Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 19

Lt Col A S Blackburn 
 SX6962 2/3 MG Bn  
 AIF Abroad 
 25-8-41. 

My darling little Margie, 
I was very thrilled to get nice  
letters from you last week & the week before.  I love  
your letters & enjoy every word of them.  Congratulations  
upon the duet.  I am glad it went off well. Fancy Barbara  
Jervis' brother being Vice-Capt of Saints football  
team.  I am awfully glad they wont  won & that he  
played so well.  I do think Miss Stephens might  
have let you leave the "V" FOR VICTORY on the schoolboard!   
Never mind we will get the victory anyhow!  
How is the basket-ball going? Are you still in D team?  
How clever of you to guess that the town I was telling  
you about  was Merjdayoun - the other one was called  
Aleea.  The Huttons must be lovely little kids & I am  
looking forward to seeing them when I get home.   
A day or two ago I had to drive up to the top of a  
very high mountain here - or rather I had to  
go somewhere and one possible road up to it led  
over the mountain & so I took that one. It was a  
wonderful experience. The road is cut out of the  
side of the mountain & is the most extraordinary  
road.  The mountain is absolutely bare.  There is not 

2/ 
so much as a bush growing on the side of it up which I went.  
The road runs up.  right up to the top in three terrific loops  
thus, only none of them are flat as I have drawn  
them but all very steep all the way.  The road is just  
wide enough for one car & has absolutely no fence or  
rail at the side anywhere at all.  The whole side of the  
mountain is loose shingle & rocks & almost sheer & it is  
really terrifying to look at of the side of the car.  The  
mountain is 9,700 feet in height & has snow & ice  
on it all the year round - in fact from the beginning  
of December to the end of March it is utterly impassable  
through snow.  If a car went over the edge - or for that  
matter for most of the distance if a person slipped over  
the edge, they  it wouldn't stop rolling until it reached  
the valley far below - unless the very narrow road  
on a lower looper than the one you started from  
was enough to stop it.  I thought I could look down  
at  from any height at all as I have never been affected  
before, but so terrific was this drop that I felt about  
sick and had to stop looking out of the side of the car  
because it made me absolutely giddy to look down at  
the terrific drop.  When nearly to the top another car  
came over the top of the mountain  & got about 1/2 mile down  
the road before it saw us coming.  After a lot of horrible,  
hair-raising manoeuvring (that spelling doesn’t look right)

23/ 
 in which the other car & then us, both, at times, had to reverse  
along this horrible unguarded road, the other car (which had  
the inside running) managed to get to a place a tiny bit wider.   
It was literally pressed as hard into the wall as was possible  
along its whole length, touching the bank at the side all the  
way along.  We, who had the outside running, then squeezed past  
absolutely hanging over space.  I actually measured the space  
between the outside of the wheel of our car & the edge of the  
drop into space & found it to be 3 inches!  Fortunately  
Robert was driving & has nerves which seem utterly  
unaffected by height so he drove past with the utmost  
confidence & skill.  I am absolutely certain that I couldn't  
have driven it! After this we reached the top of the  
mountain where there is a lookout built.  The view  
was almost too marvellous to be true.  On the one side  
was the sea & on the other the plains of Syria & deserts  
stretching out - it seemed as if to infinity.  Just below  
us on the other side to that on which we came up  
were some Cedars of Lebanon & about ¼ mile away by  
distance but over almost unclimbable rocks & cliffs, was  
a small glacier.  We then went on to the Cedars.  These  
famous trees are very wonderful.  In the olden days, from  
all available records the whole of the hills & valleys  
were covered in them but now there are only about 300  
in all Lebanon & Syria at most of these are at this spot   

