"On arrival at Alexandria I got fixed up with a room and bathroom attached, at the Hotel Cecil. I wupped and proceeded to wallow in about 30 gallons of warm water (nearly a month's ration for all purposes in the desert) and had a jolly Wood scrub. It's amazing how one Res for so long. To switch on appreciates these luxuries after imlits, telephone for breakfast, have a whisky-and-soda, newspapers etc. is marvellous, "To continue the story: After a good bath I contacted a pal who I had met in the desert and we went to a funny Litle French restaurant, the "Petit Coin de France," tucked away like a little Soho restaurant. Never did a gin sling followed by roast duck and peas and iced melon, taste so Gre. We followed cur meal by a ur of the many cabarets in the town, but the heat was intense, and irin- Greek and French "girls ing vermouth at 44 pia a time was not our idea of fun. so we repaired to the coolness of the Cecil Bar and drank many different kinds of iced drinks, finally turning in with the feeling that all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Next day, Friday, I went slong to a military hospital to have my teeth looked at. Who should be there but Lieut, M. I talked so much that he didn't get much chance to look at the remains of my teeth, and we arranged a lunch date' at the Metropole where we were joined by a major in the marines Already alcohol factories canna: obtain molasses as raw material, Peppermint factories are short of crude oil for the manufacture of menthol, smaller thermos bottle plants and flashlight bulb factories have closed down. Japanese cigarette plants are busy but only two of the larger Chinese plants are. active while no silk filatures carried on operations in August and dyeing plants only worked intermittently. The report in part states:
Tu August. the textile mills operated virtually as usual and the outlook appeared fair. Early in the month prices rose with falling exchange. but toward the end, when the Hongkong authorities are stated to have released raw cotton which some mills feared might be held, prices fell Power supply is a cause for concern, as is the question of raw cotton for the future.
Owners of machine shops and metal works à cancelling orders for the materials because of export embargo. Overtime in these shops has disappeared. The ices of iron and steel. though high. have not reached levels expected on this account.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.