SOLDIERS’ LETTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 March 1917, Page 4

SOLDIERS’ LETTERS

Frcm Private W- A. Stfiilh. Pr ?»*(■; W, A, Srtrih, writing to liia mot bn* Mrs VV. Smith of Haespdtn Strfiv, frets she froo» i-s F<aooe oa J. u 1 8 a f ays : lbe head e>p to hand was jast what I was war,tins' very bad. It is jnsfc the tbir-g now ce its been snowing jnst on a week a d 1 have bena out m it this lavt »ii»hr. da vs ;vo i rdgjrs as it has been our tfirn in toe reaches. Al.hough ibe war is very quiet on oar frod hardly a shot fired, we still have to keep up all night waiting on a laid that never comes off. The Huns would get a lively time if they happened to come near me for I always have a store of bombs waiting which are very deadly things. One of our officers was asking mt if I had a bomb in my pocket and I told him that I had. He said he had a bat on that if ever 1 get knocked out I would be sure to have some bombs on me, and he was not far out. All the boys call me the Hun killer, for I am always sending over rifle grenadesThey must be a torment to the other side.

The other night they started to strafe me with pineapples so I just shifted to another battery I gave them over 50 which kept them quiet the rest of the night. The pineapples have got a,bigger kick than our ride grenades, although ours have a fair kick. They burst into 59 pieces about au inch square, and they travel some.

I met H. Bonar the other day. He hardly knew me, 68 I am getting so fat he was telling me. We had a good old yarn about old times, I might say. He has been like m®, for he has not received a letter from N.Z. since be has been away. Well, you know he cannot expect to get letters straight away ; it must have been over six months since 1 received the first letter after 1 left N,Z.

All the boys have a good show of seeing one another now as we change over with one another now, that is, the Canterbury boys. You were asking me whether that was I asleep in that dug-out suatebing a few winks. Well that is terribly hard to say, for there are such a lot of places iußt the same in times like these. The post that was oo\the baok across in No Man’s Laud is' like a place where the N.Z. boys were and I think if it was I who ever took the photo would have let me know. There was not much time to take any photos ; it was bustling all the time and when we got a chance to sneak a wink there was no chanoe thrown away. Its great fun to see the old French civilians wheeling the snow off the roads in wheel barrows, There were barrows on a road for about six miles. If they keep on wheeling it off it will be a lark for the Bnow is falling faster than they have a chance of coping with it, Well, mother, I would have liked to see the account of S. Ogilvie’s death ; it not in that ‘(Auckland Weekly” which you sent. I am going to hand over all ray papers to H. Bonar to look at. I received letters from nearly all my f/ienda in KoiteraDgi this mail. I lsnd fourteen N.Z. letters this time and this is the 6rsb one I have started to answer. Well I must close now as I have to go away on instructing a company of the boys in DgFrom Corporal H- WilliamsCorporal Henry Williams writes to his parents in Park Street, as follows : I have been in Codford Camp for a week, and you would have to travel far before you would fiud a colder or a bleaker place. There are bath houses here in which it is alleged that hot water is obtainable; but, although fires are kept burning all night, the water freezes in ths pipes. We are not killed by overwork: we fall in at 8,30 and are dismissed at 11.30; we fall in again at 12.30 and are dismissed for the day at 3 p.m.

The whole of my fortnight’s leave w*3 spent in Edinburgh and London. The former is much the prettier place o\ the two. Nearly half of it is lard-

Out in narks; and, as for statues, they g4,a*n to be namberlosp. They at’a erec : od to king, poet and snicker. la one prominent I saw one • recced to “ George IV who intended to visit this city.” Th 9 finest statue I saw was that erected to oommsmo'&te the name and fame of Sir Walter Scott; but though many are erected to honour many lesser litetary lights, I faded to find one to honour Burns. The castle of Edinburgh I was deeply interested in, and spent mach lime there. Churches abounded in their hundreds. In London, I went through West minister Cathsdral and the Tower, buildings which every colonial should visit on account especially of their giving a emerr te value to their historic studies while at school. Hyde Park with the Serpentine, and Rotton ] Row is easily the finest park I have ever seen. The N,Z. War Contingent Aesoeia- 1 tion has a building here, yc'ept the “Aotea Roa Hat, in whioh good meals can be obtained at very reasonable prices, Tffis association is indeed a blessing to the soldiers, for, goodness only knows what we would do without these buildings at Sling, Codford, Hornchurch and London. Another excellent institution is the Victoria Lsßgue Club which baa buildings in several citiee. Like all New Zealanders, who visit Edinburgh I stopped at their buildings, where the tariff was very light—l/for breakfast, 1/4 for dinner, 6d for tea, and 1/6 for bed—and the meals supplied were quite as good as those obtainable in any hotel. At the Association’s buildings in Russell Square, the prices are 8d for breakfast, tea. and bed, and 1/ for dinner. All tbess places are lun by women who do voluntarily and without remuneration all the labour neces-

sary. One thing, indicative of events in the near future, is the clearing of the hospitals of all who are fast improving in health. We expect to hear very soon of a big attack being madß on the German lines in France as this olearing of the hospitals seems to presage such a movement.