An Ohau Boy's Letter

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 October 1915, Page 3

An Ohau Boy's Letter

IIIO.U lilE DAiUMiNELLEb. Air jab. -Uciicavey, oi Ohaii, lias au niteicsung letter Irom his son Jliiic, written irom one ol the trencheo in tile -Uauianelles shortly belore he was seuea with gastritis and sent to England lor treatment. i'rivate McLeavey says:—"JJeiore 1 begin l want to give you some idea of the- difficulties 1 am jscribuliug these tew lines under. 1 am crouched up in a on the side oi' a hill with flies absolutely unbearable, and very hot weather, so you can kindly overlook any mistakes and the writing, as one's hand is continually engaged in keeping 'the Hies out oi my eyes and mouth. Well, lam not going to talk about war to you at> by the time this reaches you, you will have all the particulars of tine casualties. 1 can tell you 1 do miss iny mates and as

I am not sure whether is alive oi dead lam feeling anyhow. lam the only one out of our old tent left ai Turkey now. Mr May was killed, and of course this was an awful shock

lo mo as he Avas so good to me. Ho was wounded in tihe stomach and died two hours later. Jimmy Prosser was

also .killed and Son Law. A good few Levin fellows were killed or wounded including Sergt.-Major Davidson. Allan Mitchell is away witn a bad arm.

I'; is a terrible thing and I have seen some awful sights. We are gradually beating them back, and no doubt before long we will have the Narrows opened. Letters are a tiling of the past now, and one lot nearly got here when the barge capsized and that was the end of that lot. I was epealnng to All Gray the other day; lie has just returned from hospKal and looks well. How are you all keeping? I trust you are all well. It eeeme like fifteen years since wo left New Zealand. I am so anxious to eee you all again. I was sought out by about ton Maoris from the Horowihenua district wthen they arrived hero and 1 could only remember about four oi tKqin. Too much praise cannot be given to thorn for their fighting. They are as brave as the best of them, and their war cry as they charge would give anyone the honors. They iell eome very intere> ting stories of what t&ey did. 1 suppose you have heard that' both Lynch's are dead. It must be a big shock to their parents. Eric is somewhere in England. Tell other enquiring friends and relations I would write to tSiem if I could get the material. This piece of paper was given me by the chaplain and i mean to make use oi every avail-

able cornei , . I see you Save got the races tack again. This ■will put a l>it inure life into Levin and another -holiday to look forward to. "We do not hoar much- outside news hero, and we aro wondering how things are going in France. I have not Struck Will or Geoff yet. I suppose ilioy are in Egypt now. Remember me to aJi thoso friends I cannot write to and trusting to see .you all iagain soon.