GIRLS ARE AT WORK EVERYWHERE SAYS THIS CORRESPONDENT
A letter written on March 12th, from London, England, and most interesting in its allusion to conditions there and the sacrifice the English people are making to their bravery in meeting the present crisis, has been received by Mr. Ed. Lacey from a friend. It reads as follows:
You won't write me so I must you. How are you getting on? I see by the Cobourg World that you are doing your little bit. It was awfully good of you all to give those boys such a good send-off, and the names of the donors were fresh in my mind. The boys deserve all they get for it needs a brave heart to go fight those accursed swine, and that is too good a name for them. I had a nice letter from Albert telling me that you have a nephew training at Bramshott, he enclosed his address. I wrote him and he replied, now we write regularly. I have made arrangements, when he can get leave, for him, to spend a time with me. He seems a fine chap. I sent him a cake this week and khaki handkerchiefs. He says he has not been over long enough to get long leave yet. It is strange that he should be over here and that I should know him, it seems to bring our friendship nearer. I must tell you this, it makes it more romantic. I have a brother also in training at Bramshott. Some years ago he went to Canada and we lost all trace of him. He came just before Christmas in khaki. My dear mother was overjoyed. He joined the 55th New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Battalion. He looks fine in his uniform and we were all overjoyed to see him. He is in his 48th year but signed up younger. He is in the next draft for the front.
When will it be over? I feel at times it will never end. What a gloom it has cast over so many homes? But they are brave boys and we must do our little bit for them, even only if it writing to them and sending them what we can.
I had a young nephew blown up in the NATAL, one of our boats, but he only got a knock into the river. He was picked up by one of the boats with many others. Now he has gone away on another boat, running the North Sea. Such dangerous work. My cousin, 2nd Lieutenant on a patrol boat, was at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, presented with a cross, they call it The Grand Service Cross. It was for sinking a submarine off the Irish coast. I went with him, but of course had to wait in the yard. There were over one hundred of them all together, receiving honors for all kinds of bravery. I think all our boys deserve something.
How are you getting on for help this season. It must make it very rough for some of you. Hundreds of our country women are joining up to work on the farms. In towns and in the city, girls are on the buses and tram cars, in fact they are everywhere. What is going to happen after the war? I don't know.
Our villages are all empty of young men. In our village alone, we have only one man left and he has been put back three months. He has to support his aged parents. It is a sorrowful sight to see the best of our boys going away, some never to return. They leave the country so cheerful and hopeful. I have a dear friend of mine, who only last Thursday saw her boy go away, and only yesterday morning my sister wrote telling me that she had had a stroke through being so upset. But I must tell you that some families have given three and four sons. It has been an awful strain, but they have given them freely. I do not think the towns have turned out quite so well, but now they must go, compulsion must be a finish to all slackers. Writing and sending parcels to some of the boys at home and in the trenches is all that I am allowed to do. Of course, I work three evenings a week, voluntarily, packing and sending uniforms, etc. to France and Egypt. That is Government work but done voluntarily. Hundreds are doing it. I never thought that until this war broke out that we had so many good, generous loveable people in England. We are a favored nation. Well, I could keep on writing, but I must close.
Your sincere friend,
BRUCE LISTER HARVEY.