4/ 
The people here are so incredibly lazy that there is no effort  
to plant more.  They take hundreds of years to grow to any size &  
so the natives plant pines etc instead.  The Cedar is a very  
beautiful tree.  Some of them are enormously thick & all of them  
are very very tall.  All the way up there are tremendous  
boughs covered in foliage & very regular in shape like a  
fir tree thus. The diameter of the largest one, that is  
the diameter of the circle made by all the huge boughs  
jutting out is I should think at least 40 yds & probably  
more.  It is alleged that certain of the trees can be traced  
by local legend to be at least 1300 years old - but  
how that can be proved I do not know although a  
man who claims to be a Forestry expert in private life  
told me that an estimation of some of them puts their life  
at over 1500 years!  Whatever their age is they were very  
marvellous & I can easily understand their reputation for  
beauty etc.  On the way back we had lunch at a little  
wayside cafe by the side of a stream.   All along the side  
springs were gushing out - fed by melting snow - & the  
problem of keeping things cool was very easily solved.   Each  
spring flowed into a hollow concete   concrete basin  
which the owner had made & each basin was full up  
with food - fruit, vegetables, butter, eggs etc & cool drinks.   
All of them were icy cold of course because the water was  
just melted snow!  On my way back to where I am 

5/ 
now staying I had to come down a long road running down  
its face of the hills.  It was just about sunset by the time I  
got back & the last few miles down the hills - before the road  
climbed up again to where I am staying - was very beautiful.   
The clouds had settled down on the hills & we were in misty  
clouds.  For quite a distance however we we just on the lower edge  
of them i.e. looking straight ahead one could see only cloud & mist  
but looking over the side of the road down the valley & hillside  
one could see Beirut in the distance in the full glow of the setting  
sun.  It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.   
Nothing much has happened since my last family letter,  
or rather since my visit to the Cedars.  I had to go on a  
short visit a few days ago to a part of Syria where I  
had not been before & I came across a village in which  
the people looked quite different.  They all had much fairer  
skins & many of them had fair hair.  The children particularly  
were very fair & looked far cleaner than most of the  
children over here; so much so that they looked like  
Australian children. On making enquiries I found that it  
was a small settlement of Circassians from Europe.   
Well my dears my allotted space of 5 pages is up & so  
I must stop.  I love all your letters & am all the  
time looking forward to receiving them so please  
write as often as you feel inclined. 
With much love to you all 
Daddy. 
  
Arthur Blackburn

6/
which Syria has been a battlefield throughout the ages I cite again 
from this book which gives the following list updates when Baalbek 
was beseiged & captured - each time only captured after a seige owing to its  
enormously strong defences & each time pillaged & looted when captured. 
634.A.D. captured by the Mohammedans, 751 by the Abbassides, 870 by Achmet Tuloon 
902 by the Karmates, 969 by the Fatimites, 973 by Zamithes, 974 by Hafatkin, 996 by the 
Greeks, 1100 by Seljuk Zadj Eddolat Toutoush, 1134 by Zinki, 1158 by Seljick Atali 1859 
by Nourredin  1171 by the Crusaders 1174 by Saladin 1176 by Crusaders under Raymond, 
1182 by Saladin 1229 by El Ashraf Moussa 1260 by the Tartars Some years later by 
King Daher Bibars 1401 by the Tartars again 1516 by King Sultan Salim 1 Later by the 
Harfoush and twice during this period the city suffered terrible earthquakes & once 
was almost obliterated by a huge flood. I though you might be interested 
in these figures Wody darling as they give a wonderful idea of what one 
city has gone through. I am now beginning to understand the absolute 
indifferences of the population of the country to war. They have encountered 
it as a natural thing to be expected for generation after generation. 
Well Wody dear there is not much more news to tell you. I am 
still keeping very fit and enjoying this spell of living in a hotel 
instead of camping out in the open. Mind you tell me all about 
how school is going & that your house is still top of everything. 
Margie, lovely, it is delightful getting your weekly letters. I feel 
inclined to send you some writing blacks of your own from  
here to make sure that you go on writing to me every week. 

7/               
Have you been taking part in any more debates at school  
lately? And what basket ball team are you in? Still in D or  
have you gone up to C².    
I hear form Dick, Bob old man, that you are working very 
hard indeed. Good lad, stick to it; the better pass you get 
the greater will be your chances of getting a good job 
in the Army. 
Well family, goodbye for the present. I believe a 
mail is due tomorrow and I am looking forward 
to a nice batch of letters. 
With much love to you all 
Daddy. 
  
Arthur S Blackburn