'THIM DAYS IS GONE' [‎31r] (61/248)

32
An advantage of service on the Frontier was that one
qualified for three months furlough instead of two.
In 1935 I was entitled to this, and started off for Bombay by the
narrow-gauge "Thai Queen" to Kohat, and then by the ordinary
Indian broad gauge railway for the journey of two days and a
night to Bombay. It was a different world : lush and humid, for
the monsoon had started, and I was glad to leave next day by an
11 a 1ia n Llo yd-Trestino liner from Bombay. The journey cost no
more than £15 to Venice, travelling "Secundo economico" - a
euphemism for steerage class - and was really quite comfortable.
As we left the harbour after a good lunch, the monsoon hit us and
we pitched and rolled unceasingly for three days. During all of
this time the man in the bunk below me chain-smoked "Gold Flake"
cigarettes and, although I was not actually sick, the experience
cured me of any wish ever to smoke cigarettes - an excellent and
most efficient course of "aversion therapy"!
Venice was plastered with posters of Mussolini in full spate, for
the Italian invasion of Abyssinia was underway. The Spanish
Civil War was also starting, and I suppose a really keen soldier
should have found his way to one of these conflicts, to study his
profession. However, I was to eager to see my parents and family
after three years separation, and spent my leave quietly and
unexcitingly in Oxford, where my father (who had by then retired
from the Sappers) was teaching Survey to new entrants to the
Colonial Services.
On return from leave, I rejoined my battery in Kohat where we had
been transferred and where we spent a very pleasant year. Since
there was an Indian cavalry regiment - Probyn's Horse - we were
able to play polo twice a week, and we frequently had to follow a
hard game of polo by an even more strenuous game of hockey with
the Indian troops.