Letter from the Front.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 10 December 1915, Page 3

Letter from the Front.

The following interesting letter is published by the kind permission of Miss Housley : New Zealand Military Hospital, Pont de Koubbeh, Cairo, Thursday, 30th September, 1915. Dear Miss Housley,— Yesterday I received your parcel ; I must thank you very much indeed for your kind consideration. You will notice I have changed my address but I hope it will not remain so for long. On the 11th inst of this month I arrived here labelled enteritis and dysentery and have not yet recovered; but yesterday the Doctor changed my milk diet, to beef tea, so that is an improvement and as smoking is not in my line at present I will take your parcel back to the Peninsula and enjoy the contents there. The local papers—’jtis a blessing to receive papers that are not smothered in war news and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Sorry to say I could not hand them on or post them to any of the Huntly boys, for all the boys I know from there have fought their last gallant fight. Bob Capstick and (?) Harvey (cannot remember his Christian name as we called him “ Scotty ” but he was a son of Mr Harvey of Huntly) wmre killed in the last charge, they died like heroes. When one comes to realize the men that have gone, some of the best, real whitemen, ’tis about time some of those that remain at home were compelled to serve, of course there are a lot with family ties, married men, and so on, but there are a lot of cold footed (one cannot call them men) With the section I was in, one could not meet with better fellows, if he had lived the 1915 years. There were 16 of us left Auckland together and remained together, right through until bullets and shells severed, us, and now there are 2, 9 killed and the other 5 minus limbs or crippled for the rest of their natural lives.

We have experienced many black days and then again have witnessed some grand sights that would do ones heart good and when 1 am in the writing attitude I will tell you about the latter. Thanking you again for your much appreciated kindness hoping you are in the best of health and spirits with kind regards to all. I .ani, Yours faithfully, A. L. SALMON. , P.S. —When I was ordered away from the Peninsula (21 weeks there) all the New Zealanders (except the machine gunners and engineers) were taken to Lemnos Island for a short spell and how many steamers were required to ship them do you think ? One boat did it, and it was not a Mauritania, or Lusitania either. . I have not heard whether the boys have returned to Gallipoli vet but I guess their holiday will isot be a long one.