American Hospitality
The American Officers were extraordinarily kind to Edgar Whitehead and the other seven British Officers attending the Officer Training Course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1944.
Many of the American Officers had their own private cars with them and took the visiting Officers out to see the surrounding countryside on Saturday afternoons. The wayside filling stations always seemed ready to supply them with gas, off the ration, and they showed them the rural restaurants where beef steak could be got, also off the ration. Edgar's impressions were that there were more wartime restrictions in America and far more forms to fill in, as it was common to require nine copies instead of three in Britain. All the regulations seemed to be broken with complete impunity.
Their colleagues came from every State in the Union and as the weeks passed they came to distinguish between the different regions and even accents. One morning Edgar's watch was a little fast and hurrying, so as not to be late, he passed a trio of Officers sauntering casually towards the lecture hall. He was accosted by a lazy Southern drawl, "Rhodesia! Rhodesia! Don't catch these bad Yankee habits, just join us in the South Carolina stroll and we'll be there in plenty of time."
Most of the Allied Nations had Officers on the course; two or three Free French, Poles, Czechs, Brazilians, apart from the British Commonwealth which included a strong Canadian contingent, several Australians, two New Zealanders and two South Africans. Every Saturday afternoon all the Officers from these services were assembled in the largest lecture theater for a current affairs lecture. As a politician Edgar enjoyed these most of all, delivered by top pressmen and University experts, each on his own speciality. One man's thesis was that if the great Asian land mass with Eastern Europe containing more than two thirds of the world's population were ever under the control of one Power, that Power would undoubtedly rule the world. As he developed his thesis the American Colonel on Edgar's right leant across and said to the one on his left, "Gee, this guy oughtn't to talk like this with so many foreigners present." His companion immediately put his arm around Edgar's neck and said, "We don't call you foreigners."
It was possible to go to Kansas City on Saturday afternoon and return at lunchtime on Sunday. Edgar only did this once, because they had so much homework that they could not spare the time. Edgar got a room in the hotel next to the Officers Club and spent a most interesting evening. The 1944 Presidential election was in full swing but he found the issues in Kansas City almost entirely local. The Democrats were in Office and the city was 'wide open'. Leavenworth was in a dry State but here it was very wet. The local Republicans were regarded as the Puritans who wanted to clean up the city. The Democrats were controlled by the Prendergast Organization. Edgar listened entranced to two wealthy businessmen in the hotel bar discussing the election. One of them asked the other, "Who are you voting for?"
The reply came with a sweeping gesture embracing the array of bottles behind the counter, "Why Roosevelt of course, we owe all this to him."
Edgar never heard the war mentioned once the whole evening.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo Credit: Kansas City WWII Backstories.
LaDene Morton