p.

5.

chief petty officer made a short reply - & at the
end, I briskly said thankyou very much on behalf
of the officers. The Navy provided a band, piano, drums,
& trumpet, there were many songs, & a number of
really first class turns by various people. I drank
alternate whiskies & beers from 8-30 until 11-30, & was
solidly engaged in conversation the whole time. There
was an excellent spirit, every body was drunk to a greater or
lesser degree, & it was all extremely pleasant, & rather
reminded me of the Sgts dance at Warrenpoint, do
you remember? The only incident reported to me this
morning, seems to have been with my Sgt Labitsch, who
as I have told you is a bit shi shi & girlish,
especially for a Sgt. Some weeks ago, one navy chap
told him that if only he could cook, he would
marry him. Well, last night, Labitsch got really
drunk, probably for the first time, & an enormous
bloody great petty officer made a concentrated pass
at him. Labitsch was far too gone to know what
was going on, & allowed himself to be cuddled &
embraced. Finally, Hemmings decided to intervene &
to preserve his purity, from which the p.o. said "Oh
he's yours, is he" - so Hemmings took the line
of least resistance & said yes he was, & took
the besotted Labitsch away, put him to bed. He looked
very green & sorry for himself this morning, in a
complete dream, & I had to tell him to pull