Correspondence relating to William Dunstan, August - December 1945 - Part 7

2. 
We started off in Heliopolis at a little bar where
some very good draft beer is sold. We then proceeded to
Cairo and floated through a few bars, - Shepheards, the
Continental, etc. and had some very indifferent grog at very
exhorbitant prices. We then had dinner at Dolls, which
used to be a fair sort of Cabaret place. The dinner was
lousy, the grog was worse, and the cabaret show was about the
worst I have seen. I then sought out the Manager and told
him exactly what i thought of the place and that I would never
darken its doors again. He was rather annoyed.
Today, with an awful headache, I am spending 24 hours
in the Garrison Goal, guarding another officer who is under
close arrest. It is a rather tiresome job as I have to take
him for walks and this afternoon he wants to see the local
hockey match, while I want to go to sleep. I believe he is
in for smuggling hashish into Egypt from Syria -- a very
profitable occupation, if one doesn't get caught!
I think it would be best if you resume addressing
letters to RAJNG, India Command, as it is likely that i will
leave here within a week or so.
I have had no mail for six weeks now, so I am
looking forward to catching up with a lot of letters from you.
Lots of love -
BILL
====

C O P Y 
=======                       
309493
Captain W. Dunstan,
RAJNG
INDIA COMMAND.
================
October 19th, 1945.
My dear Family,
I am still messing about in the Middle East, but
hope to get away any day now. I can't understand the
delay as there are at least three ships per week going through
the Canal. A couple of days ago the Base Depot found me
another "stooge" job to do.
It consists of occupying an office in a transit
camp at Mena doing almost nothing apart from drinking tea at
the NAAFI next door. Being a transit camp where people are
liable to arrive at any hour of the day or night, the NAAFI
(incl. bar) is open 24 hours a day. However, as half the
money spent in the bar goes to King Faruk, I am almost
teetotal these days.
Altogether there were six officers on this job
- four of them today and there is still nothing much to
do. The Camp Commandant, an old regular Major, with a
beautiful purple complexion and fifty inch waist line - he is
the perfect model for a caricature - came to me and asked me
if I could possibly carry on with such small staff!!
I told him that I thought I might just possibly manage.
All this sort of thing would be highly amusing but for the
fact that the War Office has just decided to defer the release
of officers owing to the acute shortage of same!
The trouble is that lots of people have been
sitting on nice sweet jobs requiring 30 minutes' work per
day for the last six years and these jobs still have to be
filled, or some senior staff officer becomes superfluous.
However, this particular job has its compensations.
The mess is first class, consisting of only six or seven
officers and about a dozen native servants. It is a very
nice house where Barbara Hutton spent a honeymoon once upon
a 
time. I can't recall which husband it was, but I have a
very pleasant room with private bathroom, h. and c. etc., a 
huge sunken bath in which one can almost swim. The food is
magnificent - I feel very guilty when I think of the meagre
rations on which the people in England have to live.
The house is on top of a hill overlooking the
Mena House Hotel and the pyramids are less than half a mile
away. The weather is really beautiful just now - lovely,
clear, mild, sunny days.
Last Monday I had lunch with Colonel Chapman and his
offsider - Major Duffy.  He is winding up the office at
GHQ this week and expects to return to Australia early this
month.

2.
Since I had the wisdom tooth removed, I had had a
lot of pain from the jaw and was becoming rather worried about
it until a few day ago I managed to extract a piece of bone
the size of my little finger nail from the cavity where the
tooth used to reside. It looks as though it used to be
part of my jaw bone. The dentist now informs me that the
tooth on the opposite side has to be extracted, so there are
more happy days ahead. He won't do it for another month,
so I think I will wait and see what the inside of an Indian
hospital is like.
That is all for now.
Your loving
SON
===
P.S. Address all letters to India.
====

