Reed papers, transcript of BBC broadcast, 8 May 1943. ‘This morning in Cairo I had a reminder of that evening. For the past week there has been the same feeling of pressure, the same strain of waiting, as we have watched and listened for news from Tunisia. There isn’t the same sense of imminence perhaps, but even over those thousands of miles of sand we have felt the reverberations of battle in the sweltering Cairo streets...
People haven’t discussed the news bulletins much, and when they have it’s been with that studied nonchalance that we always assume when our hopes and thoughts and our worries are a long way away, committed hopelessly to things that are too vital to talk about. They’ve told themselves, though seldom each other, that “something must happen. The tension can’t last.” If any comments were passed they were little more than “wait and see”.
This morning when I went off to the office where I work, I was close on the heels of the same friend who watched the ticker-tape with me at Alex last November. There was nothing new to see. “Shoe shine, shoe shine officer, half-acker – no good job, no money”, laundries getting busy on street corners. Cars hooting. Garry-horses trotting down the hot tarmac, streets wet and steaming after their early morning hosing. Everyone in a hurry to get to work or to sell something to somebody else. Cigarettes? Fly-swat? Papurr? “Papurr officer, papurr Ingleesh. Yes? Papurr captain?” We stopped casually and bought one – more a matter of habit than anything – and read the 3 am announcement.’
Promoted Captain, he worked for the BBC in Cairo for much of the intervening period, juggling news broadcasts with Arabic programmes and office administration, and becoming ever more frustrated about his growing separation from the war.
In June he resolved to find his way back into active service. ‘The time has come for me to go’, he wrote. ‘To what I don't know. But I've had all I want of Cairo ... So I'm looking for another job.’