Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 13 - Part 4 of 11

AIR MAIL     11. 3. 44

Mrs.  M.  Billings 
548  Barkers  Road 
East  Hawthorn 
Victoria

VX 38483 Sgt. M. Billings, 
District Accounts Office, 
New Guinea.   14.  3.  44 
  
Darling Kay, 
Good morning to you,colleen and I trust this helps a little to 
make you feel even better than you do anyhow.And what of Richard, our sweet  
little son. Is he once more the complete joy and interest of a month ago, I do 
hope so for it is horrible to think that such a quaint little champ is not 
beaming and gurgling and making his mummy's life a lot happier than it is when 
he is afflicted by nasty teeth and things.  All this, you can see, is conjecture 
for the letter service is foul and after xx maintaining speed and regularity 
for a spasm, has now fallen into deep disgrace with all the lost legion of New 
Guinea.  Life without it is well nigh intolerable so I do hope tomorrow brings 
succor or my already   crotchety temper will become a permanent grouch.  I wonder 
what the palaver is that we shall get this time from the culprits but whatever 
it is it will have to be good to go down .  The papers of late are just as bad 
for it is over a month since I got as much as a measly Truth from anyone. 
Oh well, I don't suppose whinging will bring it any 
quicker so I shall cease pouring my woes into your shell pink lugs and pass to 
a more cheerful topic, if I can find one.For without your screeds, I find it 
devilish hard to bring forth anything much from my resources so I fear me that 
this will be a rather brief affair.  For want of anything better I shall tell 
you of the little that intrudes into my life these days.  I feel in fair shape, 
but with about as much energy as a turtle.Went off for a swim this morning 
but after cruising around for awhile I puff and blow like a frog.It was very 
nice but eloquent of my jaded condition.  Live as nearly as possible akin to 
the genuine tropical dweller,no exertion except when vitally necessary, a mans 
best frien is his bed.  The wet season is passing now and the weather is 
very hot and will get hotter I fear.  Of course,I'm acclimatised to that and 
really don't worry much about it, its the dreary monotony and the persistent 
realisation of missing the best and brightest things on earth that fray the 
nerves.  Thank God, I'm finishing a year up here and not just starting one, it 
would be me for the loony bin then.  The warming feeling brought on by day and 
night dreams of you,Richard and all those restful soothing things associated 
with our lives that leave a sheet anchor to keep a chap from giving it away. 
Gee, it would be marvellous to be in Melbourne now, the summer fast slipping 
away and the earth and the people arising as though from a long sleep at last 
awakened by first, the thoughts and then the reality of bracing winds, crackling 
frosts,and the driving rains that finally sweep away the accumulated     smuts 
and stains of Summer.  Beautiful time,Autumn,life kind of begins again   and  it 
would be heavenly to stand with you and drink in is charms, which,added to 
yours would resurrect this played out wreck. I hope you still are the cool 
person I love,may your little tootsies be as frigid as ever for after the 
stifling, sticky climate that spells sweat, itch and fatigue the touch of them 
square in the middle of my back will be a like a iced drink and the shock so 
pleasing to my lethargic body and mind. 
You beckon me so strongly but here I am commanded to wait   until 
merciful release,hardly earned  ,is accorded me.Please keep calling me so 
often for thats my mainspring,that love started in a little cottage in 
Malvern so many years ago and flourished as a well tended plant will until 
it grew be a fragrant bloom that has never tarnished although many and 
often have been the occasions when it has had to survive by its own inherent 
strength  .Soon,the precious thing will take on renewed life,until then, 
darling,I promise you that nothing will be done by me to deprive it of its 
glory for in its beauty and unfaltering faith forever is my life.  A big kiss 
for Richard, darling, for you very thing.  
Micky

14.  3   44 
AIR. MAIL 
  
Mrs. M. Billings 
548  Barkers  Road 
East  Hawthorn 
Victoria

VX38483 Sgt. M.Billings, 
Dist. Accounts Office, 
New Guinea.   20.3 .44. 