C O P Y

=======
At sea,
"Somewhere East of
Suez"                           
October 27, 1945.
My dear Mum,
The Base Depot ran true to form and gave me less
than twelve hours notice to sail for India. It was Sunday,
of course, and I couldn't get any money so, by the time I got
to the ship I had only 3/6d. in my pocket after paying mess
bills, batman, etc. Fortunately there was a field cashier
on board who was changing pounds into rupees and he was good
enough to cash a cheque for me so all was well.
The good ship "Rugs" is a very modern Dutch motor
vessel of about 14,000 tons, built just before the war.
There is another gunner captain with me - Barry
Begant - who left England in the same draft and has had the
same misfortunes as myself. He is a very good bloke and
we are lucky enough to have a six-berth cabin between the two
of us, the reason being that there are very few European
troops on board. Most of the troops are Indians going back 
to their own country from the M.E. and Italy. Their
Officers are good chaps and I often play bridge with some of
them, although they are a bit too good at the game for me.
There were a lot of passengers of indeterminate
nationality on board, but most of them got off at Aden. Aden
still looks as grim as ever and I feel very sorry for anybody 
who is stationed there for any length of time.
The Red Sea was almost unbearably hot, even at this
time of year, particularly at night when there wasn't a
breath of wind. As soon as we passed through the "Gates of
Hell" into the Indian Ocean it became much cooler and it is now
possible to lie out on deck in the sun without drowning in a 
bath of perspiration.
The food is good. There is a fair library and a
film show nearly every night, - in fact, it is one of the most
comfortable ships I have been on. As it is the 12th ship I
have sailed in during the war, not counting landing craft, I 
am becoming rather an authority on the good and bad points of
troopers.
I will be very glad to get to the Base Depot in
India because I am hoping there is a large batch of mail waiting
for me. I have had none from Australia for nearly two
months.
/In

2.
In Cairo I received a letter from Mr. Chard telling 
me that a sheepskin jacket valued at £6.10.0d. had arrived for me
in England, addressed to the M.E., posted by Myers. I 
wonder who could have sent that? I don't think I will need
it where I am going unless I start climbing the Himalayas.
I am afraid I am due for another spell in hospital
as soon as I arrive. The other wisdom tooth will have to
come out and there is another large piece of bone sticking out
of the cavity of the old one. I'll bet if I had had old
Harry Jenkins working on me all this would never have happened.
The work of the girl on the other ship and the chap in the 
hospital seems to be a pretty good case of brute force and
ignorance, to me. However, don't worry as I am not suffering
any pain.
Will write again as soon as I arrive in two or 
three days.
Your loving son
================

C O P Y
=======
309493
Captain W. Dunstan
R.A.J.N.G.
INDIA COMMAND
================
October 31, 1945.
My dear Mum,
I have arrived in India at last, but have not left
the ship yet. Apparently the ship cannot pull into the
wharf until the day after tomorrow.
This is the fourth time I have come to Bombay during
the war and it still looks the same. I can pick out all the
old landmarks, - the Taj Mahal Hotel, The Gateway of India,
Malabar Hill and the sacred Elephant Island. It is a 
beautiful day, not too hot and the waterfront looks more
attractive in the distance than most ports I have visited.
The pay experts have been on board and I have had
to fill numerous forms to stop my pay in England and to start
it working here. The British Army pay system never ceases
to bewilder me. Here it appears that I get nearly twice as 
much as before - about £675 a year, but have to pay for all
food, lodging and servant etc, which scales it down to about
the same as what I got in Europe, so I don't gain much,
although it looks a very substantial figure on paper.
I don't mind staying on board for another two days,
- the food is excellent and the entertainment good.
The dreadful news has just been broken to us that
the release of all officers in age groups over 21 has been
deferred. My group is 31, so I have no idea when I will get
out of the Army now. I shall try to get myself a staff job
somewhere. Now that the war is over I think that 5½ years
of looking after a lot of soldiers is enough, so I will try 
to avoid regimental soldiering in future.
I will write again when I arrive at the Base 
Depot in two or three days time.
Lots of love -
BILL
====

