SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 65, 21 June 1916, Page 7

SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE.

Writing on Easter Sunday to his parents in' Stratford, Mivale'D.' Coik-' dl says interalia : prance is a lovely place, and the two Uliost striking points about her is her wonderfully fertile land and the almost complete absence of stock and ffiii»e,s.:, • Fiiactically every square incW o3F her- land is under tillage. Grape-growing seems to he her chief industry, and it is wonderful the enormous number of vineyards she has. The first twentyfour hours of the journey was an unbroken panorama of vineyards and orchards. We are all hoping to go hack over this country when the fruit is ripe. What a feed we would have! They have no boundaries to their farms, and' the, lovely white roads wind in and out the farms. You have only to step off the metal and you arc on someone's farm. They must lie great respecters.of property as "pinching" fruit would", be as easy as falling off a log! Si'ie'-is-a country that hasn't advanced her'farm implements for a. couple of centuries. There are some of the most j.ntique implements. They would fairly make you laugh. They drive their horses with one rein. It don't look too safe hut it acts o.k. We are in billets and in barns and sleep in the straw and it is pretty comfy. Tucker is not what it was, but we get enough to live on. Every house is a beer-hop and sell wine and beer, but both beverages are practically non-alcoholic. Beer is one penny a glass and wine three pence. We were paid 5s just before we left Egypt and have had nil since, so every body is completely stony! We didn't even have smokes till we got an issue to-day. The paymaster comes in a day or two now so poverty w ill soon be relieved. Have been offered a job in our field po-st office, may take it on don't know yet. We

are about 15 miles from the firing line and can hear the big guns talking quite plainly. It will be a great experience when we get up amongst them, which might be anytime hut have no idea how soon,