Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 14

Lt Col A S Blackburn
SX6962
2/3 17aAn 
AIF
Abroad
31/7/41. 

My darling little Margie
I cannot remember whether this week's family letter
is to you or whether last week's was so to be on the safe side I am writing 
to you & sending Bob about six letters or so - or rather one letter in about 
six envelopes - which describes the fighting in Syria so far as my part of same
was concerned.   I am living in real luxury now. I am in a village  
very high up in the mountains near Beyrouth - Beirut it is spelt 
here.   I am a really "big wig" here, with a large office of my own in 
a very big building which has been taken over as H.Q.  The village 
is a fashionable summer resort for people from Beyrouth - wealthy French 
people of pre-war days & it is in many respects typically French.  The building 
in which my office is, consists of three stories of barb  beautiful stone 
building .  It is about 300 feet frontage to the street.  I am up on the second 
floor and to get to my office I have to climb up two flights of terribly 
steep marble stairs - there is no lift in the whole building which for 
some reason is very typical of this country.  Just below the building 
is a beautiful looking swimming pool, but as I am informed that the 
water is only changed once a week, I am not very interested. I 
am living working in what was a bedroom - the building used to be the most 
fashionable hotel in the place - and from it I can see right down a 
huge valley to Beyrouth.  I am living and sleeping in another building lower 
down in the village.  From where I work I can almost throw a stone onto 
the roof of the building where I live, but to get there takes nearly ten 
minutes by car owing to the steepness of the hill which necessitates a 
very steep "corkscrew" road.  The place in which I live is a typical 
French hotel & many of the customs are very strange to us.  My bed is 
a very ornate one with a most gaudy yellow & red eider down bed- 
spread.  It has an immense canopy of mosquito net because mosquitoes 
& malaria are quite bad in this country. My room and every 
other - has a balcony of its own with a French window opening onto it. 
It isn't one long balcony but every room has an entirely separate 
balcony completely disconnected with every other.  The bath room etc is, 
judged by our standards, entirely inadequate.  There is only one for the 
whole place - which is a really large hotel - and is used by everyone 
men women & children.  There is similarly only one lavatory although 
there are 30 odd bedrooms on my floor.  There is a washbowl 
in the room with cold water laid on & as is almost universal 
here - instead of a tap as we know it there is a contratraption 
which squirts one single stream of water downwards if you turn it 
down & if you reverse it & point the other end down it sprays out 
water like a garden hose rose.  It is a little disconcerting to use 
when one is not used to it.  The meals are really a bit of a trial 

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nobody here had ever dreamt apparently of morning tea & even hot water 
for shaving until late in the morning, the local custom being to shave about 
eleven or twelve o'clock in the morning.  Breakfast in true French fashion, is a 
very light meal at which, so far, I have seen nobody except British or Australian 
officers.  There is no alternative dishes, except alternatives of eggs, fried, poached 
or boiled.  I ordered an omelette & threw rather a spanner in the works.  With 
true French politeness the waiter said "Oui" & disappeared. About a quarter of 
 an hour later he re-appeared with an enormous dish - an omelette about  
a foot long with potatoes, lettuce, tomato and other garnishings.  He had  
had it prepared as it was prepared for a luncheon dish.  A most  
disconcerting habit is to bring the vegetables before the meat.  It is disconcerting  
because the French are very fond of dishes consisting solely of vegetables -  
French beans, tomatoes, fried egg, fruit etc - and when they put a dish of 
vegetables under ones nose to take a serve of, one never knows whether 
it is a vegetable dish unsupported or whether a little later some meat 
will  come along which was supposed to go with the vegetables.  If one 
waits the vegetables get cold and then one finds that no meat is coming.  
If one eats up the vegetables whilst warm, the waiter appears, as likely as 
not, with some roast beef or mutton which was meant to be eaten with 
the vegetables and one is left to eat it "unsupported" by vegetables.  Olive 
oil abounds in all the cooking and seems to be mixed with everything. 
Almost as a matter of course on every table is a bottle of wine, out 
of  which one takes a glass or two and leaves the bottle till next time. 
So far as I have so far judged the wine is not paid for as an extra in 
most cases but goes with the menu.  The front of the hotel is an 
immense open air verandah with little tables etc.  Dinner is not served 
until 8.30 at night at the earliest & the custom is to sit on the verandah 
(which is right onto the street) & sip light wine  etc until dinner time.  
The wines are more syrups than wind and even little children drink 
them.  The dining room is downstairs off one end of the verandah.  One 
cannot get to it without coming of of the front door and along the 
verandah & down the steps to the dining room. The verandah becomes 
very animated towards dark which is about 8pm - as the custom 
is for those not sipping wine on the verandahs to walk or drive 
along the street and as everyone knows everyone else there are 
constant shouts of greeting between "wine sippers" & "promenaders" 
followed by excited and terribly animated French conversations.  
These invariably and in the same way - an obvious invitation by the 
"sipper" to the "walker" or "driver" to join him on the verandah met with 
persistent & prolonged refusals by the "invitee" and absolutely invariably 
ultimately following by acceptance.  Dinner is a most leisured affair -  
about 8 or 10 dishes brought in one after another - no menu but just 
dishes brought to one - consisting of everything imaginable soup, fish, entree, 
vegetables, another entree, more vegetables, curry, stews, roasts, vegetables, sweets, 
savoury, fruit & then coffee.  Dinner seldom ends before about 10 
o'clock by which time I am very ready for bed.  However 
the life of the place really starts then and every night dancing 
etc goes on until two o'clock in the morning. Fortunately my 
room is some considerable distance away from the dance

