COLD NIGHTS AND THIN BLANKETS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 85, 3 January 1918, Page 9

COLD NIGHTS AND THIN BLANKETS

CAMPAIGNING IN PALESTINE. "The nights are beginning to get very cold, and some of us who have been out in the field for nearly twelve months have just about worn our blaukets out, and have great difficulty in getting them replaced," writes one of the boys from Palostine. ".For my own part I am practically blanketless, for one of mine is completely worn out, consisting only of a few strips hanging together by threads, while the other one, though still whole, is so thin that when held up to the light it looks liko a pieco of mosquito netting. I have tried to get them replaced, hut without success, and when we liavo 1c sleep out in tho open I shiver half tho night. I always envy tlioso who have been awaj to hospital, for when they go in thoir blankets are all taken from then, and. when ■ they come out they get nico"new ones. It is tho same with all clothing, and boots. Down at tho detail camps and rest camps they can get anything they want, whereas-up in the field we hs.vo tho greatest difficulty in getting Worn-out stuff replaced." 1

". . . Ttou mention that thingß are potting very dear in Now Zealand. T don't think they can be much dearer than . the stuff' we occasionally buy here from the canteen to supplement our rations. For example, a two pound tin of rolled oats costs a. shilling and a halfpenny; for two shillings you get about four yoiihds of sugar; condonsed milk ono ond threepence a tin. These ,are necessities, and for luxuries such as cake in tins_ you get a little nalie that just cuts into four small pieee/i for half-a-crown. Pretty hot, isn't it? Considering that all this stuff comps into the country duty free."