Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 309
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 309]
152
later that these people had never seen a motor vehicle before; not even a Russian one.
On arrival in the town I sent for the headman and on his appearing I demanded accommodation for the night. As was the custom, he did not offer me his own house but ordered his deputy to vacate his, immediately, for our occupation. It was a fine two-storey building, the upper floor of which extended over an open archway leading into a walled compound at the rear. We three dined voraciously on appetising curried dishes sent along by the headman and then bedded down, in our clothes, on thick carpets and long bolster-cushions, and under warm rizans (eiderdown quilts) this being the usual Persian bed. A fierce looking gigantic guard, also provided by the headman, sat cross-legged in the corner of the room, with an old type long-barreled rifle across his thighs, glowering silently at us. I was wondering if he was likely to cut our throats in our sleep, and I think my two companions were thinking the same thing. However, after a long tiring day I was weary and soon fell asleep. In the early hours of the morning though, I was awakened by an angry altercation going on between two men in the narrow street below our windows. I asked Joseph what all the row was about, and in his precise stilted English he translated and explained as follows "When we arrived here last night the angry man was away and when he returned later the other man told him about the motor car and said, "You must get up very early in the morning and come with me to be sure of seeing this wonderful thing before it might go away". "But", said the angry man, "I got up so very early on this terribly cold morning, in all this snow, to see this wonderful thing, and now I am here and there is nothing wonderful to see" (the vanette had been parked under the archway and covered with a big tarpaulin) "But", protested his companion, "You must wait until the thing walks".
In mid-September, General Dunsterville took farewell of us in an "Order of the Day' and on the 18th September Dunsterforce became Norperforce under the command of Major General Thompson with headquarters in Iraq. Six weeks later with Turkey's