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room and so I can manage to get to sleep.  The first night I went down 
to the dance room after dinner to have a look at it.  I didn't dance of 
course but stayed there about half an hour looking on. Every other 
night I have gone to sleep immediately after dinner.  One result of the 
late dinner hour is of course that one can work on very late in 
the evening which perhaps is just as well as it is too late to work 
after dinner.  We usually work on until 7 or 7.30.  It makes rather 
a long day but enables us to do a lot of work.  By the way as a 
matter of interest I counted the steps leading up to my office this  
afternoon.  There is a long & rather steep ramp for 25 yds and  
then I have to climb 92 steps to get to my office.  i can assure  
you that I am feeling pretty puffed by the time I get there! I  
have now established a chair outside in the passage &  invite  
everyone to sit down & recover their breath before trying to talk  
over business.  By the way the Secretary of the Commission of Control,  
that is the main body is a Major J.W. Hackett, an officer in a  
regular British Regt.  He is a son of Lady Hackett - or Mrs 
Hackett - or Buller Murphy - or Moulden whichever you choose.   
He is a very nice chap and I see quite a lot of him.  I  
gather he has been away from Australia for a long time & 
really has not much connection with Australia now.   
Well little Margie dear there is not much more news to tell you.  
I love getting your letters & hearing all the news.  What a thrill  
you must have got out of the Basket-ball matches.  and fancy you 
playing in a match of the A & B teams!  What a struggle you must  
have had standing Valerie Pellew.  Write and tell me all about the  
French play - I wish you were over here to talk French for me!    
My office is quite close to Lt. Col. K. A. Wills.  Doesn't his little girl  
go to the wilderness? Wody dearest I do so enjoy your lovely letters.   
I could not help laughing over the arrangement to get to the dance  
when young Susman drove you half of the way & Jim the other  
half.  And so they are all going into the Air-Force!  Tell them we  
want good men over here in the army.  There seem to be plenty  
of chaps going into the air Force & very few coming forward for  
the army. 
I Suppose you are felling pretty flat Bob old man with many  
away in Melbourne & nothing much to do except work hard.  
Never mind old chap, it will come to an end before long & I  
am sure you will never regret sticking it out & finishing 
your course.  You haven't told me whether you have done 
any more about getting a dental appointment in the army.  
Does Mr Wilson still promise you a job?  I think you were 
going to write to Mr Joyner about it were you not?  He told  
me he was going to write to someone in Melbourne, I 
forget who, and try to make sure that you got a job as soon  
as you were through. 
Well family it is time I stopped.  Look after yourselves & 
after Mummy & keep on writing as I love to get your 
letters.   
Your affectionate father 
Arthur S Blackburn