Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 2 - Part 17 of 22

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with the money I had, that lace that you could
use for almost anything would be the best
thing I could send you. Now am going to
tell you exactly what I paid, so you can laugh
if Ive been taken down.  1/3 - 2/- per yard
for the insertion, 5/- for the Hank, & 2/- (or 3/-) for
the D'oyley. The old chap swore by all that
was holy, that the stuff would be posted at 
Malta this morning & go by Regd post, so I
put a long letter in for you that I'd written
on the boat, & also enclosed one I promised to
get away for Jim Hancock if it could be
managed. I put a memo on that letter asking
you to post it. Hope you liked the stuff, &
am very sorry I did not have about ₤20
to spend, would have spent it, if I'd had it.
Be sure & let me know, if Ive been taken down,
as if not, there may be a chance of calling there
again some day. Five of us then thought we
would like to try an Italian luncheon, so away
we went. The proprietor seemed rather astounded.
Apparently he was not used to Military Officers
frequenting his old turn out; but after sundry

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explanations by one of your chaps that could
make himself understood in French the show
started. Soup, very weak, detected the slightest
flavour of Celery in it, Worcestershire Sauce
to the rescue. Next thing was Macaroni,
a huge pile big enough to sink a ship, with
bits of meat strewn through it. After trying
to eat a little so as not to offend one of
our Allies we passed this in. Next thing
to come along was fillet of fish, managed
this pretty well, though some of the chaps
swore it was shark. Next item was Brains.
They were not too bad. Forgot to mention
that we had insisted upon a saucer of Olives
to start with. They were rather careworn
to gaze upon & not too good to taste, but we
stuck to it: The Cafe proprietor was most
enthusiastic about a lonely bottle of wine he
had put away, . 8 years old. He spoke of it
with reveration. This appeared eventually &
some one must have stirred up the mud in the
bottom of it. We had to wait about 5 minutes
after we poured it out, to allow the big chunks
of sediment to settle somewhere near the

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bottom of the glass, it was not bad to drink,
but we could see no occasion for the old
Italiano to have made a fuss about it.
Altho there were sundry other things to eat
we cried a go & had some fruit, cheese that
required disinfecting & Coffee & then got the
Bill. After all the preparation & ceremony
in connection with the Bottle of wine, the
lunch for 5 of us came to 12/1 , just under
Half a Crown each. The proprietor gave me
one of the menus, which I am enclosing, your
Father will probably like to see it, as for me
no more ducking round to obscure foreign
restaurants, when there are decent
English places. One could have had a bit
of everything in the place for 5/- according
to the price list. We then went down to
the lift to go home, but met some of our
chaps coming ashore who said we were not
sailing until the following morning, so away
once more. Got a cab again & drove out
to San Antonio gardens, about ½ an hours
drive, beautiful road, we soon got out of the
town into the country & it is all very

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interesting. The farmers have very small
holdings as far as I could see, little patches of
land with stone walls round each one. The
country is so rough & steep, that if it were not
for the stone fences, a shower of rain would
wash a mans farm away. There are terraces
everywhere & they look really well. They tell me
all the soil has been brought here, & put on the 
rocks. The gardens are principally orange
groves & are not anything to rave about, but
they are kept well. We came back a different
route, & hit the next bay to the grand harbour.
Sulima it is called, across this bay is the
principal residential quarter, & tho I did
not go across to the other side, it looked
very nice. We came back to the Ship about
5 o'clock & had dinner & then went off again.
Oh before I start on the evenings entertainment
must tell you about one of Valettas National
industries. Kids run alongside the cabs
outside the Cities & turn Catherine wheels,
in expectation of having coppers thrown to them.
They will run for a mile turning a wheel

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about every 30 yards. Nice little kids they 
are, lovely brown eyes & olive skins, fairly
clean also, which is such a change after
Egypt. Another industry is the goat business.
There are thousands of goats. There is no trouble
about the fresh milk. Goats are taken round
& milked at the door, so there is no deception.
It seems incredible to think a goat can give
so much milk, but the people there evidently
take as much trouble over raising a good
milking strain of goats as we do with our
dairy cows. Their udders are simply huge
& sometimes impede the walking of the poor
little beast. After dinner we went into
Valetta again to listen to the Band, which
was playing in the Palace Square. It was a
lovely band, about 50 performers, Played
all good operatic music, finishing up with
Faust & The Soldiers Chorus. Had to stand
all the time, that was the only drawback.
The Valetta Band was reinforced by a lot of
men from one of  the British Regimental Bands
& it was "some" Band. Would love to have 
heard them play a good March

