March 30.
Karachi
My dear Mother. Many thanks for your letter (March 2nd). That cable saying I had gone to Bombay arrived frightfully late. I sent it off on Feb 20th! Fancy Monks turning up, he’s a nice man, & a great friend of mine in Assam, & of course you remember how I went to Northampton to see his sister Evelyn! Jane had written to me & told me he had been in to see them, & had been awfully kind to them. They seem quite comfortable in their shop. Dreda wrote to me too, & it was forwarded in from Alex.
There is tons of fighting now is’nt there, but we don’t get much news. I hope Topher has some leave & is having a good time at home. You do seem to have had tons of snow at home. I wonder if Rosamond will like the farm as much as London, has she tried it before. Many thanks for paying Curry & Paxtons’ bill, I suppose I shall get the eyeglasses sometime.
I am glad all the puppies have good homes now. June is very well, and quite happy, & very popular with everyone. I think you ought to show Susan at a show, I see there are some coming off in England, she might get a prize. I have’nt got the pills yet, or the boots. You never told me before Chubbie’s brother had a puppy, if you did ever get the letter, but I’m sure I’ve got all yours so far. You seem to have had a muddle over Aquascutum! Did you look up the advertisement in the end!
It gets hotter here every day, but we have now turned some big barracks into a hospital & are waiting patients. I have written to the authorities & told them this is not at all what I want, & I am now exactly in a similar position to what I was in before the war, only drawing less pay! Would they kindly transfer me to a sphere of a more active nature. We get lots of tennis in the evenings, but I can’t say I find the place very interesting. I suppose if I go anywhere it will be the Gulf but so far my attempts at a change have come to nil. I am thinking of buying a motor bike! At present I have hired an old push bike.
Last night some of us went to a most rotten entertainment, a one-man show at the club. Such rot & I was so bored & I could’nt come away, as we had some ladies with us. All the time is wrong here. We keep a sort of “standard time” & we get up at 7 & it’s really 6, & dine at 9 & it’s really 8. The writing paper has’nt arrived yet.
You’ll soon be writing direct here I expect, but it’s not worth while cabling as if the letters go to Bombay they come straight no here. Did you tell Evelyn I had gone to Bombay, she says she had a line about the other cable.
Best love to all
yr loving son
Richard
