 Complete the following phrase:  Shortly afterwards, he was sent to Hong Kong to protect British interests during civil war in China. He qualified as Italian interpreter in 1928. He was appointed adjutant of the 5th Cinque Ports Battalion, Royal Sussex, a Territorial Army TA unit, as a temporary captain on 1 May 1929, this becoming a permanent rank on 30 September 1932. In 1933 he was posted to Karachi and then to Egypt at the time of Benito Mussolinis Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It took Whistler twenty-one years after being commissioned to achieve the rank of major which he attained in August 1938, shortly before his 40th birthday. In 1938 he became adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex and served in Palestine during the 