Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 22

Lt Col A S Blackburn 
SX0962   2/3MGBn 
AIF abroad 
21/9/41 
  
My Darling Margie 
I find that I have two letters from you 
to answer.  I have been very thrilled to read all about your 
basket ball & your school activities generally.  I was sorry to  
hear that you had to miss Elspeth Lendou's party.  Still 
you go to so many that I don't suppose it really mattered! 
I wish I could have been there to see the sports.  My word 
how exciting it must have been; and I hear you came 
second.  Did you get a prize?  you haven't told me 
anything about that.  Tell me about all the exams next  
time you write.  So far you have only told me about 
some of them including history which you said wasn't  
at all nice but which you managed to come top with 
100%!  What a scare you must have got about poor 
little Geoff Hutton.  Still his injuries don't seem to have  
been very bad!  I was interested to hear that Siddy 
had grown so much.  Send me a snap pf him if you  
get a chance.  By the way I would like a pair of 
woollen gloves, particularly if you knit them.  It gets very  
cold indeed here with plenty of snow I believe.  What a  
lovely time you seem to have had up at mount Lofty 
with Jo. Jones.  I wonder how her father is getting on. 
I haven't seen him since we got over here.  I am glad  
you liked the boxes which I sent you, darling; you 
must try to find some use for them!  I suppose 

2/ 
you are hard at work at school again by now.  Mind you  
come top at the end of the year.  A few days ago I had to 
do a long trip, to get back to where the Bn is now 
bivouaced, from a visit I had to pay another area. 
As it promised to be a hot day we started just before 
sunrise.  The road ran along the foot of a broad  
valley about 4 or 5 miles wide with high hills 
each side.  The hills are very bare & rocky & I have  
always considered them very ugly.  For most of the 
way there is not a bush or tree of any sort right up 
to their summit which has occasional drifts of snow 
always.  Well this morning that I am talking about the 
sun when it rose just struck the very tops of the  
highest peaks & made them absolutely golden.  Gradually 
as the sun rose the rays reached lower & lower down 
the hills gradually changing to a beautiful rosy 
tint.  The lower reaches of the hills to which the  
sun had not penetrated were a deep purple 
and the whole effect was one of the most 
beautiful sights that I have seen.  Here & there  
on the bare hillsides were small villages or  
Bedouin encampments & the smoke from their morning 
fires rising up straight & blue in the still air 
added to the beauty.  Then gradually the life on the  
plain between the hills woke up.  Cattle were  
aroused, sheep baa-ed, donkeys uttered their peculiar 
"hee-haw"' and the shrill cries of Arab women &  
children could be heard.  It was all tremendously 

3/ 
interesting.  I arrived back here to where we are bivouaced 
in time for church.  We are on a narrow strip of beach between 
the main road & the sea & are having a lovely time bathing. 
The water is always quite warm.  It is really too warm 
as it never seems to have enough coolness in it to be 
really refreshing but it is very nice.  There is very  
little tide here - never more than a foot or so & the  
water at this time of year is very smooth.  We bath 
at least twice a day & I am sure it is doing us all a  
lot of good.  We expect to move up into the hills again 
in about a fortnight.  I am glad to say that we are all 
(that is my Bn) going to be in houses for the winter.  However 
as none of the houses here have fire-places & all have  
stone floors it will probably be pretty cold.  It is I 
gather, fairly warm down near the coast all the  
year round & so most of the people who have houses 
up in the hills leave them in winter & go down near 
the coast & so no arrangements are made for warming. 
I had a very interesting day recently "opting" some of the 
French (Vichyites) who were going back to France.  I  
had with me a French interpreter, as my own 
French is not get sufficiently advanced to be able to  
talk very fluently with them.  One of the officers 
who came before me could not make up his  
mind whether to join the Free French or go back 
to France.  Finally he declared for Free France 
whereupon my French interpreter - a civilian - who 
had been sitting down alongside me leapt up 
& threw his arms around his neck & kissed him 