Darling Kay. 
Full of gleeful triumph, I be for in the past two days I have 
clicked for three letters from you, those of 7th,9th and 16th March. In 
between those dates, I anticipate you having written one or two more  ,so
the next day or two should see them safely to their goal.  Just as well, 
they came for it was a fortnight since your last and take it from me,I 
was furious at the delay xxx with a modicum of anxiety thrown in to make 
a lousy situation properly intolerable. And now,seeing letters have really 
arrived,enough of moaning and let us see what good tidings you send. 
First,of course,the latest report of Richard and you was most 
comforting and interesting and I immediately felt a lot better after
reading it.It  ,really is the brightest note you have weighed in with for 
a while and the tone of your letters are a true reflection on your state 
of body and mind.  With Richard being intermittently off color,lately, 
it of course affects you and dislocates your routine so that it shows 
in your letters.Hope you can swallow that learned exposition in the chain 
of circumstance.  Nice to know too  ,the mail famine has not been operating 
both ends and a few from me have turned up from time to time.  Very 
pleasing that he has commenced to put on axbit of flesh again  ,I think 
that now the first batch of teeth are through,he will wax fat and hearty. 
Am looking forward already to the photos you have just snapped,I wonder 
will the change in his appearance be as marked as the last lot,by all 
accounts,the possession of four tooths have altered him a lot. I am 
watching over the photos all right and will preserve them for the family 
album,perhaps a bit dog-eared and faded though. Getting back to Snookums, 
he certainly is in a hurry to get around   for in one letter you tell me 
he’s crawling and in the next  ,standing up now  ,he’s starting to hike.Soon 
he’ll discard the support and be toddling under his own steam.  He must 
be finding life a great adventure now with new things to conquer and I 
have no doubt that his performance is very vocal. It was good to,learn too, 
that the weaning process progresses without mishap  ,high time I can hear 
you say. It will be swell when  I get down to be able to take you out as 
in the days gone by without having always to push or carry a hefty lad. 
For my part, I think I shall be spending such a lot of time with him in 
the daytime,that when he’s tucked up for the night  ,we can have an outing 
without missing him. That might be an idea of yours,to get in xxxxxxxx 
  early for leave,apply stating my son needs a haircut badly,do you think

2. 
it would go/over  . 
I think our feelings toward a spot of real lovin’ are 
the good oil and after a brief recuperative period,I do believe I could 
put on a pretty sound performance in that line.Won’t promise to be up to 
honeymoon standard but passing fair,ye ken. Who knows though,we may have  
been the veriest tyros then and after our post graduate course in Brisbane  
have developed into wooers of the highest class.Any old how, the shots on,  
for I have a notion that my wife has stored up quite a peck of the real  
McCoy for me and when our paths once more cross,the excitement on both sides  
will be terrific. The kid[x] will probably think he's been begotten by a pair  
of crackpots. He'll just have to learn to like it, there is a limit to the sacrifice I am 
prepared to make for my children . 
If your valiant efforts to obtain a shack succeed, that  
will help greatly for, in his own castle ,a man can no wrong and anyhow, a  
fellow and his wife are entitled to privacy to live their own lives.Poor  
darling,its giving you the run around but after such persistence,surely you  
will be rewarded. It is taking you into some rare places,first a museum  
with snakes for watchdogs and then a slum.Advertisements are certainly  
clearly phrased. No thanks,I will pass over the privilege of seeing the  
tasty spots you have visited,even the spectacle of the navvies complete  
to shirtsleeves fails to lure me.Did you expect them to be naked and I  
might tell you ,your hubby has done as much navvying in three years to last  
a lifetime .Anyhow your description was sufficient for me to mentally  
retreat too. The potential shop sounds novel and as things are,not such a  
bad prospect,at least on paper. Be very interested to hear progress in that  
direction.If you click,what do you intend to purvey to the public,fish  
and chips,I believe,are a good proposition or maybe,black market hootch  
would pay the rent.As for the coin just send the SOS for a cheque and I  
will be most happy to accommodate you.Too right,I shall say some prayers  
 for I'm w ith you all the wayfor no matter how modest,as long as I find  
you and Richard well and happy in it,it will be a Paradise for me. 
So that brings another little chapter to a close and will  
hoard  other subjects in your letters for my next just in case the  guts  
drops out of it again and leaves me high and dry for material. Cheerio,  
 beautiful and all the luck in the world to you. If you can corner the  
squirming imp,give him a big kiss from daddy. Thanks, for saying I'm a  
good boy but then,who wouldn't be to you,darling.     Micky 
[*TMHill*]

