Choice Cuts 02 

USUAL OCCUPATIONS. Newsletter No. 26, 18th April 1972

People are gradually responding to our request for unusual occupations and we are opening with one which is of current interest.

Ian Lewis writes from the British High Commission in Nicosia where, according to his letter-head, he is Immigration Officer.

Although the Diplomatic Service is not particularly small, being some 6,000 strong, Ian is to the best of our knowledge one of only two Old Boys in the Service, the other being "Tompo" Thompson who is out in the Persian Gulf.

Ian joined the Service in 1966 and after a two years "sentence" to a dusty archive in the depths of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he was posted to Warsaw - the home of Vodka! This was regarded as a hard posting but he says the only thing hard about it was the amount of drinking done there. Whilst out there he found time to play ice hockey and impress the Americans with the speed he could down litres of Lowenbrau.

In 1969 he was "brought in from the cold" and moved to his present post in Nicosia where he has the job of controlling the flow of Cypriots to Camden Town and other such oriental sounding places in the U.K. Ian returns to this country in May at the end of his Cyprus tour and looks forward to pastures new.

He claims that life in the Service is both rewarding and exacting. During the recent evacuation of refugees from West Pakistan which was directed through Cyprus, he was working 24 hours a day to help repatriate over 1,000 British and other friendly Nationals. Then he presumably returned to the round of cocktail parties!

Anyway life in the Service is obviously ideal for anyone with a desire to travel and to get away from 9 - 5 desk jobs in the Metropolis.

Thanks Ian and we look forward to seeing you in May.