From Rangoon, Burma. He is booked to depart by Imperial Airways on Sunday and will change at Bangkok onto a French Airways flight [to Hanoi]. Hopefully there will be no hitch this time. He was due to leave at 2pm on Monday but was informed at 1.30 that the plane had by-passed Rangoon and had gone straight for Bangkok. He did not mind very much at the time as he was feeling groggy because of a stomach upset picked up in Mandalay. After taking Kaolin and aspirin he has been fine.
Since then it has been a daily journey to Cooks [Travel Agents] and Imperial Airways and yesterday they were at last satisfied that things were being sorted out alright.
H B R has been taken in by the Mitchells. He is a chief accountant for the municipality. There is one Indian servant to prepare your clothes, another to drive the car and another to wait on table. The Mitchells are friends of the Shepherds' brother in Cardiff. [George Eric] Firth and Hawkin have also been here and H B R has actually learned quite a lot these last few days, more than by running around.
His diary now runs to practically one hundred pages. It shall be sent from here for the sake of safety and prudence.
He trusts that they are having a good time in Guernsey [Channel Islands].
Mrs [Maida Lenwood] Leith is often in his thoughts.
H B R has had a great time in this district. Their school work is excellent and their leper hospital can go on to great things; their evangelistic and church work is however quite patchy and varies greatly. This is really a young district but he thinks that the revolutionary ferment will do them good on the Burmese side.
Rangoon and even Mandalay are such a mix of nations - Burmese, Indians, Chinese and Eurasians. 'It seems to be the thing to have a bit of colour. The whites are mostly in cars & you do not notice any of them about'.
It seems to rain every day, sometimes in torrents and at other times more gently. At such times it gets cool - about 70 degrees but then before you know where you are, you are sweating away again. They have five months of cool wet weather and then seven drier and hotter months.
He is writing this letter in [Harold C.] Willan's office.
Saturday .
He has picked up his tickets and there seems to be no problem although the weather has been bad.
H B R will probably try to send a wire from Kunming. They read that Japanese planes are supposed to have been fired on as they flew over Hong Kong yesterday .