Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 16

LT Col A S Blackburn 
SX6962 2/3/9 
A.I.F. Abroad 
10/8/41 

My darling little Margie, 
I got a lovely letter from 
you last week. What a nice birthday party you 
had. I am so sorry that I thought the date was 
the 14^th. Aren't I a duffer to go & forget the date. I 
suppose the parcel which I have sent you hasn't 
arrived yet but I do hope it arrives safely. Just 
fancy getting 16 handkerchiefs all at once. Why I 
don't possess anything like that number! I wish I 
was learning French oral like you are. I try to speak 
it over here with disastrous results at times. The 
waiters in the hotel speak only French & Arabic. 
Yesterday morning I decided to have boiled eggs 
for breakfast & tried to tell the waiter that I 
wanted them lightly done - not hard boiled. He 
arrived back soon with two eggs. When I went 
to crack the first one, I thought that it felt 
very cool - it was only just warm & then when 
I did crack it I found that it was quite raw. It 
really wasn't cooked at all but had, by the look 
of it, just been plunged into hot water & taken

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straight out again. However I had another go at ordering 
what I wanted & succeeded that time. The French or rather 
Lebanese, idea of eggs & bacon is to put some bacon in 
a dish, immediately break two eggs over it, & as soon as 
the eggs are cooked to put it all - grease & everything- 
onto your plate. The other day I decided to have some 
for breakfast but only one egg. I consequently 
explained to the waiter, in French, that I wanted one 
egg & bacon - not two eggs. He arrived back a few 
minutes later with three or four lumps of bacon - just 
warm & afloat in grease & no egg at all. I can only 
imagine that he understood what I said to be 
"eggs & bacon" without any eggs! Another remarkable idea 
they have is in regard to baths. The tariff posted up in 
the bedrooms reads "Bedroom with bath room" so 
much per day & then "Bedroom without bath room" so 
much, of course a lower rate. Well when I arrived 
I was given a bedroom without the slightest 
sign of a bathroom attached. I used of course 
the general bathroom which was quite nice. 
At the end of the first week they presented me 
with the a/c & I found that they had charged 
at the highest rate. I went to the manager & told

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him that he had made a mistake as my room 
didn't have a bathroom. He looked very puzzled 
& said "Then you have not had a bath all this 
week?" I said "Of course I have but I have used 
the general bathroom" He said "But if you bath you 
pay the extra. If you do not want to bath then you 
tell us that you have not washed yourself & we 
do not charge you for a bath that day. It is 
a curious idea isn't it, paying for washing yourself 
by the day. Later 
I have run out of ink & as I cannot get any for a day or 
two I will have to go on with this in pencil. I have just 
come back from a trip up to the Turkish border during which 
I took the opportunity, of crossing into Turkey- even if only 
for 300-400 yds - so to be able to say that I had been in 
that country. On the way back I visited Aleppo which is 
the commercial centre of this part of the world. It is 
not a beautiful or historic city like Damascus but 
had some points of very great interest. I visited the 
market quarter which is alleged to be a complete 
survival of the ancient Castern Oriental market. It is 
very difficult to describe but is certainly very marvellous 
Aleppo itself is a city without any attempt at system in 

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its native quarter, streets run off each other & open into each other 
without any rhyme or reason. In a similar manner the population 
wander about with no attempt to keep to one side or the other 
of the streets & to walk on footpaths. Down the centre of the 
streets run electric trains clanging their way through 
people, donkeys, camels, motor cars, babies, blind people 
& goods of all descriptions in a series of miracles by which 
collisions which look inevitable are constantly avoided. 
One such train line ends at solid stone wall with a 
little low arched entrance. This is the beginning of the 
market. One enters through this into a world apart. 
Our standards of living cease at the entrance & a yard 
inside one is in the leisured lazy, yet keen commercial 
world of the East. The street is not wide enough for 
even one motor car. It all consists of solid stone work 
arched in the peculiar formation of the East. I wish I 
could sketch it. I can’t & so I can only describe it by 
saying that each arch consists not as ours do of 
two sides but of four all converging into a central 
point. These arches -all of stone -occur about every 
30-40 yards, and constitute the roof throughout 
the whole area which extends I should think for some 
miles. The sides are entirely stone & the floor cobble 
stones. Each shop consists of a recess in the stone 
side formed entirely i.e floor roof & walls of stone itself.

