"THE OLD ENGLAND IS GONE"

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 92, 16 October 1915, Page 11

"THE OLD ENGLAND IS GONE"

The following letter was written by a former mining manager, now a captain in the Royal Engineers. He previously acted as a special correspondent to The Times in reporting on Australian mines, and prior to that served in the Boer war, leaving Cambridge University to join the Imperial Yeomanry :—: — "I am now at Bulford Camp, with headquarters of the 33rd Division. v We are equipping fast, and expect to be in Flanders (or Dardanelles) by the end of October. "The whole 4th Army is concentrating on Salisbury Plain — close on 150,000 men are there, or thereabouts. " Wherever you go you find soldiers, and every village, however small — yes, every little hamlet — has its 'roll of honour ' of men who, civilians last year, paid in one crowded moment their debt to England. " The old England-is gone, the old re. giments are gone, the 'varsities showempty classrooms,, and each college and chapel shows an ever-lengthening ' roll of honour,' laurel-crowned tribute to the men last year triumphant on river and playing field. " Only England's country remains, but in the ripened cornfields old men and convalescent soldiers and women reap. "Theatres seem patronised almost entirely by officers and men on furlough or sick leave. The number of women in the stalls decreases — for how few families are not in mourning? " ' Zeps ' come and go. but do not seem to worry anybody much. We had two raids near us in North London, but there was no panic of any kind at all, though the bombs mad© a fearful noise. Only we who are ' going out ' have the memory of shell-torn children and women murdered to take with us. " We all, officers and men alike, know that vt& are out 'to kill Germans,' and the new men hear stories of men who, gassed and dying, hung on to their posts ; of men who, burned and dying, naif-blinded by ' flame-projectors,' still saw it out to the end. "All hope to see one day when they may help repay some bit of all we owe to the scum we are fighting. " I've given up wondering ' when it will- end.' I only pray it won't be till We've adjusted the score. "It may be in after years I'll see Australia again ; it may "be that I share the fate of almost every officer who goes to the front. But I'm glad that I was able to take a look in."