4/ 
and the two of them proceeded to weep on each other's shoulders 
with emotion.  They really are a most amazing race!  I had a  
long yarn with another officer who could talk a little 
English & so between us, with my slight knowledge of  
French, we could get on very well.  This officer's 
sympathies were very strongly with us but he could 
not make up his mind what was the right thing to  
do.  He felt that he might be able to be of more use 
if he went back to France & tried to engage in activities 
against the Germans over there such as sabotage etc than 
if he stayed over here with the Free French.  Then I  
had to deal with a lot of men who had been taken 
prisoner of war.  There were men of every nationality, a  
lot of them being Spaniards, as well as some Russians, Dutch, 
Czechs, Poles, Belgiums, 2 Americans & 1 Chilian.  All this lot 
had been in the Foreign Legion.  The Chilian had a real 
hard luck story.  Since joining the Foreign Legion he had 
inherited a large fortune in Chili - his story was entirely  
substantiated by documents he had in his possession & by  
the Chilian consul here - estimated to be worth £100,000!  His 
sole desire was to get out of the army altogether.  However 
no provision had been made for men to get completely 
out of the army and his only alternatives were to join the 
Free French or be taken back to France.  It created a very 
difficult position for him.  He very much wanted to get 
out of any further fighting & so did not want to 
join the free French.  On the other hand he felt that  
if he went to France, whilst he would almost  
certainly get out of any further fighting, he might 

5/                                   
lose his fortune as he felt sure the Germans would grab it if 
they got half a chance.  Although one felt sorry for him it 
really was amusing to watch his mental struggles &  
anxiety - cupidity battling with fear of further fighting.  In 
the end cupidity won & he elected not to go back to France. 
We have just seen a wonderful illustration of how quickly 
these natives can complete a building, although individually they  
don't seem to be working very hard.  A little bit along from  
the hotel where I am staying whilst on this commission work  
a huge gang of men got to work about a month ago with 
picks & shovels etc on the side of a hill & cut right into it. 
They were followed by an Army of builders, stone masons 
etc - the stone is just scattered about the hill sides - & now 
only about a month since they started the ground floor of 
a huge building - which is to be a very big new hotel is 
completed and is fully occupied & the first floor is nearly 
finished.  It is interesting to see the natives around here - as distinct 
from the visitors from the coastal area - laying in their supplies for winter. 
At any hour of the day or night now one can see donkeys, mules, horses 
or camels laden with colossal loads of dry sticks & wood etc picked 
up whenever there is any growth going along the streets & into the  
native houses.  It all looks very flimsy wood-like kindling, but is 
apparently all they can get. 
Well my dears I have have come to the end of my allowance of paper 
for this letter.  I am keeping very fit & well but am  
missing you all terribly.  I love getting your letter &  
hearing all the news & gossip so keep on writing to me 
With much love to you all 
Daddy. 
Arthur S.Blackburn 

Lt Col A S Blackburn 
SX6962          2/3 MGBn 
AIF   Abroad 
29/9/41 
  
Dear Bob. 
I was extremely glad to get a letter from you 
last week and to hear that you were keeping fit.  It is 
so long since I have heard from you that I was really 
getting quite anxious.  I suppose you are working terribly 
hard now old man with exams only about a month  
away.  I imagine you will be extremely glad when 
they are over!  You will be interested to hear that  
my first car, which was discovered to have a badly 
cracked chassis after the Syrian campaign is back on 
the road again.  Robert & I saw it being driven along 
in a convoy the other day.  I am very keen on the  
new job which I have got now.  It rides extremely  
well & the huge tires - they are 9 inches across - make it 
very easy to drive in sand or mud or any difficulty. 
I was very glad to hear that you had such a good time 
in Melbourne.  It must have been very nice indeed to see 
Mary again.  Is she back in Adelaide yet?  Will you tell 
her I am receiving the Bulletins etc and thoroughly appreciate 
them.  How is the typing going?  I would love to see you & mummy 
trying to learn.  I quite agree old man that your wisest course 
is to go straight into the Army.  You will I am sure get far 
more experience that way than any other way.  Will you 
write & tell me what you would like for your 
birthday.  It is very difficult to decide from here. 

2/  
There is very little news to write to you all about.  The fighting is  
over & we are back on ordinary training although scattered 
much more than in an ordinary camp.  At present we are bivouaced 
alongside the sea at a place where there is excellent 
bathing & so we are thoroughly enjoying the swimming.  However 
the weather is just beginning to break & I suppose it  
will soon be too rough & wet for bathing.  I am kept 
pretty busy travelling about the country reporting on various 
aspects of it from a point of view of defence.  Today I  
travelled over a road which made one nearly giddy 
with its turns.  It wound down the face of a high ridge & 
so was a real "corkscrew".  As a matter of interest I counted 
the number of "major" turns i,e, those which turned right back 
in the opposite direction & I found that in just over 5 miles 
we turned completely back on our course, as we wound further 
& further down the hill, 42 times!  Most of the roads through 
the mountains are like that and of course not one of them 
has anything like a guard fence or guard rail!  By the  
way it has just struck me that you won't have time 
to write to me & tell me what you would like for 
your birthday in time for me to get it & post it for you 
by parcel post to reach you by your birthday.  So 
I have decided to get you a travelling toilet case- 
you know, shaving gear, hair brush & all the other details 
in a compact case.  It will be useful - in fact 
almost necessary - in the army.  I am telling you 
of this in advance so that things won't clash &  
you get two such sets.  I have to get it so far 

