AN ARAB SCHOOL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 5 August 1941, Page 6

AN ARAB SCHOOL

AIRMAN AS INSPECTOR OUTCOME OF LANDING DEALINGS IN THE DESERT “Little did I think that I would eve: be called upon to play the part of a school inspector while I was ,a member of the air force,” writes a Wellington airman in telling of a strange experience in the Middle East. It happened when the aircraft in which he was returning from a bombin'.-' raid -had made a forced landing and gave the occupants a further insight into desert life. In the period of waiting for relief some camels Were hired after some bargaining with the Arabs Who had gathered to inspect the machine. The price worked out at 10s each —"far too much to pay, of course, but it was better than trudging about in the sand.” On the way from, breakfast fcit a soldier’s outpost, the airman called at a small station on tire Egyptian-Palestine railway, where, apparently, not much passenger business was done but where, A soon transpired, the local school, was accommodated in what must have originally been intended as a waiting room. The School’s Greeting The stationmaster gave me a small cup of coffee and sent an Arab to change a £1 note for me,” the airman writes. “While I was waiting for the change -»he stationmaster took me along the [platform to the school. There were about 20 Arab children in the room and I had heard them chanting some sort of Arabic. When I went inside the Arab schoolmaster stopped them, and made them all stand. He then shook me warmly by hand. I have never felt r uch a goat in my life. “But worse was to come. The school teacher was pretty yi ud of ms pupil’s knowledge of English. lieinsisted on mv examining the kids in reading, spelling, and spoken English. For half an hour or :-.o I had a great time asking the youngsters how to spell ‘cat,’ ‘dog,’ ‘table, etc.., _ getting them to read from their English text books, and getting them to tell me that' ‘the pen is on top of the book, the book is on the table.' “The kids did quite well. But I suspect that most of their reading lad been, memorised, and most of their English sentences, too.” What Price Eggs! Mentioning that fried eggs and fried bread were on the menu at the soldiers’ tent where the airman had breakfasted, the writer adds: “Eggs are a more or less universal dish m this part of the world, and they are very cheap—about (id for ten. Oranges, too, are cheap. Owing to the war it has been impossible tc export oranges from Jaffa, and in Palestine they have been giving them I away. Here, the average orico fs l ( oranges is two for Id. but out m the desert where we made our forced landing we bought 25 for the equivalent of 10d." The adoption of a suggestion that Arabs should be employed to carry petrol cans three or four hundred yards to the plane which had been forced down provided another experience in business dealings. The write: agreed to supervise the work and pay the Arabs. “The petrol was carried across in record time,” he states, “but the trouble started when I had to pay. I did not have enough small change, so you can imagine the shouting and tumult that developed. Settling the Deal “Frst of all I tried giving one man a five-piastre bit and getting him to divide it amongst some of the others. But that was no good. The Arab just bolted with the five piastres, and then. I suspect, cam 3 back arid claimed an extra’piastre. In the end I solved the problem by accepting only one tin at a time and holding up the payment until someone in flie crowd could produce the necessary change. At last, after paying for about as many tins again as" 1 should have, the deal was completed. “Some of the Arabs, of Course, were still screeching that they had been robbed, but I shut up shop. And that was that! When I showed I reallymeant what 1 said everything became who had arrived pn the scene, told me I had paid too much, so I suppose everyone Wag' satisfied in the end.” peaceful again- The schoolmaster.