BY AIR MAIL

AIR MAIL

LETTER CARD

Affix 
FORCES
Stamp
MAIL
here
5/11/45
Mrs. W. Dunstan
20 Wallace Avenue

Toorak, SE2
Melbourne
Victoria
AUSTRALIA
W dunston
Capt.
309493
Capt. W. Dunstan RA
Officers Wing
RA Base Depot
Deolali
India

309493
Capt. W. Dunstan
Officers Wing
RA Base Depot
Deolali
INDIA
5 November
My dear Mum,
I got off the ship
at Bombay three days ago
and was sent to a transit
camp at Kalyan 30 miles out
of the town. On the second
night four of us went into
Bombay and had a very good
dinner. I had the biggest mixed
grill I have ever seen. There
was great excitement as the
Hindu population was celebrating
the festival of Diwali which
is their New Year. There were
lots of fireworks being set
off, people were dancing in
the streets & throwing garlands
of flowers over everybody.
Bombay doesn't seem to have
changed much except that it 
is crowded with troops who are
either arriving here or on their
way home. Everything is terribly
expensive and I have no desire 
to go there again in a hurry.
Beer is unobtainable and the
local firewater costs about five
and six a tot!!
The next day I was sent to
Deolali, 120 miles from Bombay,
where the RA Base Depot is
situated. You will remember
that I spent a month here
in 1940 with the AIF. It has
changed so much that I didn't
recognise it when I arrived.
There must be thousands of
troops here now - mostly
doing nothing as far as I can
see. I have filled in the 
usual innumerable forms &
documents and heard a
lecture on what is likely to
happen to new arrivals
in India. It looks as

though I will be here for at least
3 weeks but probably a lot longer.
It is apparently rather difficult 
to find a job for people like
me as I won't be in the army
long enough to get settled into it.
The chaps they want are the
young ones who still have a
few years to serve. I still have
hopes of getting out about the
middle of 1946.
I have been unable to locate
any mail as yet. Unfortunately 
there is another chap named
Dunstan in this area and my
letters seem to have been sent
to his unit. No doubt the Army
Post Office will locate them in ^[[?]]
due course.
Your very loving son,
P.S.  Note new address

C O P Y
=======
309493
Captain, W. Dunstan,
Officer's Wing,
R.A. BASE DEPOT
DEOLALI. INDIA.
===============
My dear Mum,
I got off the ship at Bombay three days ago and
was sent to a transit camp at Kalyan, 30 miles out of the
town.
On the second night four of us went into Bombay
and had a very good dinner. I had the biggest mixed grill
I have ever seen. There was great excitement as the
Hindu population was celebrating the festival of Divali, which
is their New Year. There were lots of fireworks being set
off, people were dancing in the streets and throwing garlands
of flowers over everybody. 
Bombay doesn't seem to have changed much, except
that it is crowded with troops who are either arriving here or
on their way home. Everything is terribly expensive and I
have no desire to to go there again in a hurry. Beer is 
unobtainable and the local firewater costs about five
and six a tot!!!
The next day I was sent to Deolali, 120 miles from
Bombay, where the R.A. Base Depot is situated.  You will
remember that I spent a month here in 1940 with the A.I.F.
It has changed so much that I didn't recognise it when I
arrived.  There must be thousands of troops here now -
mostly doing nothing as far as I can see.  I have filled in
the usual innumerable forms and documents and heard a lecture
on what is likely to happen to new arrivals in India.
It looks as though I will be here for at least three weeks,
but probably a lot longer. It is apparently rather difficult 
to find a job for people like me as I won't be in the Army long
enough to get settled into it. The chaps they want are the
young ones who still have a few years to serve.  I still have
hopes of getting out about the middle of 1946.

I have been unable to locate any mail as yet.
Unfortunately there is another chap named Dunstan in this area
and my letters seem to have been sent to his unit. No
doubt the Army Post Office will locate them in due course.
Your very loving son
==================
P.S.  NOTE NEW ADDRESS