20 3 44 
PR00610 
Australian 
War Memorial

VX38483 Sgt. M. Billings 
Dist. Accounts Office, New Guinea 
22nd March 1944 
  
Darling Kay, 
Still another letter from you to hand for which accept profuse  
thanks, sweet.'Twas that of the 14th which brings things pretty well up to  
date for me and after perusing yours,it would seem that there cannot be  
many of mine swinging down your way. All very nice too ,for life offers  
but little these days and your letters are as the providential shower to  
a man dying of thirst. Very pleasing you are both feeling yourselves again,  
the laddie appears to be making up for the setback previously suffered 
by taking a new lease of life. Very tough on you that the quest for a  
spot on which to pitch your tent has not been forthcoming,I know how  
dreadfully fed up and discouraging it is to make little headway after  
trying so hard. Seeing it is wearing you out,perhaps it would be as well  
if you adopted a more leisurely method and let it come to you if it is  
going to. The market is surely not glutted with attractive propositions  
though and it seems luck is more important than persistence. 
The idea of Mothers' is maybe a ray of sunshine in an other  
wise dreary prospect and I make no bones about saying I would be most  
grateful to her if developments proceeded xx along the lines hoped for.  
It would be idle to deny that as letters arrive reporting lack of success  
I get a bit worried for the present set up gets more intolerable to you  
and if scheme meets with success and I can spell out the glad tidings  
that at last,you are ensconsed in a place of your own, the news will be the  
best for a many a day. Of course,there is the usual catch in it and under  
war time regulations,hoisting someone out of a house ,even though its yours  
is not easy. Still,having regard to the circumstances you detail  
concerning the present tenants,the chances of taking a trick should be  
pretty bright as as far as equity is concerned.I will state a case as I see  
it. On one hand, we have tenants to whom, apart from a matter of personal 
convenience,residence in a suburb close to the city is immaterial. As far  
as the daughter is concerned ,she lives there strictly in the role of a  
boarder and I should think ,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxw from a point of law,neither  
she xxxx nor her husband would have any standing at all. Secondly ,the  
tenants have already acquired a second string to their bow by possession  
of another dwelling , therefore the proviso that those desiring them to  
quit should xxxxxxxxx find alternative accommodation would hardly apply. 

2. 
To me, that seems a {x}most fortunate circumstance for us ,removing an obstacle  
the difficulty of which you have reason to comprehend very well.Looking at  
the case from our angle,we find a soldier who has gone overseas twice  
and has left a wife and child to live in one room.The growth of the child makes  
it essential for his sake, his mothers and the relatives who have generously  
afforded them sanctuary of a[x]room  that a proper home be provided.In addition  
the husband is nearing the end of his term of service in N.G and has reason  
to hope that he will be given a period of home service after taking accrued  
leave. That makes another person to be housed and it is manifestly unfair  
and unreasonable to expect the three to live in one room ,particularly as  
the people whom it is desired to remove already have another house.Even so,  
you have gone to great lengths to obtain other accommodation without success  
and with a  [x] young child to care for,it is equally unfair for you to have to  
spend hours daily seeking a house or flat. 
I daresay you have brought all these and other angles of  
the question but for the moment,I am of opinion that your case is by far  
the stronger .In fact,In your position and of course,your mothers,I would  
take a strong stand and unless forced,would not be prepared to offer rooms  
to their boarders, unless it is your wish to do so to help defray expenses.  
If the matter should come to law, I would be loth  to think that a magistrate 
if in order legally,would hesitate to not give the greatest consideration  
to the soldier and his wife's side when it can be proven that the objectors  
already possess xxx a home, though it be twenty odd miles from town. That  
would be a strong point in an argument, possibly a deciding one.However,I  
will defer the subject until I hear what transpires from your representations  
to Uncle Brian. Before concluding,I do think it would be a most happy and 
restful solution to our trouble and as I previously explained give us a  
base from which to launch out on a more grandiose scale when the time is  
ripe. One point on which I can give you a bit of clarity  is that regarding  
a lapse of three months before you could enter into tenancy.From present  
indications,I honestly don't think I shall be down much inside that time so  
don't let that aspect dampen your enthusiasm.AS well,the latest notice says  
that we shall [x] get all accumulated leave,which in my case,will be in the  
vicinity of forty days,probably more. That is a break,while we are on the  
subject,far  better than the previous twenty four and a lag of a month say,  
 adds a couple more to the total. Its a cow ,not being able to get away on  
the dot but with one thing and another,it takes a while to get on the way.

