COMRADES IN ARMS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIII, Issue 3947, 26 January 1944, Page 3

COMRADES IN ARMS

A POLE TO A NEW ZEALANDER

A FINE THIBET I

The following excerpts are from an English translation ot a letter to a New Zealander which appeared in ““Fighting Poland,” the weekly for the Polish forces. After describing the keenness of the Polish Division in the Middle East to get with the New Zealanders and an appreciation of the New Zealanders fine bearing in Greece, Crete and the earlier battles ot the Middle East. The writer describes with great appreciation how the New Zealanders helped in the relief of Tobruk and then goes on to say: “I must tell you, dear Johnny, how happy I was to meet your countrymen again. Me were moving through the desert towards the sea, thrilled with the prospect of seeing a railway line. A railway line and everything which is connected with it—railway station, and railwaymen and perhaps even water tap.-,. \Ve were to come into touch with real civilisation after many months of desert life, to see with our own eyes that the world does not consist entirely of dry sand, cacti diier than sand, and murderous heat. Can you imagine, Johnny*, our joy of seeing those two long black straight lines of the rail track? Now you will understand how glad 1 Was to see your countrymen. Because it was to them, who built this line, that we owed our newlyestablished contact with the world. Your tall figures with the characteristic hats showed against the two black straight lines as signs ol organised labour, a symbol of progress and civilisation. Our trucks at that stage were very tired and weary, so you took us into your railway and delivered sus speedily into the civilised world. Praise For N.Z. W.A.A.C.S. “You carried us through to Cairo, where I got a leave pass. Imagine, Johnnv! A leave pass after a year of desert sand. 1 went straight to your club and wanted to buy three bath tickets in a lump. But one o: vour lovely M'.A.A.O.’s-oh, how lovely—told me that one ticket would do just as well. So I turned on all taps at once and started to wallow in water hot and cold until the accumulated cover of dust softened and was carried away and l ■ felt clean. I was afraid that then I would have to do without tea as all the water had been used for my bath, but there was never any shortage of tea in your club. 1 can hardly recall what happened afterwards. I have some hazy recollection ot something white and fluffy, cold and verv delightful. I do not remember' whether it was the remembrance of the wonderful ice cream { had or of the wonderful girls 1 saw in vour club—you must have hand-picked them from all over New Zealand, those M .A.A.C. s m vour club in Cairo—. Do.you remember the women m the Midd.e East? Black-haired, dark eyed, burning like a desert wind? Do you know how your fair New Zealand girls compared with them. You must, because you went to your club so often. Like beautiful icecream they were, cool and rclresiling after the atmosphere ol Anu coffee-houses full of hashish smoke.

“And then l met you again. Johnny; in Beirut this time. We drank strong cofree in the nuvning, after having drunk a lot of beer during the night. W’c could already understand each other without difficulty and so we talked about the war. about the desert, about our families. You knew then that your brother was taken prisoner-of-war, as I had already experienced that pleasure, but 1 could not give you all exact idea of it because you see t am a Pole, therefore I received ‘preferential’ treatment from the Germans. “It was months later when l read the press report of your coun-try-men’s sympathy with us in our great misfortune, the death of our General—that is what- we called our Sikerski, just ,General’—that I realised much more clearly than I cud the night in your camp how strong wore the links between us. Suddenly I knew that when you were at the Mass for our General you were thinking of me and my cobbers who had lost their supreme warlord, that you were sorrowing for us poor orphans as we had once thought of you and rejoiced when vour ,Frey ’ returned safe from Crete and also when he recovered froih the wounds he received in the desert. T realised more clearly than before that we are not only brotn-ers-in-arms, but that there is as great a bond of common interests between us as there is distance separating our countries; that as you came here to fight in order that Danzig, our window to the world, might not remain in German hands, so also have >vc to watch that New Plymouth will not become Japanese. Therefore, as you are here to help us , when the job is finished some of us will certainly go over to give ou a hand. —So long, Johnny. Yours, Joseph.”