A SOLDIER’S BREEZY LETTER.
Corpl. R. 11. Dalhousie, of the Lewis Gun. Section of the 4lh Battalion N. Z.R.8., writes a breezy letter from the front to a Fox ton friend, from some where in France, under dale 23/2/17, as follows: “As one of my gun’s crew developed mumps to-day (lucky young devil!), which Inis cnlailed the isolation of the whole team, here is the distinctly heaven-sent opportunity to write you. Well, it’s no use trying to tell yon anything about, the Somme and the 23 eventful days following (he 15th of September last. Thanks to Malcolm Russ and bis entirely magnificent imagination you folks bade in New Zealand know as much aboiil it as we do —in fact, a good deal more! Anyway, quite a considerable percentage of us came through it more or less alt right. Very muddy, very weary, lousy lo Hie extremity of disgust, a. (rillc ‘nervy,’ but still having delivered the goods somewhat definitely. Then we came North again to occupy a quid sector of the line and acquire another layer of fat round onr kidneys. Ensued a series of raids, fairly eHieienl on onr part, ridiculously ineffective on Fritz’s. An odd gas attack, jiml enough to assure us that it was possible to beat liic school record for speed in putting on a gas-mask. ’Xmas in a shell-torn little French village, helped out with a couple of bottles of real Bass and an unlimited supply of alleged champagne. New Year in the ditches again, with a mutual “strafe from onr side and Fritz, just to emphasise tin; fad that it was I lie season of peace, goodwill, good resolutions, etc. (For the lirsl time for many years I refrained from mnking any!) So it dlugged on until the 1 tilli of January. when a sergeant remarked casually, ‘You're for ‘blighly’ leave 10-moiTow, Corporal.' I said. ‘Ah!’ in a voice Iha I I endeavoured to mnke silghlly bored, hnl I’m afriad it was not a success. Because ‘Mighty leave' means a brief, lucid interval in a lengthy spell of homicidal mania—it means ‘the cistern in the desert’; likewise ‘the wine we spilled in haste’; nlso Gill Hint ever went with evening dress' (even though in this case said dress consisted of a badly worn pair of breeches and a, woe-hegone tunic!) ;il stands for complete,a It hough all too brief, cleanliness, and above all, for being entirely and absolutely your own man for eight delicious days! Ah, well, it’s over now. Not much change in London. A Jew new streels made, oik 1 or two noticeable buildings erected, one or two old land-marks in Bohemia removed. Isn't (here some special Biblical curse on those who ‘remove the ancient landmarks’Then back to the hoys lo ibid all sorts of mail and parcels to remind one that there were others. To paraphrase the Yankee, ‘1 love my London —hut, oh, your Mauriland!’ . . . 1 meet a good few old Manawatu men out here, and they mostly recollect me, and we celebrate with a weak and unconvincing French beer at Id. per!”
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1705, 28 April 1917, Page 3
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513A SOLDIER’S BREEZY LETTER. Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1705, 28 April 1917, Page 3
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