3. 
Your next few letters should be productive,and nothing would be so lovely  
as to read that our first home , ours, is well on the way to being an  
accomplished fact. I might compliment you on your taste too,batting hard  
for a spot only five minutes walk from a pub. How like a man,always thinking  
of his guts. The very best of luck this time,pet,I reckon you've got  
something better than snakes and squalor. Enough of houses for a while,I  
suppose you curse the very word. 
Few of your letters have been delayed a day,due to being addressed  
to New Guinea Force. New sorter perhaps at the P.O [x] I'm not a member of  
that unit so just leave the force off the address,sweet. Been waiting long  
enough lately for your letters and very much begrudge an extra day. You  
said it,I'm mighty bored with life in these parts ,no intelligent  person  
could be otherwise ,talk about a hot,stale backwater ,even the old raids  
made it a bit exciting. Went trudging off to the pictures on Monday, not  
expecting more than a mess of boogie-woogie and horse opera.To my joy,  
saw a n excellent comedy ''Government Girl'' with Olivia DeHavilland,very  
funny ,thanks to her breezy caperings .A chap can certainly appreciate a  
picture up here. The weather is beaut and hot,last night late,we had a  
snorter storm,rain came down like a sheet but it left things damn steamy  
this morning. I have scored a new pair of pants ,a delicious dark green,  
almost navy blue,and they blend beautifully with tan boots and a faded  
shirt ,a motley of khaki and green. Still,I'm holding my own and actually  
have bursts of energy and interest,especially with a letter from you to  
brighten the day. As long as I can figuratively feel your arms around me,  
that's the feeling your letters give me ,I battle through another day ,another  
week.Something mighty fine and sweet to come home to. 
So much for me,Richard's teeth has set you another problem in  
playing the old game of likenesses ,perhaps,he has now decided just to look  
like himself and phooey to his silly Paw and Maw. By the time,I get down  
he'll be able to walk up and help poor Micky with his gear .I won't be that  
long but our son is sure to be always doing remarkable things,bless his  
chubby little cheeks. I am just in the mood to meet up with a new mate and  
we are sure to hit it off like old buddies. I suppose I will be getting the  
 length of your tongue for spoiling him but be a bit indulgent,darling,I've  
never had a son before and to pile on the agony,he's been here a long time  
before xxxx I will have seen him.Still,when the sun goes down,my eyes will  
turn to another person I love dearly and after soaking myself with his nibs

4. 
will then do my utmost to forget he even exists. Do you think that kind  
of arrangement will meet with your approval? 
Glad your endeavors relaxed to enable you to pay your  
Sunday visit to Glen Iris. I suppose you felt a tiny pang to see Tom and  
wife lapping it all up. Lucky blighter,three weeks leave,what I could'nt  
do with some of that precious commodity just now. I had a letter from  
him a while back from the copper's big hideout and it sounded  like a smooth  
billet too, Oh well,good luck to him while he can get it,I have a hunch  
they will catch up with him soon.Three weeks leave and then ta-ta to  
a land far,far away is usually the drill. Mum's latest screed whispered  
the teeming Orient but I've heard better from the third seat on the left  
of the unofficial club. Funny it it was collecting the AWL's outside Flinders St.   
Your letter with a tuppenny stamp arrived just as quickly  
as the others so the only ones jinked were the PMG. 
I don't know if a family secret has been confided to you  
yet for I have just been let in on the secret by the prime party. Had a  
letter from Dorcas yesterday and she calmly tells me that she will join  
the elect,the honorable guild of mothers in August.Typical of her,very  
matter of fact announcement but a strong undercurrent of suppressed  
joy. [x] Having been instrumental in introducing thousands into the world  
she now states she will sit in on the game and have one herself just to  
prove her versatility. Marvellous news to me for she's a wonderful scout  
and it would be pussy for her not to exercise her talent as a mother.  
I expectyou will be seeing her soon and have a feast of maternity gossip  
together. Daresay,having told me ,Ma will convey it from the family seat  
to you. I have8nt been about much so your fancy native fans are a new one  
on me ,never clapped eyes on one here so maybe they come from up country.  
However ,I shall converse with a friend of mine at ANGAU and see if he can  
clout down on a brace for I would love to please Ada and you with a gift. 
If available,they won't be very expensive so bide a wee until I  
investigate. 
Like you,I had a shoddy night last night with wind and  
rain causing a few interruptions to my favorite pastime so I intend to  
get a full quota tonight although by the look of the sky, the game may  
be o n again. Cheerio then,sweetheart,for a brief moment and a word in  
your attentive ear.To save those jitters I perceive,call a halt to house  
hunting until the latest prospect clears up.Yours is a nature that does  
not give up but knockbacks affect you more than the proverbial duck so