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I was with my regiment on the liner "Scythia" that had been converted into a troop carrier. To come quickly to the point, it had blown a boiler and while we were in Capetown, South Africa we all transferred to another liner the "Athlone Castle".

For three days we were allowed to leave the ship on a daily basis. On this particular, day I was strolling along the front and came across a rather elderly couple selling bunches of flowers from a stall. They had for transport an Austen saloon car as used by undertakers to carry mourners at funerals.

Seeing that I was taking an interest in their activities, they asked me if I would like to accompany them to their home and have tea with them and their daughter. An invitation that I gratefully accepted.

I later discovered that my hosts home lay in Woodstock, which was widely known as District 6 and was out of bounds to service personnel. In my ignorance I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and the company of the family.

During the course of the meal my hosts disclosed that the family all had (to quote a term) coloured blood in their veins. The only way this showed itself was in the red specks, which were manifest in the corner of their eyes. For example, if they went into a public house for white people, the person who came to serve them would immediately notice these coloured specks and refuse to serve them.

Present at the meal we were enjoying was my hosts' daughter, who was quite an attractive young lady. All the time the parents were trying to get the daughter and myself to take an interest in each other. After the meal we were left on our own whilst the clearing and washing up were done.

Eventually the father came to the subject he was obviously wishing to discuss. The subject being the possibility of me marrying his daughter. He set out to emphasise the advantages to me of doing this. He pointed out to me that if I married his daughter I would be placed in a position of authority over the employees of a huge cotton plantation or similar venues. Also my wife and myself would be provided with a beautiful bungalow to live in and waited on by many servants. I was somewhat surprised at how the daughter was going along with all this.

In a somewhat embarrassed frame of mind I proceeded to explain that despite the tremendous temptation of his offer it was impossible for me to accept it. I then proceeded to explain why.

The main reason was that I was a British citizen in the service of the Crown. I would be betraying my oath of allegiance and would be unable to return to my country and visit my family.

I apologised to the family most profoundly. My apologies were accepted and my visit came to a graceful close and in due course I was returned to the ship.

The next day started off with us all more or less idling or wandering aimlessly around. However interest was aroused when a huge crane arrived and was placed strategically alongside a mountainous stack of crates of oranges. The covers on the top of one of the holds was removed and soon the oranges were being transferred to said hold.

Before very long an idea seemed to simultaneously occur to the onlookers who started widely in a variety of semaphores to signal the crane driver as to what they wanted him to do. It did not take long for him to twig what was required of him and the next crate of oranges began to swing widely from side to side like the pendulum of a clock. He then lowered the crate to approximately two inches off the top of the deck whereupon he swung it round so that it struck one of the bollards bursting open and scattering the oranges all over the deck. The onlookers who had all taken cover appeared and began to collect all the oranges. Soon the deck was immaculately clean, the crane driver was once more transferring oranges to the hold, and the troops were nonchalantly strolling around.

The next day saw everything shipshape and in good order and soon anchors were pulled and we were on our way. It was with very sad feelings that I watched Table Mountain fade into the distance.

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