大象传媒

I believe that I was among the few men in
the British Army,who was reprimanded for
writing too many letters,and for receiving
too much correspondence. This started from
my early days in the Services,when letters;
newspapers and books followed me all over the place. I was a prolific writer of letters,especially after my return from France in 1940.
Moving from one part of England to
another area and then Scotland over a period
of four and a half years meant that I got to
know a great number of people. Writing letters and answering correspondence seemed
to snowball. Sometimes,I did feel a prick
of conscience,when the Post Corporal kept
calling my name-Hawthorne;Hawthorne-"I've
got a letter for you-and several of my comrades time after time had none .
Even in the remotest areas of Scotland -
the postal services would reach me .For instance amongst the mountains of Scotland
in the Cairngorms-books from Aberdeen City
Library would be forwarded to me.
Sheltering in a tent from the intense
cold of a Scottish winter,I would huddle down in my warm sleeping bag ,and with the
aid of a candle read the books on politics;
and philosophy,which had safely reached me
thanks to the Army Postal Service.
I do not think the charge of writing
too many letters included those I wrote for
others - perhaps my superiors did not know
about them. For instance,the correspondence
that I drafted ,and often wrote for my Indian friends,whilst eating their chappaties and curry in their tents of an
evening . High on the Scottish hills -far
away from the sun-baked plains of the sub -
continent of India. Most of these letters
were to Scottish girls .whom my friends in the Indian Army had met locally. I often
wondered ,what the girls must have thought,
at the sudden flow of eager,affectionate
phrases from members of the Indian Army,
whom they had only met on a few occasions !
But- it was the the continued flow of
correspondence seeking me out in the Front
Line that led to the showdown. Letters;books
"Reader's Digest and above all the volume of
copies of "Soviet War News",which steadily
accumulated. I was made to feel that I was
sabotaging the war effort in general,and the
Army Postal Services in particular.
i HAD THE FEELING THAT THE O.C. my
Company was becoming suspicious as to the
weight of ammunition I should be carrying.
and the weight of paper I was actually
carrying -there could not be room for both.
I will not go into details about this
matter,but there was some truth in his
suspicions. At a later date in the war,when
I was aP.O.W. in a Stalag,which was abruptly
evacuated,which meant carrying all our
belongings on our backs -I chose two heavy
books and dumped more useful though lighter
articles behind in the Camp. One book was on
Philosophy,the other - Margaret Mitchells'
"Gone With The Wind- both heavy going .

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