Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 11 - Part 15 of 24

PR00610
Australian 
War Memorial

AIR. MAIL
5 12 43

Mrs. M. Billings.
548 Barkers Road
East Hawthorn
Victoria

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY FORCES
PASSED BY CENSOR
2543

TMHill

Vx38483 Cpl. M. Billings
District Accounts Office
New Guinea.
6.12.43. 

Darling Kay,
You will find this
enclosed in a G.E card and before
embarking upon what I hope will be
a comprehensive review of the several
subjects brought forward in recent
series of letters from you, let me first
bid you good day and trust that my
constant hope that Richard & you are
full of beans is being realised.
In a recent letter you
took me to task for a feeling of
inferiority in myself and then went
on to adduce many admirable reasons
why that supposed feeling was
irrational and not based on sound

2/

premises at all. Still and all, I just
can't banish the thought entirely that
I'm not doing my utmost. I'm working
hard alright and at my own trade
but the belief persists that I should
be sharing the harder going while still
doing my pay job. You see I run across
quite a few of the fightin' men even
around here and I recognise in them
my own kind. How then can I
rest content sitting in a snug base
job. The whole thing is based on a
feeling of superiority to most of the
fellows in our show who for the
most part aren't so hot as soldiers
anyway and I do feel uncomfortable
to find myself in such a motley
array. Make no mistake, pet, I am
no seeker of death or glory but it

3/

seems screwy to me and wrong that young
fit chaps should be allowed to hold
to jobs in comparatively immune places.
a chap came back to us the other
day from the 9th, a proper wrecked
and washed up for keeps, only 54
years old, and that makes me feel
a pretty poor sort. I shan't take this
subject any further as my limitations
as a writer only seem to get me floundering
and confusing things instead of
clarifying them. Gee, if a chap could
only have a talk with you about all
these things, it would help such a
lot. However, whatever I think of it
all doesn't amount to much for whether
I stay or go thither is a matter for
my masters to decide and I may be
on my way to distant fields any old

4/

tick of the clock
Well lets progress to something
more interesting than my impressions
& whims. Now that matter of the suite
of furniture calls for much discussion.
By your description the pieces you have
your eye on at the Mutual sound
very tasteful in my minds eye, and
it seems to me that there is nothing
to be lost by securing it and perhaps
it will be a deal we will be thankful
for having concluded. As the vexed
question of storage seems to be taken
care of, I would say go ahead and
put your label on it. Of course in
these days of easy money and not
much to do with it, one must be
prepared to pay an inflated price
but I know you would not consider

5/

the proposition unless the suite in
question was both decorative and built
for years of good service so a few
pounds won't make much difference.
I hope to be able to send you a few
quid which can go towards paying for 
it and thus save storage charges for
one thing.
The question of furniture
leads on to that of a place where it
can be housed and as that also is
a matter of recent mention lets see
where we stand, there. I don't think                          
we should only view the matter from the
aspect of after the war, as the problem
could be forced upon us before that
blessed ral release, not that in my
heart of hearts I think we will stick fast
until it is over. To talk about it

6/

more in the abstract. First don't let
the problem oppress you as you have
surmounted far weightier ones quite
recently. Of course it will tax our
purse and energy for quite a while
but a home is not got together in
a trice, a laborious quest that goes
on for quite a few years. You get a
start, then its add a bit here
improve a bit there. You will never
be completely satisfied with it from 
a material viewpoint, just as well
too for it doesn't do to stagnate. The
people who inhabit it are those who
convert it from a house to a home,
chiefly the lady who presides therein.
I believe you are on the right track
in first determining what you want
and then working along the lines

7/
necessary to achieve your ideal. By
aiming high you leave the gate open
to compromise without losing sight of
exactly what you do want, under
present conditions, the situation in
regard to housing is going to be
difficult alright and it will most
likely be a tedious affair of proceeding
step by step but we'll crack it O.K.
in the long run. Your urge to get
a home together touches me deeply, pet,
and I hope and pray it won't be very
long until we are in it together
for keeps. I think your idea of trying
to secure a few rooms for a start
a good wheeze for like the army you
want a base from which to conduct
househunting operations. I don't know
how we shall fare when leave comes

 8/

around but I feel that for all of us
the stunt of three parking in that
little room is wrong. Which is hardly
alright to say but how to get over 
it is more to the point. In fact
I feel rather ashamed to mention at
at all seeing its easy enough to give
advice. However I know that if you
see a way out you will snap it up.
anything you can to do in the way
of helping the inauguration of the
Billings residence has my unreserved
approval I want you to know for
the folks is all ready and willing
to move in at the first opportunity.
You spend the day. You can buy
a house if you see such a rare
commodity; the sky's the limit.
You can see the war has broadened.