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Beaurepaire, France

8/12/1918.

Dear Father,

I have nothing much with which to occupy my time this afternoon so I have had a bath in an old petrol tin and have put on my slacks and am now trying to square up my correspondence. I have been during the past two days with a slight attack on my old enemy influenza.

The people of I am billeted with were quite concerned about it and kept offering me with glasses of chocolate and coffee which a very acceptable as I had a thirst I would not have sold from �10 in Australia. However, I am now quite well and ready for the coming forward 4 days march into Belgium. One of our officers who speaks every language under the sun has been to this village where we are going and says that the billets are good and that food is more plentiful up further and dazzles us with tales of big juicy steaks fried in butter with chip potatoes.

Fancy being interested in such small things as a square meal. Nevertheless it is a fact that I have not had a square meal for a month which is not due to any state of the famine. The scarcity of tucker is due to a disconnected railway system over the ruined province of Picardy and the extreme strain on the motor transport owing to the tremendous number of liberated French people and the released prisoners of war who are constantly making their way into France from Belgium and Germany.

We are now right out of what one might term the desultory area which extends from Bokain back to Albert, a distance of about 40 miles and which extends with varying depth right on the coast to below Verdun. In that area, there is hardly a village intact or a square mile of country worth cultivating owing to shell holes and trenches etc.

Forward from Le Chatel in the villages are scarcely damaged at all and the country is not damaged to any extent. The only trouble is that all the cows, horses, sheep etc have been requisitioned by the Huns and there is scarcely a herd of stock left so far as we have come as yet. This country is very thickly populated the most part by the dairy farmers who have small farms of about 200 acres which is divided into small paddocks by hedges of prickly hawthorn and the paddocks are grown with apple trees at intervals of about 40 yards apart. The trees are not destroyed but are mostly too old to be of use. They are mainly cider apples and afford a sort of side income to the farmers, the being the dairy.

In nearly every village of any size there is a co-operative butter and cheese factory and the country seems to have been very prosperous. At one time the farm houses are all of brick and mostly have slate roof and would be termed ‘comfortable’ farmhouses. The country is well grassed just now and is also well watered with small streams and is undulating and altogether is very pretty even now in the winter time when all the trees have shed their foliage.

In every village, there is a mayor who is the much more important person than the average mayor of our country towns. He is responsible here for the good behaviour of local inhabitants, is responsible that they are fed and clothed etc. and practically all the business between the army and the civilian population is done through him. Some of them are real fire eating Frenchmen and one has to be careful not to tread on their toes. They are nearly all over 50 and are stout old men with huge moustache is. They generally want everything for nothing and can make it at a point that they will give nothing away. But they are very useful people all the same and save a lot of ill feeling.

This country is well stocked with game such as grouse, pheasants and rabbits and as company sports shot gun salvaged in Villers-Bretoneaux, we often go out to frighten some of the above.

The only thing that we ever got was a hare which rin into a barbed wire entanglement and succumbed to a blow from a walking stick before it could get free.

The whole of the Australian Corps is now trying to amuse itself with an educational scheme. There are a dozen some subjects including chemistry, French, German, letter writing wool classing, bookkeeping, Latin, forestry, mathematics etc. But the trouble is that the instructors don’t know much about their jobs and material is so hard to get that generally so far is a bit of a farce, all through, should improve. Anyway, it amuses people and keeps a good many people occupied during this period when parades are not necessary and time drags heavily.

I am much troubled with my future. I ought to be able to raise �500 when I get back which will be useful. But how to use it, I can’t decide and I don’t want to go into a small business unless I have to as the risk seems to be too great and in any case I have no fancy for grinding toil 18 hours a day for about �4 per week at the most. Too many people go bung for my liking.

I was wondering would it be any good my going in for an orchard say 500 citrus fruit trees in the Gosford district. A pal of mine here says the tree in full bearing and under favourable conditions is generally worth about 17/6 to a �1 a year. Then there are so many sidelines to an orchard which can bring in money that I thought ….

(Original back page(s) missing. Further search among documents in other places could ascertain if such pages exist and then added to complete this Letter.)