I sent off my letter to you to-day, and now it is 7 o'clock and we
are ready for our evening meal. We have moved into new quarters
since morning, but not far away from yesterday's billets. There are
eight officers at Battalion Headquarters. They are the Colonel,
Major Shaw, the Adjutant, Dr. London, Lieutenant Hamilton
(Quartermaster), Captain Lawrie (Machine Gun Officer), the
Interpreter and myself. We sleep on the floors of different rooms of
an empty house and take meals at a round table that just holds eight.
Thus far we are most fortunate, but I suppose we must look for many
changes. We have candle light only, and our candlesticks are usually
empty bottles. The water throughout the whole countryside is not
considered safe to drink without boiling, and it is best to filter it
and then boil it. The troops drink a great deal of tea, and no doubt
this accounts for the absence of illness that would otherwise have
resulted if the water had been drunk unboiled. The country is
painfully flat, and everywhere along both sides of the roads there
are ditches with stagnant water in them, but I suppose the open air
life of the people counteracts these unwholesome influences ... The
weather has stopped raining, and my transport field is beginning to
dry up. I had a hot bath to-day--my first bath of any kind since
leaving Falkirk. It was down in the basement of a disused brewery,
and two big zinc baths had been arranged on a concrete floor, and a
hose pipe led into it from a big boiler above. The place is now used
as a laundry for washing the clothes of the troops, so I put on a
complete change of raiment and felt much refreshed.
P.S.--_Sabbath Forenoon_. We have just had a short voluntary Service
in a billet that was a school. The Colonel read some portions of the
Prayer Book and a Lesson, and we sang the 100th Psalm to Old Hundred,
and 'O God of Bethel' to Salzburg. There was no instrument of any
kind available, so I had to raise the tunes myself. We all had our
caps off, and the men sang well. To-day is dry but very cold. I
have many people to thank for letters, but hope to do it through
time. I am very well, and hungry for every meal.