woman called Hannah Meizel + it was she who took us round She told us that in 1924 they were advised that Nahalal was impossible to live insome Arabs had lived there + nearly all died of disease + then some Christian Germans had settled there + left after half of them had died. And so it was left to these Jews to discover that the trouble did not lie in the water, which is perfectly good, but came from some swamps which have now been cleared up; + the place is now a lovely one + very healthy they have about 140 girls, who arrive between the ages of 16 + 18 + receive a tremendously thorough training in all branches of farming + dairy work + domestice science + economy. A minimum number of men is employed for the heavy work + all the crops the butter + milk + cheese, the flowers + all the bye-products of farming are sold + so make the school very nearly self supporting. It is an amazing place- I can imagine its equivalent at home costing $60-70 a [?] with a strong emphasis on "for the daughters of gentlefolk" But here the fees are nominal + anybody may go there providing there is a vacancy.
p.
10/ The buildings + gardens + surroundings are lovely: the classrooms looked just normal; but the kitchens + dining halls + dairy + so on were really wonderful + I have never seen such spit + polish + good order anywhere else before. The Jews really are amazing people- because I have always looked upon them, not exactly as dirty people but certainly not so clean as we are; I have seen it in the men of this Coy, + in some people's houses who you would expect to know better; + here I seemed to see a self realisation of a national fault, + a definite attempt to do something about it. It s by far the cleanest place I have seen in this country. We then had tea- at 7.0 pm -with the Meizel woman consisting of excellent home made bread + butter + four different kinds of cheeses. And we signed the visitors book, which had in it many interesting names including the King + Queen of the Belgians. And then we drove into Haifa + [?] rooms at a hotel, very conveniently just opposite to Pross's Restaurant. There I met that ridiculous Terence Waters- you remember? from [?] he has now been posted for service with the Jebel D[?] who are rather a wicked tribe of Arabs from the south of Syria; + he wears Arab headdress which hides most of his face. bumps into his long + straggly moustache: + you can imagine he looks pretty silly. In spite of the fact that he left
