French Hospitality
Edgar Whitehead asked the Chief Official at French Immigration if they could be permitted to remain for two days in Marseilles before going on their way.
“Your visas say, ‘transit sans arrêt’. I cannot give you permission,” but he asked, “When do you have to report to your unit?”
Edgar said, “January 15.”
“In that case I am the Chief of Police in Marseilles. If you remain here I will say nothing.”
Having secured a hotel and forwarded their luggage on to it, they decided to walk from the ship through the lower part of the port up the Rue Canebière to see something of the city. The N.C.O.’s ahead of them rushed out a every bar and dragged them forcibly inside to introduce them to their comrades as ‘deux camarades anglais’. They vouched for Edgar and John being ‘reliable types’ and got involved in no fewer than six major parties before reaching their hotel for a late lunch.
Sleeping off the festivities they came down to find the lobby filled with Officers of the British Yeomanry en route to Palestine. Edgar and John took them to a bar to ring in the New Year together. Edgar was elected interpreter and from nine o’clock to one in the morning he spent his entire time interpreting between the French and the Yeomanry Officers. The French C.O. was extremely kind saying to the barman at half hourly intervals, “encore un cognac pour Monsieur ‘l Interpretre”.
This treatment worked so well that Edgar was as fluent at one in the morning as he had been when he started translating, although rather hoarse.
As the midnight chimes sounded, La Marseillaise struck up followed by God Save the King. After that came La Madelon and then Tipperary.
The following day they left on the train for Paris but were suffering from a severe shortage of cash. Edgar had had the prudence to pay the hotel in advance and also the railway tickets right through to Victoria, but liquid funds were running very low.
They decided they would have to manage on the train without food all the way in order to pay for one night’s hotel in Paris. Explaining this to the dining car attendant he brought a large supply to their compartment—on the house.
Crossing the Channel from Calais they arrived at the Grosvenor Hotel late in the evening with ten shillings between them. Booking in they went out to spend the ten shillings on a last party.
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. They're a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo credit: https://www.groupebrousse.com/en/our-story
