At the moment the Battalion gardening officer was Tommy Jenkins, but he was one of two officers who had volunteered for a so-called ‘Up Country’ working party. All that party was told was that it would be travelling up the mainland of Malaya to work. Rumours reported the work as vegetable cultivation in the Cameron Highlands, or perhaps near Kuala Lumpur. When Tommy left in a week or two, I should take his place.

To turn to the pleasant side for a while, it was very good to be visiting ‘C’ Mess again. The civilised atmosphere was doubly refreshing after Gutty, and to talk politics or to hear some music on the gramophone was a real relaxation. Henry and I were chiefly concerned with Kerr Peace because he was the Divisional Education Officer and a big shot in University organisation, which he brilliantly delegated to others, leaving himself a remarkably free existence. Richard Blane was still there and organised Sunday evening gramophone concerts. ‘C’ Mess was still the centre of interest among the younger element; they were not so much ‘Bolshy’, as independent.

In the University, I enrolled to attend several faculties. The first of these was agriculture, which was run very efficiently by a pink, popeyed young landowner in the Gunner Regiment. He turned out to be a man who really knew his job, and his lectures were extremely popular. The General used to attend these lectures, followed by a perspiring G.I.

The English faculty was run by three friends of mine. Henry was the administrator of the faculty and one of the chief lecturers. Then we had a young and charming Professor of English from Raffles College, whose lectures on the 19th century novel were amongst the most delightful one could wish for. And also there was Ian White. He was one of the brightest young men Cambridge had seen for some years. From the University he had won a double scholarship, one in England and one at the Sorbonne. He was an example of a very good brain in an equally robust body; there was little frail about him. The Raffles professor, on the other hand, wore a fair beard and had a whimsical manner, and captured your attention by his subtlety and personal likeability.

And then there was the Music. This faculty ran a series of lectures on the great composers; lectures on musical forms such as the sonata, symphony, concerto, fugue, etc.; and there were elementary classes in Sight Reading, and more advanced ones in Counterpoint.