WINTER IN PRANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2751, 20 April 1916, Page 5

WINTER IN PRANCE

LETTER FROM MR, F. W< HAY- . . . . BITTLE. , Writing' to' a friend in Wellington, under date February ' 26, - Mr."* Fredv Haybittle, of the firm of Messrs. Geo'. Thomas and Co., who has been en- " gr»ged in motor Work behind the Brit l'sh front in France, Bays.—""Wo aro now in the depth of winter, after thinking that we had passed into the sprinjt stage. For four days it has snowed incessantly,"and all the roads are block-, ed.'" Yesterday moriitig 'the''' ■' mometer Outside ,my. hut,registered 13 degrees of frost. Can you fancy ma starting my oar tinder these conditions. Of course each night I have the radiator emptied, and it is a deuco of a job starting up in the morning. To-day Wo improvised sleigh?, and had some exciting, tobogalwing down the hill slopes.. . 1. am about fed up with,this intensely cold Weather, and I long for the spring and the end of it all, but the latter seems , nowhere in sight. To- tV ' day the French are fighting tho. Crown prince's army furiously near Verdun, '• and we aro anxiously awaiting,the end. So far tho enemy have taken three, vil- , tages with enormous losses to..themselves as attackers. Yesterday wo distinctly heard the big guns, and this base is 40 miles away. lam now accommodated in a hut Bft. by 7ft., having had to vacate my hotel quarters and' go with the -Mechanical -Transport Volunteer Section, of the B.R.C.S. The military find a plank bed and two blankets,' so naturally we have to furnish _ /. the rest ourselves. ' I had a fortnight 1V: In London in January, and at. a function given -the High Commissioner. to congratulate him on his title, I met F. M. B. Fisher, Sir Jas. Mills, G. F. Gee, Nat Heeles, A. E. G. • Rhodes, Edward Wakefield (who wrote" "Cigitrettes" in the old' "Evening Press"), Lady Findlav, Cecil Wray (of Wanganui), Jas. 8u11,.W. J. Walsh (postmas- : ter .t» Petone), -Mrs. HobsOn (nee Miss Rita Simpson), Missßow- . muds, and many others."