and seemed to break our complete isolation, as we followed the battles of Guadacanal and New Guinea and the American bases grew closer we knew that the War was turning in our favour. Mother wrote at the time:
Lone Eagle from the outer world,
With your strong hearts that beat as one,
I glimpsed you as through space you hurled,
A symbol of the end begun,
Your four white plumes did sign a name,
To Freedom’s Charter writ in flame.
All during that summer of 1943, things went on much as before. Chess championships were arranged with practically everyone taking part. The absolute champion turned out to be a tall Somali seaman Yusuf Ahmed with an ebony black skin and glistening snow white teeth. His front tooth though was slightly chipped following a fight, but the contrast of the snowy white teeth and jet black skin colouring was spectacular. He admitted that he knew of no one language properly, but he could converse freely in English, Arabic, French, Italian and Greek, all of which he had picked up by word of mouth working on ships and coming from a land under Italian jurisdiction. But when he sat at a chess board however he showed that he had a brilliance of mind, that one wondered just what such a brain could have accomplished if only he had the chance in his youth to have had a good education! His other almost as good sparing partner was the 16 year old John White from the Gloucester Castle who equally, could also give him a good run and would be runner up camp champion.. Chess sets were made by carving pieces of branch from the garden with a sharp knife. The problem was getting hold of a knife, as all had been confiscated by the Germans. Eventually it was discovered that some of the ladies had high heeled or “court” shoes and there was a strip of high quality tensile steel supporting the heel in a shallow S shape. By extracting that and fashioning a handle and sharpening one side, razor sharp knives were possible. With them chess pieces, model ships etc could be carved, and I used to make lorries and trucks with the same tools, which were lent and passed around for various people to utilize and share. The Greeks were particularly good at such handicrafts, and I still have on my mantelpiece a ship made for me by them in this way, as well as a chess set the black pieces stained with dye made from wild poppy petals which gave a good black ink dye.
Of the other nationalities the four Arabs from Aden I found most perplexing. When approached and tapped on the shoulder from behind they had a reflex of putting their right hand to their left chest as though to pull a knife and swinging round on one. So naturally for a while we kids would cruelly test them on this reflex until one day the Australian padre Rev. Boyle warned us in case we got injured. In contrast the four Cape Coloureds from Cape Town, Mannering Erasmus, Molphy and Phillips were a cheerful and jolly lot, naturally musical and were forever singing songs so that I would become familiar with such classics at Sarah Marie etc. I learnt from them for the first time of the iniquities and injustices of segregation and white superiority but they would say:
“After the War is over America will say
‘Hey White Man stop abusing all the Blacks and Coloured and be Fair or I will use a Big Stick on you”.
Their analysis was absolutely correct although it was a further half century into the future before it happened!