3/ 
in advance, and it is so difficult to change anything that I  
am taking away the element of surprise, to prevent a duplication! 
I have been up all day - and in fact all day yesterday 
going over our winter quarters.  We are to be billetted, or 
at least, nearly all the Bn, is to be billetted in houses & 
buildings in villages.  Two coys & Bn A Q will be in one 
village in buildings, another coy will be in tents near 
the village, another cay will be in a monastery & another 
coy in another village about 1 3/4 miles away.  It is most 
interesting arranging the rooms in the village.  The 
procedure is that one approaches the "muktar" or head 
man of the village & tells him that troops are to be 
billetted there & he must find out how much room 
is available.  He then goes from house to house & persuades 
or bullies or orders the people in it to give up one, two or 
more rooms or sometimes the whole house.  Of course the 
military authorities pay rent for the house & so a lot 
of the people are thrilled to bits with the chance of  
a good steady rent coming in & go to the most unlimited 
pains & inconveniences to clear their houses.  The main 
village is largely a summer resort for people from 
one of the coastal cities, so as many of the houses 
& rooms in houses are about to be vacated for the 
winter, there was no difficulty, about these.  Still more 
were wanted however so the muktar then ascertained 
what more room the people were prepared to give  
us & showed us all this.  Even then we still had 
to have more so the muktar called in the village 
Priest & they went from house to house, ordering 

4/                  
people about sorting them out, moving people from one house 
to another etc until they had found enough room.  The  
remarkable thing was that the people took it absolutely 
without argument- or at least I should say after long & fierce 
arguments they finally accepted the position & did as they  
were told.  It really was remarkable.  For example in one house 
there were husband & wife, four children, two cows, a 
donkey, a lot of fowls, three goats & six sheep.  The 
muktar & priest walked in, gave certain commands in  
Arabic wherapon a perfect babel of excited talk arose 
in which a party of 40 - 50 local inhabitants standing 
behind myself & the Adjutant joined; the matter developed 
on the usual lines until it reached its usual climax 
of appearing to be on the very verge of a violent 
fight, suddenly at this stage (as usual) all argument 
Suddenly ceased - and the muktar & Priest turned 
to us & said "It is all right.  They will go to live 
with his brother & their family & you can have the whole 
house" I said "Where does his brother live" he answered 
"He has a two roomed house further along the street". 
To suggest that the addition to a two roomed house of  
all this vast concourse of children & livestock might 
possibly create a slightly crowded condition, is not worth 
while.  The only answer is such a case is a shrug of the  
shoulders from the muktar & a brief "Oh they will manage" 
and so it goes on throughout the whole village.  By 
the way the village priest talks English - a rather American - 
perfectly.  He was born in America & served throughout 
last war with the American army, only becoming a 

5/                                      
priest afterwards.  The quarters I am to occupy is a house built 
by a local Dr who went to America just before the war to 
get married & has never come back.  He built the house 
to live in on his return so it has never been occupied. 
The monastery is a wonderful place on a very high cliff 
overlooking the sea.  It is built on the ruins of an old church 
which is alleged to date back to 1000 years A.D.  It is a  
Greek Orthodox Church monastery and the priests running 
it are terribly anxious to help us.  They run a big boarding 
school - or rather orphanage school there but it is closed now 
until next spring.  They explained that the Patriarch of their  
Church had issued orders that every help was to be given 
to the British troops so the whole school buildings were 
at once put at our disposal.  They absolutely refused 
to accept any rent whatever & finally when we 
explained that we must pay rent (for obvious reasons 
we are not prepared to take over places with no payment) they 
stated that it would at once be given to the poor! 
The quarters are really wonderful & include a number of  
monks cells, which are normally inhabited by the school teachers. 
Well old man I have nearly reached the end of my  
allowance of writing paper.  By the you get this 
your exams will be getting very near.  I need scarcely  
say that I wish you the best possible luck.  I have no  
doubt about the result & am looking forward to news of a  
brilliant pass. 
With much love to you all 
your affectionate father 
Arther S Blackburn