"We can't get a decent smoke here," says one writer. An army
airman "simply craves for cigarettes and matches." From a cavalryman
comes the appeal that a few boxes of cigarettes and some thick chocolate
would be luxuries. "Just fancy," to quote from another letter, "one
cigarette among ten of us--hardly one puff a-piece."
In the French hospitals the wounded men are being treated with the
greatest kindness, and during convalescence are being loaded with
luxuries. "Spoilt darlings," one Scottish nurse in Paris says about
them, "but who could help spoiling them?" They are so happy and
cheerful, so grateful for every little service, so eager to return to
the firing line in order to "get the war over and done with." "We've
promised to be home by Christmas," they say, "and that turkey and
plum-pudding will be spoilt if we don't turn up."
Home by Christmas! That is Tommy Atkins' idea of a "Non-stop run to
Berlin"--the facetious notice he printed in chalk on the troop trains at
Boulogne as, singing "It's a long way to Tipperary," he rolled away to
the greatest battles that have ever seared the face of Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: Extract from _The Times_ report of the German Emperor's
Army Orders, dated Headquarters, Aix-la-Chapelle, August 19th, 1914.]
[Footnote B: Copyright Chappell & Co.
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