Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

Letter No. 14

Thursday 28 May 42

Major. J. H. Massey 6, Palestinian Coy, The Buffs W. E. 7.

My own darling lovely Barbara,

At last we have a happy anniversary to celebrate even though I am very unhappy that we cannot be together on Max's first birthday. I have had congratulations from Ben & various people in the Coy. [?] [?] was kind enough to telephone - they all say that they hope I will be home for his next one. Hope! My God, I really thought that there was any doubt about it. I don't know what I should do. But believe me my darling I am thinking of you today & of Maxie & very laughlingly. And remembering how brave you were & how many difficulties & inconveniences you had to endure being kept all alone & [?] eight months pregnancy before you. And what an awful time you had the last few days waiting your [?] to be born & on the day itself. And remembering how terribly sad I was that I could not have been with you shortly after Maxie was norn. You were feeling mentally physically relieved & happy. It was such a gloriously happy moment after Lisa was born - [?] could have been even more so this time to know that once again we had a babt safely [?] & perfect. It is all very cruel - first I had to leave you neither of us even knowing if you were going to have a baby or not & then I am away & you are alone when he is born & now the same againe when he is 1. And I have benver seen him & the three of us have never been together. It is difficult to console ourselves about so much [?] [?] do know that we have [?] & wonderful happiness. May [?] ahead of us - the one condition necessary is now for me to come home.

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What news have I for you my love? Really nothing at all of importance I am afraid. And as usual, I can only [?] along about this & that. I do my best to please you in that way. I had a very pleasant evening with Bursheim on Tuesday when we had dinner & then went to the Golstone Orchestra & Ballet. The music was lovely & I enjoyed the ballet. I thought the standard was not too high. But it is a [?] of Golestone or rather the Jew's effort to have their own ballet. There were no men at all & no real leaders or stars - execept [?] Krans, who [?] in who did a solo dance called th [?]. It was by [?] of whom I have never heard. It was all very enthusiastically received. I had a long talk with Burnheim during dinner & after the show - all about Jewish problems now & after the war. He told me that their soituation & difficulties & even who had tried to. I am told by Ben that he [?] [?] me very much & that he is probably the best friend I have in Palestine - as it seems that the main reason for this is that I have always treated him as an equal - whereas the other Majors & British Officers in general rather patronise him & treat him in a condescending way. It is bad isn't it? He is an extremely intelligent, well read & interesting man, & you would never dream of treating such a person anything else but as our [?] an equal. And yet out brainless [?] revised British Officers come out here & treat such people in such a way - & even have the cheek to say "You had better watch these bloody Jews - they don't like us really." Admittedly, the Jews must have thinner skins that any other people upon earth & cannot adopt [?] such a [?] [?] to what other people think if them as we do - but that is really all the more reason why we should be especially careful & try to make certain that at the end

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of the war we leave behind us a people who trust us & like us, instrad of just a people who will make use of us so long as we are a power.

Burnheim says I must get into Parliament after the war! He also says that you & I must come to Palestine for a holiday, & that we shall be very welcome.

I expect you will have seen in the papers that a biggish number of Poles has now arrived in the M. E. The are mainly men who have been [?] by the Russians when they occupied part of Poland in Sept '39. It seems that that the relations per week the Poles & the Russians is very bad & that the [?] is mainly on the Polish side. And even worse is the relationships between the Poles (& the Polish Jews, the trouble being purely & simply anti semitism. The Polish Jews now want to transfer from the Polish Army into Jewish Units of the British Army & the Polish Army is ready to agree. (It seems tht the officical Polish Govt

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get which was left in my mode of life. He is a dear little dog, but I'm afraid has not got Peter's character - independence.

I have bought two pounds of dried apricots today. I will get some jame and/or honey tomorrow. so you may look forward to that in Aug/Sept.

Your letter 91 was a lovely one & gave me great pleasure & feeling. It was your first one from cambridge. & told me some things aobut your arrangements & hopes there. & quite a lot about Marie & his new little friends, bless him. the only wrong thing was that you said you were glad that we had now finished discussing unfaithfulness. & I'm afraid that in my last letter but one, I wrote another short chapter on the subject, but it was in answer to something in one of your letters. & so you must please forgive me. I agree that it is a hateful subject & it is hereby banished. I can assure you, my own darling, that never for one moment have I doubted your love & constancy, & I am quite sure that you know that & also know how wonderfully thankful & happy I am because of it. But men have such a bad reputation & we are so far apart. & I suppose that was why I presumed to reassure you about me from time to time. Maybe my reasons are too idealistic - but I feel so much that way. But thank you for calling me a healthy animal. I certainly do feel very healthy & very animalish about you.

And hereby the subject is banished.

Saturday - May 30th. I think I had better tell you what is happening with my officers. That dreadful Carsenty

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person has now gone, thank goodness; he is definitely to be thrown out of the Army. But the process is such a long one, & I was [browned?] off with having the fat, lazy, lying cad about the place, & persuaded Col. L. to take him off my hands. Col. L. is a very weak & silly man. I had had Carsenty confined to camp for a [month?] &is doing ordereley officer every day. nor did I allow him to use the mess - but Col. G. thought that his treatment was rather harsh, & so he is now having an idle time at the P.R.T.D. Its the old trouble of you must treat an officer as a gentleman, which I do not agree with at all.

Bloody Dikman is to be court martialled, & remains in close arrest - & so I am thankful that I do not have to see him. The story is too long & silly to tell you about in a letter - but I will give you a good laught about it when I come home. Or rather, about three months after I come home & when we may lose [illegible] to such ordinary topics again.

Arkin's wife has had a baby - a daughter. And he was able to take her to the nursing home, & see her after the baby was born, & go & see her every day, & take them home from the nursing home. Its a bit galling for me to have stand by & watch all this going on. He is having a tea party for the child at [Nathanya?] this afternoon - I managed to make excuses not to go, but heard this morning that he was upset & offended, & so I have just been on the phone & told him I will go. Bless it - this kind of business just makes me feel all the more sad & homesick.

And last week I got a new officer to replace my casualties. His name is Laskov, & he is a big husky young fellow of 23 or 4. He is a product of the