Partial letter about leave in Palestine
Title
Partial letter about leave in Palestine
Description
Describes and evening out in Palestine including meeting prostitutes. Philosophises on Palestine being a wonderful country for broadening the mind. Mentions taking a dip before breakfast and leaving Tel Aviv by train back to Cairo. Mentions food while on leave and back in their mess.
Language
Format
Two-sided handwritten letter
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
SReidK473650v10010
Transcription
[underlined] 11. [/underlined]
The Prom’ was crowded it reminded one of Blackpool on August holiday week. Being a holiday weekend most of the people from the colonies came into the town, also a large number of Aussie, French, Tommy, Polish etc., troops came in on leave.
We remark upon the colourful scene the masses make [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] their shorts, shirts, print & silk dresses, stylish frocks etc.,
We chatted with several chaps and occasional girls untill [sic] about 9 PM when the moon came out accross [sic] the water and lent enchantment to the cool evening so we went for a walk to the gardens where we sat awhile beneath arches covered with wild rose’s’, [sic] then we decided to spend the remaining couple of hours at Henri’s small place. They had been very decent to us and most obliging, cheerful and very interesting so we had quite a party lasting untill [sic] well after midnight. We left them and walked along the sea-front towards the hotel, we were surprised to note that there were still a fair ammount [sic] of people around. We were twice stopped by enterprising females, this as most men know is rather [inserted] un [/inserted] usual, not the fact of being approached by them, but that we were approached when there were two of us together, the professional ladies normally stick to the single chap as no man even if he desires her wares would normally turn round to a companion and ask him to leave as he intends going with the girl. Being curious we talked with the second girl, she was only about 17 or 18 yrs, [deleted] she [/deleted] on being asked why she was on the streets she gave the usual reasons, poverty etc.
Its an amazing fact but true that these people have their pride, they will not accept gifts of money for nothing, they maintain begging is a lower form of earning a living than the other thing!
Two years ago I was horribly disgusted and despised such women but nowadays even decent respectable soldiers
[page break]
12
realise that nothing can stop [inserted] the [/inserted] racket so we tend to shrug our shoulders and thank God that our sisters and friends are free from the possibilities of such things.
Palestine is wonderful country for broadening the mind its so much a melting pot of Europe’s best & lofty ideas together with its continental vices. Last night we listened to perfection in music, to-night, we hear the sorrowful story of how a girl’s soul is ruined, such is mankind.
Even though it was 1 AM as wont to rest, we had a dip before breakfast on our last morning in Tel Aviv.
We reluctantly left Tel Aviv by the 930 AM train which connected with the Kantara express at Lydda where we meet the boys who did the trips around the Holy Land that we did in Oct.
They are quite pleased with their holiday and we swap yarns.
We arrive back in Cairo at 1 AM and spend the night in a hotel returning back to camp the following day
So now we are once again back to the old Army routine, it’s pretty ikesome [sic] for the first couple of days but we soon [deleted] setle [sic] [/deleted] settle down again. We find some mail awaiting us in the Sgts Mess which is a welcome consolation against our having to return from leave. Although the luxory [sic] meals we had on leave were a pleasant change, we certainly appreciate the good meals our cook turns out at the mess. Tonight for example we both enjoyed the roast beef, potatoes, marrow, onions, and spinich, [sic] followed by the fruit salad sweet. Yes we have a lot to be thankful for in this army. And that my dear Anzac concludes the trip which cost us a tenner each but well worth it. So you may now relax your imagination and step out of that uniform into skirts again and become Kitty Meyers once more.
The Prom’ was crowded it reminded one of Blackpool on August holiday week. Being a holiday weekend most of the people from the colonies came into the town, also a large number of Aussie, French, Tommy, Polish etc., troops came in on leave.
We remark upon the colourful scene the masses make [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] their shorts, shirts, print & silk dresses, stylish frocks etc.,
We chatted with several chaps and occasional girls untill [sic] about 9 PM when the moon came out accross [sic] the water and lent enchantment to the cool evening so we went for a walk to the gardens where we sat awhile beneath arches covered with wild rose’s’, [sic] then we decided to spend the remaining couple of hours at Henri’s small place. They had been very decent to us and most obliging, cheerful and very interesting so we had quite a party lasting untill [sic] well after midnight. We left them and walked along the sea-front towards the hotel, we were surprised to note that there were still a fair ammount [sic] of people around. We were twice stopped by enterprising females, this as most men know is rather [inserted] un [/inserted] usual, not the fact of being approached by them, but that we were approached when there were two of us together, the professional ladies normally stick to the single chap as no man even if he desires her wares would normally turn round to a companion and ask him to leave as he intends going with the girl. Being curious we talked with the second girl, she was only about 17 or 18 yrs, [deleted] she [/deleted] on being asked why she was on the streets she gave the usual reasons, poverty etc.
Its an amazing fact but true that these people have their pride, they will not accept gifts of money for nothing, they maintain begging is a lower form of earning a living than the other thing!
Two years ago I was horribly disgusted and despised such women but nowadays even decent respectable soldiers
[page break]
12
realise that nothing can stop [inserted] the [/inserted] racket so we tend to shrug our shoulders and thank God that our sisters and friends are free from the possibilities of such things.
Palestine is wonderful country for broadening the mind its so much a melting pot of Europe’s best & lofty ideas together with its continental vices. Last night we listened to perfection in music, to-night, we hear the sorrowful story of how a girl’s soul is ruined, such is mankind.
Even though it was 1 AM as wont to rest, we had a dip before breakfast on our last morning in Tel Aviv.
We reluctantly left Tel Aviv by the 930 AM train which connected with the Kantara express at Lydda where we meet the boys who did the trips around the Holy Land that we did in Oct.
They are quite pleased with their holiday and we swap yarns.
We arrive back in Cairo at 1 AM and spend the night in a hotel returning back to camp the following day
So now we are once again back to the old Army routine, it’s pretty ikesome [sic] for the first couple of days but we soon [deleted] setle [sic] [/deleted] settle down again. We find some mail awaiting us in the Sgts Mess which is a welcome consolation against our having to return from leave. Although the luxory [sic] meals we had on leave were a pleasant change, we certainly appreciate the good meals our cook turns out at the mess. Tonight for example we both enjoyed the roast beef, potatoes, marrow, onions, and spinich, [sic] followed by the fruit salad sweet. Yes we have a lot to be thankful for in this army. And that my dear Anzac concludes the trip which cost us a tenner each but well worth it. So you may now relax your imagination and step out of that uniform into skirts again and become Kitty Meyers once more.
Collection
Citation
“Partial letter about leave in Palestine,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39715.
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