T. E. Lawrence to S. L. Newcombe
[aged six]

[Karachi]

11.1.27.

Dear Monster

This letter is to say that I ate four of your toffee chunks on Xmas day. They were the last four in the tin. I kept the tin hidden in my kit-bag, and so none of the other airmen had any. They were very good. It was a most excellent present. Afterwards I brought out the empty tin, and we made it the sugar magazine for our Mess. It was two sorts of a Mess. Mess 68, they called it. They are still using the tin, though I am not now on the ship, but in Karachi. Address

338171 AC2 Shaw, Room 2 E.R.S. R.A.F. Depot, Drigh Road, Karachi, India

A long difficult address: but not a bad place to live in. No trees. Sand and desert, and great store houses full of airmen. We get up in the dark, and work all the morning. I am a sort of messenger: runner they call me, but I do not run: just I waddle like a blue duck. Sometimes I do clerks' work. The officer said 'Can you write?' I replied 'Fluently'. He said 'No, No; is your handwriting good?' I will not tell you what I said then.

About that photograph you asked of me. It is not forgotten, but instead of having one taken out here I am trying to get one from England for you. There are some quite good ones. If there are none left in England I will have one made out here, but it will not be so excellent, as my nose is peeling. Also I am too red. Red comes out black in photographs, and you will not want a photograph of a quite black airman.

Go on being monstrous. Get monstrously long, while I get monstrously thick. Then everybody who sees us together will have fits.

Poof.

M......r