Apparently he had acquired a jeep and sold it to an Arab. "For how much?" I asked. "Four hundred dinars." he answered. At that time the Iraqi dinar and the British pound were at par. He seemed to be quite happy, perhaps he had the money stashed away somewhere. A new item was now added to our kit to improve our lot; to alleviate some of the discomfort and soreness around our shirt collars due to perspiration we were issued with scarves puggree, squares of light cloth, khaki coloured. This was the same material that was wound around the crowns of our pith helmets; some lads, fashion conscious, decided not to wear them in the accepted manner and this led to an order being issued to the effect that 'scarves puggree will be worn loosely around the neck and not in a triangular cowboy fashion." Most of us were classified in one of many trades but there were a few who were not tradesmen and they were classified as general duties and they could be given any task not requiring any special skill. Three of these were attached to the Company Office where their main duty seemed to be making tea. A vacancy occurred in one of the workshops for a clerical type and I was ordered to take this job on a short term basis, for about three weeks. I didn't jump at the chance, actually I didn't think much of the idea but I went. The work was simple, checking parts in and out of the shop and took in total less than 30 minutes a day and it was boring, boring. The three weeks stretched into six weeks and eventually into ten weeks. I complained several times that the job could be easily done by a general duties type but was constantly fobbed off. After a while I asked to see the colonel and then the bureaucracy slowly slipped into gear, my request went upwards from rank to rank until at last an appointment was made for two weeks hence. The very morning that I was to see the colonel I was told to get back to the DO again. When I approached him after going through the rigmarole of marching in, saluting smartly and agreeing that I was indeed the soldier he thought I was he said, "You have a complaint?" "Yessir." "You want to return to the Drawing Office?" "Yessir." "But I see you are back there already." "Yessir, this morning" "Then there doesn't seem to be any complaint now does there?" "No Sir." "Now don't think that your return has anything to do with your making a complaint, it's purely coincidental." "No Sir, certainly not, Sir." I lied. "Dismiss." I did so, inwardly fuming at having to take part in this farce that could have been settled weeks before at a lower level and which would have saved the colonel from looking so foolish.