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worked into a curious formation of stone & some sort of cement or 
similar binding material. Don’t get the impression that it’s one 
long straight stretch. It is very different to that. I do not 
know it’s shape. I suppose somebody does-but I can’t imagine 
anyone finding it’s shape unless with years of experience. 
I could not get a plan of it but it seems to have no 
system. Each little passage or street opens into another & 
often half way along a passage is a low vaulted entrance 
to another. We spent 1 1/2 hours steady walking around. 
After the first ten minutes I lost all direction & yet I am 
sure I never went along the same bit of the market 
twice. We had a guide of course who seemed to 
know the way. The amazing thing is that each section 
or passage or street is devoted entirely to the same 
sort of shop. For example all boot shops, all butchers 
shops, all silverware shops, all cotton goods shops, all 
silk shops, all carpet shops, all money changers, all 
cool drink shops, all fruit shops, all cake shops, all 
furniture shops & so on ad infinitum are together, 
each seperate line constituting a passage & street 
of its own. Every shop is a mere space in the stone 
wall with no ventilation except the entirely open front 
and every shop opens direct on to the street. Quite often 
the proprietors would be stretched out on the counter sound 
asleep for these people just lie down & drop asleep 
whenever they feel like it & quite regardless of where

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they are. In the silk market. I was extremely interested in a typical bit 
of Eastern bargaining. An arab had brought in to the shop a big length 
of silk-for the shops all buy as well as sell- and was offering it 
to the proprietor another Arab. We watched for a quarter of an hour 
& the buyer seemed utterly disinterested, he wouldn’t even look 
in fact most of the time but [[?]] openly turned his back & 
started a conversation with someone else. Every now & then he 
would turn to the seller & apparently make an offer which the seller 
would then in his turn treat with utter contempt. I don’t know 
where it all ended but I wish you could have seen the utter 
indifference-apparently- of each of them to this offer of the other. 
At one place we came into the silver market. This is slightly 
differently designed in that instead of being of stone & consisting 
of little shops opening off one street it consists of one big room 
with row after row of small benches fitted with vices & rows of 
tools & in front of each bench a small glass topped show case. There 
are I am informed over 150 different silver smiths there.Each one was 
making his jewellery, brooches, bangles, earrings, ordinary rings, chains, 
lockets, filigree work etc at the bench sitting with legs crossed in 
approved eastern fashion & ready to wip the lid of his show case 
& offer you his wares if you so much as looked in his direction. 
The art is apparently handed on from father to son & goes on eternally. The 
silver ware & filigree work was quite beyond description & how 
they all make a living & the colossal value represented in the 
contents of the building are quite beyond me. Each silver

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smith had a lock up safe of his own in which apparently at night he 
puts away his trays of silver both raw & made up & the whole building room 
is then locked up. I tried to find out whether anyone guards 
it and if so who but was quite unable to get any information 
on the subject. Whether they were suspicious of my curiosity or 
whether they didn’t understand I do not know. Another 
very interesting “street” in the market was the money changers. It 
is alleged that you can change any known coinage of the 
world there. There must be at least fifty of them. All they 
have is a small glass case in which they have piles of notes 
of every sort. Their prices are about uniform although one 
can bargain successfully sometimes. I had a Palestine pound 
note with me & the normal exchange - the official exchange - is 
8.83 piastres Syrian for it. It is worth more than that to the merchants 
as they want Palestinian money to buy for cash in Palestine. It 
was offered 9.50 piastres for it & gradually bargained up to 9.75 
which I accepted. To my utter amazement the money changer, 
an old old Arab, bent nearly double, with a hunch back 
produced a huge bag of British Sovereigns & showed them to me. 
There must have been at least 200 of them. I haven’t seen 
any for years & a British Col who was with me said 
he hadn’t seen any for at least 3 years. Apparently they are 
in terrific demand over here & the money changers will 
pay 21 Syrian pounds - 2100 piastres - for a sovereign. 
Well family dears I have about come to the end of this available

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space for this letter. Saw some other interesting things in 
Aleppo & on the way back but I will have to leave those for 
my next letter. I suppose it is thoroughly nice over there 
now with everything beautifully green. Over here it is 
summer & absolutely no rain & It hasn’t rained since we got 
here. It looks as though we might be in this country for 
the winter & I am looking forward to that if it comes off. 
Although it is very wet for a time & extremely cold, it is all 
very snow clad liable to snow & we are certain to get quite 
a bit of skiing I believe. I am getting quite anxious to learn! 
Goodbye dears. I hope you are all keeping very fit. 
I am very well myself but missing you all terribly. 
Keep on writing to me & telling me all about yourselves. 
With much love 
Your affectionate father 
Arthur S Blackburn 
P.S. Give these to mummy Margie darling xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Arthur S Blackburn