Letters From the Front

Dated: April 1, 1917

I have allowed the month to become quite far advanced without even an attempt to write to you. There is little wonder, however, as it is almost impossible to find anything worth writing about. Life in a prisoner-of-war camp is not very interesting, but I find time passes very quickly. We invent all sorts of curious things to keep ourselves busy. We have chess, bridge, cricket and football tournaments and derive a lot of excitement from them. There is a football tournament on this afternoon and I have to play.

The cold weather seems to be over, although it snowed a little this morning. It was very cold for three weeks and we had a lot of snow. I have not had a letter from you this month and no parcel since the middle of last month. I hope you will send me a parcel regularly as it is most important now.  For­tunately I have had a fair supply coming and am not starving at present. I receive a big parcel from Harrod's, Ltd., London, every week and one from the R.F.C. Aid Committee. Of the four in my room I was the only one to have a parcel for weeks and so had to keep the others going. The other three had quite a number of parcels yesterday, but I had none, so I am beginning to be anxious. I hope you received my letter telling you what I wanted most. Canned meats, jam, milk and sugar are the most important. For some time I received bread from Holland, but that has been stopped by the Dutch authorities. Bread does not worry us now, as we receive it from England.

When I get back to England I will very likely take out a pilot's certificate in the R.F.C. This war has made a horrible mess of everybody's plans. Four years of the best of a man's life are not easily made up for. I often sit and wonder what we should all have been to-day if things had gone otherwise. But even if I had the choice to make over again I would not have done otherwise. Look at some of the fellows who have stayed at home. They will no doubt benefit greatly in some ways, but I wouldn't change with the most fortunate of them.