Item 120 - Letter from John Luce to R.C. Trevelyan

1 item: airmail letter card.

Lt. J. M. Luce c/o Grindlay's Bank, Bombay. - The journey out took about two months and was uneventful. Has found India 'very disappointing' so far: is staying in an isolated depot at some distance from Calcutta for a couple of months, before being posted to either an English regiment, which would probably mean the Burma front, or an Indian regiment for training. Gives his impressions in some detail, mentioning the people, the countryside, and the jackals (a menace at night, since they live in open tents). Has met 'one charming Indian', the local contractor, who reads English philosophy and possesses a copy of Forster's "Passage to India" though does not seem entirely to approve of it. Notable how disillusioned his whole party 'of typical middle-class Englishmen' were by their first contact with India.