The Early Years in Shemlan

Abstract

Almost everyone agrees that the first year in Shemlan was an exasperating muddle and the next few not much better. The buildings, though they had a good deal of charm, were makeshift, cold and damp; the furniture gim-crack. The food in the mess was abominable. The administration was disorganized: some of the students from the forces went months without their pay and were dependent on the manager of the British Bank in Beirut for patient and charitable understanding. The Arabic teaching is described by John Wilton (later to be the Director) as ‘pathetic’, and others on the course of 1947–48 use words only slightly less damning.