LETTER FROM ENGLAND

Mrs. D. Williamson, Camborne, has received the following letter from her brother, Pte C. FINNEMORE:

Crowborough, May 2nd, 1917

Dear Sister:
Just a few lines thanking you for the nice box you sent me that I received to-night. Everything was in fine shape. The biscuits were fine and it is a great treat to have a little home cooking once more. I will certainly enjoy the tobacco and it will come in very handy just now as I will have some good old Canadian smokes to take to France with me, as I expect to leave for there in a day or so. There is a big bunch of us going and we are all ready to proceed at an hour's notice. It is grand weather over here now, a little inclined to be a little too warm if anything. It came on rather suddenly about ten days ago with the result: we are all sunburned and scalded. The skin is peeling of my nose in great style. I hope we have this nice weather now for a month or so as it will be much better moving around when we get to France. We have a very heavy pack to carry and this warm weather is bringing it out of us. I don't mind the marching if my feet don't bother me but with the extra weight and the warm weather they have been scalding a little. We are kept quite busy here these days, we get up at 5:30 a.m. and go on parade at 6:15 to about 7:00 and then have breakfast and fall in again at 7 :45 till 12:70 and then fall in again at I :45 till 4:30 and they keep us on our feet all the time too. After we come in at night we have to have our noses sprayed as a preventative for spinal meningitis and then eat supper and wash our mess tins and after that get busy and polish every bit of brass that is tacked on to us. So you see we earn our $1.10 a day all right. However, when we get to France, our biggest troubles will be dodging the shells. I hope there will be a little more excitement in that than there is around here. I suppose Don is busy on the land now. The farmers around here are getting busy these days but what I have seen lately looks more like a garden than a farm. There is quite a lot of bush around here and they are busy cutting down trees for wire props. They cart them out to the road on a one horse cart and there load them on a large truck hauled by a traction engine to the station. There are a lot of engines used over here for hauling heavy loads. Well, it is a year ago to-day that I joined the army and haven't face a foe yet, but hope to very soon. My chum will not be going to France with me as he is away on pass now. But as I had mine, I could not wait for him but we may get together at the base again. I will try to write you as soon as get located over there but my mail will be forwarded on to me from here anyway. We get Canadian mail only about twice a month now, whatever is the reason. I suppose they are too busy handling war material to bother with a regular mail service. Well, as there is not very much to write about over here, I will close by thanking you for the box.
Your brother 814990 Pte. C. FINNEMORE.
C.N.G.D., Crowborough. Sussex, England