Photograph sent in by John Barnett

Since it is not advisable to allow too long a stay in an isolated Post like Sa'Sa, (as it would turn out too many Devlin's) I was transferred to the Safad Station. As mentioned earlier, Safad was a small town containing both Jews and Arabs. We were instructed in Safad not to fraternize with the natives so I had little opportunity, at this time, to make a sweeping judgment as to the conditions of the Jewish houses. What I saw seemed very clean. The Arabs, though with all their friendliness, were not the best housekeepers. The greatest problem when visiting an Arab household were the millions of flies that swarmed over everybody and while they did not appear to bother the Arabs they were the bane of my life. While sitting in an Arab house and wearing shorts I would place my hat over my bare knees, and fend the flies off my head as best I could.

The most unpleasant duty I drew in all my time in Palestine was night guard at the grave of Dov Grover, a member of the Irgun executed in Jerusalem and buried in Safad to prevent the body being taken, buried elsewhere and treated as a shrine. There were only six of us on guard. We police were considered dispensable if attacked, only a delaying factor until the army could get there. We spent three miserable nights on this detail.

Most duties at Safed though were boring routine. As Duty Officers at the station desk, we recorded the people coming in or out. I was on this duty one morning and read an an entry from the previous Duty officer recording that the Arab Police Inspector went on patrol disguised as a pheasant. That would have added some much needed excitement!

I took a hard look at what was available to me in the police force. The traffic division was by far the most preferred however it was policy that only those on their second three year contract would be accepted.

The mounted police force had magnificent horses and one of the best training courses. this appealed to me, as I was always interested in horse riding, although I had had little opportunity to do so. I applied to join the mounted division and was accepted, however when I reported to the inspector in charge he asked me to step on a scales and unfortunately at 180 lbs. I was told I was too heavy. It appeared the police had ordered their last lot of horses from Belgium and they were far lighter than usual. I was told, sorry, apply again when we get another shipment of horses. They had no idea when that might be.

I decided not to give up on traffic. On each and every occasion while on patrol I would stop and inspect vehicles of all descriptions from the smallest car to the largest 18 wheeler. There were plenty of traffic contraventions to write up which, also, required appearing in court to give evidence. This was the main reason no other regular policeman would not do it; it was a lot of after duty work.