SYRIA VISITED

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5598, 29 March 1943, Page 6

SYRIA VISITED

MISS P. SECCOMBE’S TRAVELS INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS Writing to h<r parents in Hamilton, Miss Phyllis Seccombe, of the W.W.S.A., who is attached to the No. 1 General Hospital in the Middle East, tells of an extensive and interesting tour of Syria during leave. The letter was written in November. She writes:—“We arrived in Ismailia the first afternoon and left the next morning for Tel-a-viv, a lovely place in Palestine right on the coast. To reach the town we had to travel over the Sinai desert—a rather interesting trip at first, but passing later through Beersheba, Gaza and Jaffa. All these places are very old and are abounding with interest. SCENES SIMILAR TO NEW ZEALAND

“Next day we left for Haifa. The drive there was very beautiful and it was simply grand to pas sthrough green trees, ‘./range and olive groves, and at times we almost imagined that we were back in New Zealand until we saw a camel, or a donkey and a few “wogs.” This trip took us three hours good travelling. Haifa is a beautiful city—l almost persuaded myself that I should live there after the war. The city is built on a slope with the blue Mediterranean on one side and Mount Camel on the other. Most of the homes are built on Mount Camel, lovely places with long sloping gardens and tall cypress trees. “The strip from Haifa to Beirut is an interesting one with many small, large and old towns. We had dinner at Sidon and had an omelette cooked over a small open fire while we waited, and very nice it was too. The next city was Damascus. En route we called at a small French cafe where we had a huge roll, about a foot long, with tomatoes and tea. The uroprietor gave us a glass of cognac (white wine) made of grapes, oranges and everything else they can think of. At Damascus we visited St. Paul’s Church, where St. Paul was supposed to have been lowered from one of the windows. Then we drove around the City Wall, which is a few thousand years old, but has been reconstructed to a large extent. We entered the city through the East Gate and went to the house of a wealthy Syrian, where we were shown pure silk rugs and carpets, hundreds of years old and of priceless value. There were beautiful brass, copper, gold and silver vases, too, and the house itself belonged to the 17th century. NO SUGAR OR MILK

“Our next trip was to Tripoli. Here we had a cup of French coffee, served without any milk or sugar, as both these commodities are strictly rationed. There is not much to see in Tripoli, except the quaint shops, where I bought a filigree silver cigarette case and a mother-of-pearl box which cost me £2B in Syrian money—about equivalent to £4 in New Zealand. We called to see Colonel G. W. Gower at the No. 3 General Hospital, where we dined and were shown over the building. It was very interesting but we still maintain that No. 1 is the best, in our estimation, anyway. “On we went to Baalbeck and motored over the Lebanon Mountains. This time they were clear of fog and we could see for miles beautiful snowclad mountains and at their base, villages and long flat plains of cultivated and ploughed land. We visited the Temples of Jupiter and Bacchus and had our photos taken against the great pillars. In Nazareth we saw the Greek and Catholic Orthodox Churches which are separate but are joined by an underground passage where it is believed Mary lived. We went through the rooms and the kitchen and sipped from the well where Mary is said to have drawn water. We did not have time to see all of Jerusalem but saw the Church 6f the Holy Sepulchre, a lovely old place not nearly so reconstructed as the others we had seen. We were lucky enough to see a Greek procession of monks, all singing and carrying incense, and to witness one of their ceremonies but we were unable to understand any of it. “After a trip on the Sea of Galilee we came ashore jmd had afternoon tea at a hotel overlooking the sea, and on leaving the orchestra started to play ‘Now Is The Time.’ It is amazing how these people learn our songs and play them with the saying ‘Special for you Kiwis.’ ”