CAMPAIGNING IN PALESTINE

Evening Star, Issue 16628, 10 January 1918, Page 6

CAMPAIGNING IN PALESTINE

“ The nights are beginning to get very cold, and some of ns who have been out in the field for nearly 12 months liave just about worn our blankets out, and have great difficulty in getting them replaced,” writes one of the boys from Palestine. “For my own part, I am practically blanketle.'js, 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 hold up to the light it looks like a piece of mosquito netting. I have tried to got them replaced, but without success, and when we have to sleep out in the open 1 shiver half the night. I always envy those who have been a.way to hospital, for when they go in their blankets are all taken from them, and when they come out they get nice new ones. It is the same with all clothing, and bools. Down at the detail camps and rest camps they can get anything they want, whereas up in the field we have the greatest difficulty in getting worn-out stuff replaced. • • - You mention that tilings are getting very dear in Now Zealand. I don't think they can lie 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 pounds of sugar; condensed milk, one and threepence a tin. These are necessities, and for luxuries, such as cake in tins, you get a little cake that just-cuts into four small pieces for half a crown. -Pretty hot, isn't it? Considering that all this stuff comes into the- counter duty, free-”