Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Reports arrival of latest letters and comments on contents. Says moral is high and hopes they will be home by end of year. Writes of old work acquaintance who had arrived at camp and asks her to write to his mother. Asks about land settlement in Rhodesia and says is contemplating farming in Kenya and discusses advantages. Comments on weather.

1943-02-23

Handwritten prisoner of war letter form

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SBakerDA19210428v20113

[censorship stamp]
Taxe percue …………..RM 25 RPF
[underlined] Kreigsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[inserted] [underlined] MIT LUFTPOST AB KAIRO [/underlined] [/inserted]
[censorship stamp]
[two ink stamps]
An MRS. C. BAKER
CHARLTON.
Empfangsort: INYAZURA
Strasse: SOUTHERN RHODESIA
Kreis:
Land: SOUTH AFRICA
Gebührenfrei!
[date stamp]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: P/O DONALD ARTHUR BAKER
Gefangenennummer: 665
Lager-Bezeichnung: [deleted] M.-Stammlager Luft 3 [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] XXIB [/inserted]
[page break]
23:2:1943
My Dearest Mother, Since last I wrote have received two letters from you. Nov 25TH from Sea Point & December 17TH from Charlton, which is quite fast. How surprising that you should get a letter from me in a month. Am so glad you enjoyed yourselves on the holiday. Is Dad still always meeting old cronies of his. Cape Town will be a very welcome sight again but better still Rhodesia & Charlton. Our morale is very high just now & there are high hopes & bets that we will be home by the end of the year. An old friend of mine from Bulawayo has arrived here. He is very anxious that his mother should not be too anxious so will you please write to her to that effect, as she will be pleased to hear from someone apart from her son that we keep fairly fit here. She is Mrs A. M. Thompson, P.O. Box 603 Bulawayo. They were at Highbury & as you see she works in the Chief Accts I wish I could get some definite information about post war land settlement at home. At the moment six of us are contemplating starting farming in Kenya by pooling our capital & getting six adjoining farms. The profit (if there’ll be any) will be shared. The chief crop would be pyrethrum which it appears is a very remunerative business. Basing costs & prices on a Kenya report the prospects are very good & Kenya (apart from “the old school tie” business, seems a wonderful country. The idea of a communal farm appeals to me as it is the cheapest way for us to get a good start. However I would much rather stay in Rhodesia & I should be very disappointed if I got started in Kenya only to find that Rhodesia was offering more encouragement & help to farmers. The weather has been pretty mild lately & the snow cleared away. Very different from last year and you can imagine how pleased we are. Well dearest mother must close now. Much love to you and the family from your loving son
Donald
Keep Smiling