Dear Mom, Dad & Jean,
Just a few more lines to let you know that I am still feeling quite O.K. and in good health. I am back on board again now after my fourteen days leave and I might tell you it took a bit of getting used to the heat again after being ore or less out in the open for so long. Still it is not really all that bad as there is only half the Ship’s Company at the moment so we are not crowded as much as usual.
We are going on well with the refit, the boilers have been cleaned now and nearly all the messes have been painted out. We are staying in the “Basin” which is in the dockyard for about another ten days, we shall probably be busy painting out the Boiler Rooms and Engine Room. Then about August 7th we go into dry dock and have the ships’ “props” and bottom scraped.
After that I am not sure where we shall be going to but the two rumours that are circulating at the moment are either going to Yokohama for trials and naval manoeuvres, or Shanghai Peking and Nanking on a “showing the flag”. The better rumour is that at Peking we are getting four days and are to be taken on an organised sight seeing tour of the city and surrounding country. Peking is supposed to be one of the most picturesque cities in China.
Still myself I wouldn’t mind which rumour is correct. Then there is another rumour that the ship then goes down to Sydney to load up with “food for Britain” and leaves for the U.K. in October but I think that is just a little too much to bank on just yet.
We have had two films on here since I came back. Vic Olwen and Margaret Lockwood in “I’ll Be Your Sweetheart” which was an old time musical and was quite funny. The other, which I thought was a very good film indeed, was Bette Davis in “The Corn is Green” and was the story of a typical uneducated Welsh Village in the heart of the mining country. The acting was very good and the people in the film were the same type as “How Green Was My Valley”.
It is definitely worth seeing if you get the chance and I know you would like it.
What do you think of the trouble in Palestine lately? Terrible thing at the St George Hotel wasn’t it. It’s a good job Uncle Fred is away from there now isn’t it.
How is Dad going on at work lately, has he got his leg up yet? I suppose Norman W. has left now hasn’t he?
How are you managing now with the bread rationing, it sounds pretty grim to me. They are cutting ours down on Monday bit I don’t think it will be quite so bad as yours even then.
By the way will you ask Dad to get my driving licence renewed please, I think it is due towards the end of August sometime.
Has Jean heard the results of her exams yet? I hope she manages to get through it will certainly be a good start won’t it.
Well Mom it is getting pretty late so I think I had better close until next time
So all my love
Graham
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Notes
The King David Hotel (not St George) in Jerusalem was the British administrative headquarters in Palestine. On the 22nd of July 1946, it was bombed by a right-wing group called Irgun, killing 91 people and injuring a further 46.
OceanWave1945 