ISO CHALLENGER 



they moved on with the night to the small, friendly, almost 

 homely cabarets, so different from the garish rooms with their 

 grasping harsh-voiced women which passed for entertainment in 

 Basra, 



When the jeeps had been landed and the crew had enjoyed a 

 few nights ashore in Famagusta the work began. For this the ship 

 was based on Limassol in the south-west of the island, and the 

 search for Cyprus Lands and Survey triangulation marks began in 

 the brown cornfields and the olive groves which sloped steeply 

 to the sea. 



Enosis never seems to have affected the personal feelings of the 

 people towards us, and surveyors have always found them, both 

 towTismen and villagers, overwhelming in their hospitality. The 

 first day that the Sub-Lieutenant went away coastlining he returned 

 with his board as virgin white as when it had left the chartroom. 

 Sam Southern searched in vain for any indication of the shoreline. 

 'What the hell have you been doing all day?' asked Sam. 



'The villagers where I landed were so hospitable with their 

 wine and food, Sir, that I dared not move off until the boat came 

 back for me in case I hurt their feelings.' Sam's smile was not 

 evident on this occasion. 



General Gordon is a serious philatelist, to whom not only is 

 the stamp important but also the postmark it bears ; it appeared 

 that the postmarks placed upon the stamps by the rural post 

 offices in the villages of Cyprus were exceedingly valuable. Each 

 officer who landed and set off in the jeep for a day's work with 

 his theodolite in the mountains carried also with him a packet of 

 letters addressed to Gordon. One of these was handed in at each 

 small post office along his route ; the General was particularly 

 pleased if his 'postman' would supervise the franking, ensuring 

 that the name of the village appeared as clearly as possible upon 

 the stamp. This game of 'General Post' reached such proportions 

 that it was decided to pull a hoax on Gordon. 



The Limassol Post Office conveniently kept a pile of old 

 headed stationery available as scribbling paper so that the less 

 literate could compose their message upon it before committing 

 it to the official telegraph form. A piece of this paper was thus 

 easily obtained and a letter purporting to come from a Mr. 



