LONDON IN WAR TIME.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14865, 12 September 1918, Page 2

LONDON IN WAR TIME.

WHAT A CANADIAN S0U>IE:ll SAWI The following is an extract from the letter of Captain A. E. Allen, a Cana- ; . dian soldier, written on Lon- ' don, and published in "Every; "Week," a journal which, owing to the war conditions, is no\v a thing of the past:—■ Poor old London." is tn« snme, but in mourning. Dim street lights and very little traffic make the streets 'doleful." But the gloom of the evenings and nights is not reflected in tho people. They are wonderful! ! If only some people from every city, town, and village in thn States could ;oome over hero and see and -i;alk with ' these men.and women, who have put in three years of war, every one having family losses and m all cases financial sacrifices that change their whole mode :nf life!- "inconveniences-of every kind,, : am\ real ones, and yet. every man and woman just as cheerful,'bright, nnd'delennmoc! ;is if the Avar was to start tomorrow. It makes one feel like goiii^ np to., every one of them and oivi n .'r them - fcho V.C Gentlewomen- driving cars, running hotels, nil the business ofnces-—on the suWays, in the restanr.:uri.s, in tho factories—everywhere setting an example to their poorer sisfers of what real grit is, and as cheerful and with tho same grace and politeness thaw I ioe y used to \v-\ve m their own drawingroonv-. Every one has'some definite! | work *~>vn, and they start at .about six' :v.'ars old!. Tb-re is no such thing as i +ji" .l?nt.!sli Army being.at Avar; the~Bri;ti<?l. n^ion. clow.'i to the children and ud to tb-> old iyw>K is at war ; and it's **9 most wonderful and insplrTiK- si<^ht! nnv man ever saw. " j c-ourse, France. Germany, anil the! i 1 her European nntions are the same-i ■', lc\ a rc-vo^tion to on" from the! 2+.1-.P- sine of the water Undoulitediv i ■■ie I) mted States would be the same if: the occasion ever came, 7 3U t I trust it ne\'or may. : ■ The snVing that the United Stat-s -psirj rcfllise that it is at war «f p«t- ---■ i v eh« ir-c too nnlclly. and we can' only pray that tho job will be finished ;v>fore the necessity ever comes ; but on ;h« other hand, the almost inhuman ••mis and sacrifices they are makino'svor here are breWine >\ new race of ;inn anr. wowon who are croing to be. "'nti -urn! shoulders over the last' oencra-r;-'i. Heaven only knows. I nDl^ ] ovnl •'.nanmn, nnrl I have nlw.ovs beou mor© "''an p'-ouil of v/hat Canada anrVCana- ; inns i!; iVO ■'on^ in-t-Ws wp.v. But no lv t -\n Hmost blusb at the thought. We '.'tT, ,;nc"' VT ,nrp flJ lff(ir "8 compared •\tth tne English, take it any wav»you v-"ai-t. Men—. every odp—in some wnr '•'•I ie- not some—all. Women all work"•r for the cause. ]Vi'oncv—eve'-yl^dv -■"■'Ms. not- iVir surplus their all You -—• n.-v h™ m to mpiVse w liaf tbir. ">r' I T x '':*?' flf>n'%- ""f- * n"i afraid the —"rja r. ill ".-,^ know it for yenrs, oe-'■•■.-ico j ; n^ v f ] o ,-f, - sp q^ipflv—no talking V," '^.^iu<v: ,',i.* pi] taken for .pvanted! < "<.'lonr' 7^ Of i s tiiei-n onrl nil they -.v^-sosp. nn'd of course. tHey give it. " , ] r-oulr? Avrito nn f nr hours, because --<■■ is ,il] a rcvßlation to me, and fas.cma'tes me. i '• ■—. :_ i