Sarona camp was originally a German colony taken over by the Army in 1939, later the Police took it over as a training camp for British^** Police. It consisted of very modern flat roofed houses, tiled throughout, and the latest in bathroom fixtures. Our party was divided into two groups; the one I was in remained here, and the other went on to a training camp in Jenin.

There was no Post Office in Sarona so I was unable to send a wire home to say I had arrived safely, I learned later Jenin had a Post Office, which is why J.J. who left Ireland with me, but went on to Jenin was, able to do so.

There were orange and lemon groves in Sarona, all we had to do was pick what we wanted. For the first few weeks I had about twelve oranges per day.

A few remarks on the training at Sarona may be interesting. It was run by ex British Guards N.C.0's. for the drill and weapons training and senior police officers for courses in law and order. The discipline was very strict and we had to ''parade'' in spotless uniform, showered shaved and a very close hair cut at 06.00 hours and again at I8.00 hours in the same top condition no matter what we had done in between, which could consist of crawling on your stomach under barbed wire and running 5 to I0 miles. If one failed to come up to muster, they were required to report for inspection again at 22.00 hours. The only punishment allowed was to be ordered to run around the training ground a number of times. A full squad would often be punished this way for real or imaginary ''faults''. As I was a Physical Training Instructor in the Local Defense Force in Ireland it was actually no hardship for me. It was amusing though when a directive came from the Inspector General that an instructor who instigated the punishment must accompany the offender. This was to ensure there was no abuse. The punishments were less often enforced after this.

We were confined to camp for three weeks before we were allowed to visit Jaffa (as in Jaffa oranges).