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Now for some absolute debauchery. We were
on our way home about 9 o'clock, when a
convalescent Aust Officer we met advised us
not to go without having a look in at the
Alhambra. It was the Limit with a Capital
L. Don't think I ever laughed so much before.
There was not a dull moment. It was only a
small place with a stage on one end, &
a bit of an Orchestra. Tables all round, &
a Restaurant off at one side. Girls used
to come out on the Stage & sing about 4
short songs one after the other & then come
down & join the crowd. The crowd consisted
chiefly of Naval Officers, both British &
French, a sprinkling of British Officers
Military & about ¼ Civilians. The songs
were nearly all French & no one used to
listen, there was a dreadful racket the
whole time, then suddenly everyone would
join in the Chorus of some popular tune
& the row would be worse than ever. I think it
was livelier than usual last night, because there
was a young RNR Officer fairly tite & he
was having the time of his life, ably assisted

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by a couple of Military Officers. They used to
think it a great joke to make a sudden rush
for the stage and vault on it, & the poor girl
singing would scuttle off for all she was
worth, while who ever rushed the stage
would make a Speech. As for the poor devil
playing the Piano, He often got fired off
his seat, because one of the the audience wanted
to play. We Australians appeared to be such
a disappointment to the RNR chap he begged
us in turn to assist him in bursting up their
show. He said it really had to be done, but
none of our Officers were looking for any larks
of that nature, & as a matter of fact, were
practically the only sober chaps there, &
certainly the only ones that behaved properly.
Waiters were rushing round between the
tables bringing drinks, & occasionally there
would be an awful smash when a table
got knocked over. At 10/15 the Concert
finished & the chaps I was with myself
cleared. Some of our fellows stayed and they tell us
it got wilder still. Dancing started, & then 2
of the girls had a scrap. Oh I was in Society

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last night & although it was all very
foolish, it was funny & I thoroughly enjoyed
the novelty of it all though I would not
care to go again tonight. Coming home we
had no ½d left to go down, as it stops running
about 9 o'clock, so we walked down the Strada
Lucia, the street which is all steps. There is
a good picture of it in the book of postcards
I bought for you. Taking Valetta all round
am very keen on it. After Egypt it is such
a change. Lovely sea views everywhere, nice
clean streets, English spoken everywhere,
European dress the rule & not the exception,
everything nice & clean, the streets especially.
It is the nicest place Ive seen since
leaving Australia, & we all consider ourselves
very lucky to have had the chance of a day
to look round. The poor men of course could
not land. Was sorry for that, but we were
not allowed to give any leave at all to the
men. Believe Valetta has been described as
a City of Bells & Steps. It is rather an
apt description, but think Goats should
be included - 28/3/16.  Daresay there are
1000's of things I wanted to tell you about, by can't

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think of them. Nothing has happened since
leaving Malta. Been wonderfully calm & the sea
as beautifully blue as ever. We are now
passing round the Southern end of Sardinia
& should reach our destination tomorrow
morning. Ill be glad as I don't like this ship.
Would not give much for our chance if we
were torpedoed, with a dago crew aboard.
The 1st Officer is an awfully interesting chap.
He has just been taken off the decoy boat
business. He was one of the Officers in the
famous "Barralong" incident, but needless to
remark does not discuss the matter. Will be
glad if you'll let my people know how things
are going, most likely there will be but little
time for writing letters once we land again.
Did not number my Malta letter, but am
 missing a number to make up for it. No
more now. Love to all, & with a big hug
for Johnnie,
Your loving Husband
Cecil.

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Have I say old Petti, Ive knocked off at the
end of page 13. I want to write a bit to you
instead of a letter for anyone to read, How I
did miss you yesterday. Next time I go to 
the bally war you are coming with me.
This travelling round without you is no
good to me. Am enclosing you a small pair
of pants, one red leg & one white leg. These were
given to us at the lace shop. Everyone that
bought anything had the blooming things
given to them. They reckoned it was a great
joke at the shop, & we all took them & wore 
them upon sleeves as handkerchiefs & pulled
them out by mistake upon every possible
occasion. We are a lot of kids at times,
& it is just as well I suppose to keep as
light-hearted as possible. Hope I can send
you a Cable shortly after reaching France
because doubtless you will have heard
all sorts of rumours about our Troops
shifting & we are afraid that perhaps
our letters have not been going as regularly
as they used to on a/c of this big move
being on. Hope our Mail comes after us
promptly, as its your last is dated about