A LETTER FROM FRANCE

Evening Star, Issue 16350, 16 February 1917, Page 2

A LETTER FROM FRANCE

The following arc extracts from a letter written by a Dunedin soldier who is with the Now Zealand troops in France. It was dated December 4 :

As you know, we have been to tho Somme, and I don’t think there is a man who lias been through it will over | forget it. “Tho Somme!’’ What rao- ( moriss it conjures up ! The continuous | thunder of tho guns; the look of devastation everywhere; the never-ending stream iof wounded and prisoners; and, alas! j tho dead. I could never give you any j idea of the look of the whole pface, for j one who lias not seen it could never I realise it. Could you imagine a piece of land _ almost as “largo as the Taicri | Plain with hardly five square yards of it not marred by shell-holes? You might think that is exaggeration, but 1 can give you my word it hardly describes it. When we moved in to take part in the j advance we passed several “villages” | which had been captured early in the i " push.” I say “ villages,” but if you | could only see them! In some cases a j heap of bro'ks only, and won at a cost | tho heaviness of which is shown bv tho i casualty lists. There is no doubt ’about i it, wc lost heavily; hut, then, we have 1 the satisfaction of’ knowing that wc were | giving 10 times as much as wc were rc- ■ ceiving. in the way of artillery fire anyi way. I don’t think you could form any 1 idea of our great number of guns; there I they were wheel to wheel in" lines, and (firing continuously day 'and night; tho j countryside is littered with “duels” ftin- | exploded shells). I saw one embedded jin a tree trunk fairly high up. Rather | a good souvenir for the farmer who 1 claims that piece of land, eh? Well, this short description must suffice for a place that is indeed “ f>om{m)e ” place. And now for our present home, and it is a “home” indeed; here we have tho exact opposite; here Hie old fanner: carries on in front of our guns oven, as ! though there was no war at all. The I people do business as usual, and do well at it, too: in fact. I think (he war has boon a boon tq all of them. Every farmer has a little store and cstaininei, where j wc can buy all sorts of things required, i besides wines and champagnes. Fancy I buying champagne at about 4s a bottle! in Dunedin! Yes. this is indeed a change | from the Somme, and nothing would : ploaso me more than to sec the whole i affair finish with us still Imre. I craved j for excitement when T left, but now I i think the quiet life takes some beating. |