p.

3.

place so much better than Lydda. & though it must
surely be the best place in Palestine the very last
of [illegible] to it after 9 1/2 months away: & doing roughly
the same duties again. give me an awful feeling
of having gone around in a circle & taken nearly a
year to do it, & still I am apparently no nearer to
being together with you again. And the work I am doing
has so little direct influence on the war & the hastening
of the end. And the war news is so bad - from
Libya especially. Your p.c. of June 8 expects that my
spirits are much better about the war read as you say,
& less of [illegible]. withdrawal into Egypt - where we
were when I arrived her in Nov 40. Its not inspiring
or cheering is it? Two weeks ago the Palestinian
[illegible] was actually leering at Gen. Rommel for having
to fly [illegible] dash about the front to exhort & cheer up his
troops. We dont have to do that [illegible] said - Gen [illegible]
that he [illegible] well in hand & can look on
[illegible] his pipe. [illegible] but how bloody is our propaganda
& news service. [illegible] unique that [illegible] were to change
Generals. we might also change the result. I was
looking at a photograph of Ritchie the other day
though I may be misjudging the man. he appears
to me to [illegible] the awful [illegible] bred [illegible] faced
expression [illegible] too little [illegible] too
much of [illegible] feel that we [illegible]
an awful [illegible] vis-a-vis the Germans - they &
their generals have been [illegible] for year for war.
& we treat it as a game of [illegible] officers
have been mainly interested in anything but war.
But I hope that the news will be better by the