Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 2 - Part 10 of 14

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the sea and the faculty buildings and downs are 
stunning.  The Lebanese are a improvement on 
the Palestinians, very keen business folks but 
are very friendly to their liberators and have  
charming manners. Quite a welcome change to get  
a glimpse of another country particularly so to 
compare the effects of British and French colonial 
administration & methods. Will tell you more of Syria 
in my next letter and now get on to a more personal 
theme. First of all, your all Aust. budgets up to 
No45 are to hand unsullied by the censors knife 
together with the Lilliput journal and although it is 
pure reiteration, they are and always shall be  
the best tonic I can get whilst I am torn from your 
side. Of course, having to suffer the same torture, 
you feel the same way about it. I had a letter from  
Mum with your No45 and she confirmed your own  
assurance that you are well for which tidings heartfelt  
thanks. Also pleased the mail from this end is  
going along again and hope several subsequent 
to my No19 have brightened your humdrum life 
(I hope it's not that bad though)

3/   
No need to tell you its still damn hot out here but  
the flies and other insect life are not so persistent  
which makes conditions more tolerable.  The latest  
scare is malarial mosquitoes and twice daily we  
get a shot of quinine (horrible muck). I'm waiting  
to hear how the weddin' got along although I guess  
it went the same as a wedding usually does 
I have been addressing recent letters to your home  
consequent upon your application for a munitions job  
but see that they have not yet seen fit to avail  
themselves of your services.  You apparently have not 
had much experience with & Govt. shows if you  
expected to be called quickly.  Say another 6 months  
and you might get a start.  Have not seen Bob Sutton  
for a while so can't give him your message. His away  
somewhere doing something - thats all I can tell you.  
Your brutally frank statements about the spinsters was 
meaty stuff and I can assure you on (1) Remaining 
unmarried (2) Dying a pure and icy virgin (3) going to  
bed on your own, you just won't be allowed any 
one of such appalling conditions.  You're far

4/ 
too loving, sweet, smug and delectable to escape my  
clutches when I return and the first night will be 
one of the most exquisite sensations of my life when 
I see the snap I hold now come to life and come 
to me. You paint a vivid picture of your little room 
that brings before me the image of wonderful times now 
gone and others still awaiting us. Sorry I missed   
Norm but its two months now since we  
left that spot. However may see him again and  
thank Doris for the news.  Sorry I was not present 
to dub in for the wedding present but as I 
told you if you want some dough, see ill win.  Have 
not received ada's letter yet - did it go airmail as it  
should have arrived by now. Give the Sugdens my  
love old fop. Glad to know your mater has had 
word from John which should have cheered her a lot. 
Tell her he'll be O.K and are you sure he wrote he  
had been in action & liked it? Seems wrong.  
Somehow or the chap's unique over here. Well my  
darling Kay, I shall now bustle off to what passes for a 
meal and all my love until I write again. Mick 

BY AIR MAIL                                    
  
Miss K. Clarke,                                
548 Barkers Road, 
East Hawthorn. 
Victoria 
Australia 
PASSED BY CENSOR No. 3100

Written 
25 .7.41  Syria
Received 15.8.41 

No 27  VX38483   Sgt. M. Billings 
(V)  C. Section. 5th Battery. 2. Aust. 
Hy. A. A. Regt. A.I.F Abroad 
1.8.41   
  
My Darling Kay 
Reading of your expectancy regarding
another G.E. letter, I'm pleased that opportunity  
has at last presented itself to enable the worthy 
screed to be penned.  It is rather ironic that I 
have had to contract an infected face and thus 
be relieved of duty in order to get the time & an 
intimate letter to you merits.  In my next ordinary 
letter to you I'll tell you more of my affliction. 
Suffice it to say here that although my handsome 
countenance is somewhat inflated, the virulent 
germ is in the process of annihilation.  Otherwise, my 
love, I'm quite hunky-dory in mind and limb. 
You will realise that a summer of 8 months brings 
with it myriads of flies and kindred pests who just 
dote upon an abrasion so as to deposit their filth 
thereon.  Your stout-hearted yet tender messages to me 
continue to arrive regularly also a paper or two.

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and the tally of letters has reached No 48.  You recall 
that when sometimes the I told you that the 
volume of a true woman's love far transcended that 
of a man insofar that it filled him with wonder, it 
is the recollection of that statement that now and again 
brings home to me forcefully the price you are paying 
for this separation.  More so darling, when I realise 
that the curse of loneliness is added to the pangs of 
yearning and please believe me, when I say without 
any intention to flatter, that I have gained an insight 
into your character that was denied me when we 
were together and of a person of joyfulness sings within 
me when in my visions.  I behold my beloved mate. 
Ruefully, I remember the dozens of times I could have 
spent in your loving embrace yet mulishly pursued 
such phantoms as study, sport and so on.  Still, of 
little avail to bemoan what is past, the lesson has 
been learned and I shall never again permit such 
trifles to stop we two from living the lives chosen 
for us.  I have one of the snaps of you, the full length 
one of you in the cardigan before me now, and I 
can glean a little comfort from the remembrance of 
those soft warm arms about me, the eager lips

3/ 
pressed to mine, the velvet haven of your caressing 
breast crooning a lullaby of peace to my fatigued 
brain.  The perfume of the Australian bushland 
redolent in your riot of curls.  I could go on and on 
and yet never be able to convey exactly what your 
love for me is and how deep it is.  But I know that 
you speak the simple truth when you say you love 
me with every fibre of your being.  Please God we  
shall come together again soon so that our hungry 
yearning shall be sated and I can proudly place 
you in your destined place at my side.  Oh, I am 
a fortunate man to have an unspotted maid 
pure as the fleecy clouds above and yet a true 
woman as well.  You know my darling, a soldier's 
life is in many respects a degrading one and I am 
a human being.  If I could not carry the memory 
of your past loyalty and devotion before me and the 
promise of the fulfillment of those staunch and lovable 
qualities when the war clouds roll away, I would 
probably become besmirched in the general mire that 
is war.  God has answered your prayers in as much 
that he has guided your pen along the right track

4/   
your lines are underscored with a message of hope 
and trust, never do you chose the path of the 
coward and the pessimist and it is to your hardy 
and philosophical encouragement that I owe my 
life of constancy and good spirit.  It has taken me 
several pages to prove to you how strong you are and 
prove my contention that we men are but clay in 
the hands of women of charm and character.  I will 
remember the times when our manifestations of love 
drew us into that dream world wherein only we 
two dwelt.  I, filled with the egoism of the so-called 
dominant male, held you tightly in my arms pressing 
my kisses upon you and you, my true love, 
lying so beautifully in submission.  Yet, as the 
tactical experts say, how soon did the initiative pass 
to you and the dammed up well of womanly love 
flow and out and engulf me in its glorious 
clutches until the positions were reversed and you 
gave to me such joy and happiness that made me 
seem the wayward child I actually was.  Oh, what  
happiness for us when we meet again and then our 
joining in those unbreakable bonds that we

5/   
let us bring to fruition, that love that we have striven 
all our lives to keep spotless.  In a maze of doubt, 
hate and decay, one thing stands before me like a 
shining light, my true love Kathleen, tested in the 
furnace of adversity yet fighting for her right to 
happiness with unabated fervour. in true daughter 
of the Virgin Mary, may she cherish and inspire 
you.  The shadows of evening now grow longer, 
my treasure, bringing to a close another day, 
another one nearer to "our day".  So go with 
Our Lord, my sweetheart and may he bless you 
according to the strength of your love.  Au-Revoir! 
Michael