Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 3

Lt Col A S Blackburn 
SX6962 2/3 th Q Bn 
AIF Abroad 
  
My darling little Margie. 
How are you getting on my dear & how 
is school going?. I suppose by the time you get this your 
exams. will be nearly over & you will have come out 
top of the class.  I wonder what form you will be going 
up to next year, my darling; somewhere quite well up in 
the school I suppose.  I gather from all the family letters that 
you are hard at it at tennis lately. What team are you in, 
still in the D s or are you up in the C s yet?. We have been 
having really summery weather here lately. About a month 
ago - or nearly a month, about the 15^th Oct to be exact the 
weather looked as if it was going to break very 
thoroughly.  We had a terrific night's storm with 
inches of rain & a gale of wind & terrible thunder & 
lightning.  Then a little later we had another 
rain but nothing like as much as the first, but 
since then it has been just like summer again. 
The last few days have been so hot that it 
has been really uncomfortable.  I am living in a nice 
house right on the very top of a hill about 1500 feet high. 
The top of the hill is only about a mile in a direct line 
from the sea so you can imagine that it is pretty steep. 
It is a curious formation of the ground as this high 
hill rises up almost sheer from the sea & then is nearly 
as steep a drop on the other side to an immense plain 
about four miles wide.  Then very steep & high 
mountains rising up to about 9000 feet commence & the 
top of these always has snow on it and in winter 

2/ 
has snow many many yards deep all over it.  The road 
up to the top has a big gang of men at work on it all 
the year round to keep it in repair - and in winter to keep 
the snow off it.  Right up near the top are two quite big 
hotels and I hope to go & stay up there for a night or two, 
if I can manage it, when the snow has come so as to 
see what it is like.  The house in which I am living 
was built by a wealthy Dr. some years ago.  He built 
the house & then went to America to get married & has 
never come back.  The house faces the top of the  
mountains & from the back of it you look straight down 
onto the sea.  There are two big stone stair-cases leading 
up to the front door, one on each side of a circular 
landing with a fountain (which doesn't act) in the middle 
of it.  Just inside the front door is a stone staircase 
(without any banisters or rails) which leads up to the 
flat roof of the house.  All the better class houses over 
here have flat roofs made of concrete & that is the 
usual place for the family to sit out on in the evenings 
as it is very rare to see the slightest attempt at a  
garden or lawn or even a fence dividing one 
from another.  going on past the stone stair case one 
comes into a big control room off which other rooms 
open all around thus:-  The two curved ends are 
meant to represent big glassed 
in semicular rooms.  
My room is the one in the corner marked with a X & the dotted 
lines off it are meant to represent a balcony all of my 
own which opens off my room & from which I have

3/ 
a most wonderful view over the sea & towards a huge rocky 
headland which runs out a little way down the coast.  The 
little rooms on the opposite corner to mine are kitchen & bathroom. 
The bathroom had all kinds of wonderful fittings.  It had a  
huge built in tiled bath & a great bitg bath heater with 
three seperate kinds of showers.  However the bath heater had 
never been connected up with the bath at all so before we 
could use it we had to get busy & join it all up.  There is 
practically no wood in this country so we had to make 
an oil heater thing for it, but it is now working wonderfully. 
The oil heater is an extremely ingenious arrangement which 
is made by a thin tube leading from a tin of oil & 
another from a tin of petrol.  They lead into a small cup 
affair in which they mix & then run on by another 
tube onto a flat metal plate under the bath heater.  A small 
piece of rag or paper is put on the plate, the tap is turned 
on so that a drop of mixed oil & petrol is steadily dropping 
onto the paper or rag & then a match is applied.  The result 
is the same as when you grill a chop in over a kerosene 
tin.  The dropping of the melted fat keeps the fire going 
just the same as the oil & petrol does in our bath 
heater.  Up to date we haven't had weather cold enough 
to really want a hot bath as far as temperature goes 
but everyone assures us that we will be very 
thankful for a hot bath soon.  There is practically no 
wood in the whole house, the only exceptions being the 
doors, windows or rather window frames.  All the floors 
are tiled or just plain cement & the ceilings are all cement 
without even wooden lathes.  There is such an acute

4/ 
shortage of wood throughout all this country that it is 
very rare indeed to see a wooden floor anywhere.  For the 
same reason - or I presume it is for the same reason - there is 
not a single fireplace anywhere.  I haven't seen one fire - 
place here anywhere. The cooking is all done in little 
earthern or clay stoves - mostly out in the open or in a shed. 
There are no such things as chimneys anywhere & I really 
don't know what the people do to keep warm when the 
weather does get really cold.  All the regular inhabitants 
of the village are agriculturists - mainly growers of grain & 
fruit.  The view from one of my windows looking down 
a long steep gully to the sea is quite fantastic as a place 
to grow crops.  It is so steep that noone could possibly walk 
or climb straight up or down it.  There are numerous little 
goat tracks or narrow paths which winding down the face 
of the hillside right to the bottom.  However the whole way 
down the ground has been terraced into a series of 
gigantic steps, each about 6 or 7 yds wide & on these terraces 
the natives grow their crops.  They go out in the morning driving 
a couple of bullocks & with their curious native ploughs 
strapped onto the back of one of them & you can watch 
them winding down the side of the almost sheer hillside 
along one of their tiny narrow tracks.  Then when they 
reach their own particular terrace they unpack their 
plough, harness their bullocks to it & set to work to 
plough their little piece of ground.  Having ploughed it 
they walk along scattering handfulls of seed & raking 
the soil over it until it is all sewn.  Then they move 
on to the next bit of ground.  It all looks frightfully 
primitive but it is the only way the ground could 
possibly be worked.

5. 
I wish you could see all the little boys & girls here in 
this village.  They are nearly all very dark skinned & 
nearly all of them have black hair & great big blacks eyes. 
For some reason which I have never been able to fathom 
all soldiers in the country, that is all Australian or English 
soldiers,  are called "George" by the natives.  The universal 
greeting to everyone whether he is a private or a General 
is "Hullo George".  You would be very amused if you 
saw me going from my living quarters to my Bn HQ 
in the morning.  The kids have all realised that I am 
the Col & command the whole show & every morning my 
way to my office leads past the local school.  All the 
little kiddies always stand out at the front & as I 
go past an absolute chorus goes up of "Hullo George" 
to which I must always reply "Hullo. Good morning". 
Just lately the adults have started the morning greeting too, 
realising perhaps that I am in command - in fact in 
absolute power - over the whole village. 
Well darlings this seems to be the end of my allowance 
of writing paper for this letter.  I am still keeping 
very fit but am missing you all terribly.  I suppose 
by the time you get this your exams will either be 
finished or will be still going.  If the latter I wish 
you the very best of luck. 
Goodbye my dears.  Look after Mummy 
& give her lots of kisses for me 
Daddy 
  
Arthur S Blackburn