Y. M. C. A.
H. M. Forces On Active Service
Reply to Me B Company 196 Bat. the Regt
Stationed at Seaford Sussex Feb 18th 1917

Dear Mither

This is the third today so my hand is getting out of order but I know you don't mind whether I can steer the pen quite straight or not so long as I get a line or two away by tomorrow nights mail. Still in England? well I should smile & if mud will stick us here we wont likely get away for some time yet for a few days ago the cold snap that has kept the rain fog & mud down for the last six weeks, came to a sudden ending & for two days now we have been shut in from the rest of the things about us by the most dense fog I have yet seen in England, Thats saying something too for fog here is not like fog over there. Over here you can't even hear through the fog & you get soaked in a very short time. However the short period of grace given me through not having glasses will likely be short lived for we expect any day to be shoved over the channel to the land of the Frenchies & also Trenches. Robin went on the last draft, the one I expected to go on but also they thought I was not fit to fight as yet. I have no great longing for the fight part of it for it all seems so senseless to me. A drunken brawl is bad enough but when men in their full senses & perfect calm go out to fight with opponents they have not even seen & have nothing personal to fight about, Well it kind of gets my goat so to speak. We have the best of them in every way now & I believe if we push it to far we will be on the same bases as the Germans were at the start. Enough is enough & if Germany will cry enough then its up to us to stop & play the good samaritine so to speak but after the war keep them in their own back yard.

Say here I am neither a war correspondent nor a moral reformer so thats about enough of that sort of stuff. Let them run the war in their own way & we obedient cusses that we are will carry out their schemes & orders.
I just finnished a letter to Elsie MacKay a few munutes ago. They are all well at Rounthwaite & Malcolm Berthram is getting Better. (I had a letter from Elsie let me explaine!)

Oh yes, just for a joke the other night. Bob Leitch Bert Dickey of Perdue, another sky pilot named Jack Forbes & Myself went in & had our picture taken together. Leitch & I had a very fair growth on our upper lips as you will notice. Also, notice the smiles. We had just got through combing our hair for the first time since I don't know when & of course we had some fun over the task & then just as the lady photographer snapped the camera from under her coverlet (a Blanket) some one said note the feet. Feet is right all you could see of her for blanket & believe me these natives surpass anything for feet (with the exception perhaps of a Clyde horse) that I have ever seen. I have been through nearly all the curiosity shops in London at that. However or "Owhever they say here", the pictures did not turn out to bad except that one side is dark & the other light, Of course there is a dark side to nearly everything in the army so please look at the bright side. (yours truly).

I was not on church parade this morning as a number of us were at the ranges shooting or rather to shoot for it was so foggy we could not see the targets at 50 yds & we were to shoot at 500 yards. I made one bull & four inners out of five shots at 500 yds the other day & 9 bulls & 4 inners out of thirteen shots rapid firing at 300 yds. But still I can't go to France until I get my glasses in my kit sack. I guess I'll get there soon enough however for fellows who get there do not think an awful lot of it. I think I will go to the Baptist church to hear Dr. or Capt. (I should say) Oliver speak tonight. There are lots of dandy lectures here & in the other soldier's clubs during the week. I heard a peach last night by Capt. Caswell, Chaplin to the 203rd. He spoke on Canada after the war & his Ideal Canada & Gvt is sure great.

You Say it must be awful in the huts & the worst thing you can think of is the rats, Well say you said I seemed to be able to write a lot out of nothing. Well that is what I was doing when I wrote about the huts & the rats. The huts are a little drafty but real comfortable at most times & I have only seen two rats since I came to England. So as regards that letter you can just say (Rats) & carry on.

I was sorry to hear of your knee & of Jessie's sick spell but by other letters I get I guess it is a general thing just now. To bad about poor Mrs. Maurice. She was a kind old lady if she was a little queer It is rather hard on Bert who is over here.

Oh yes we had a football match yesterday afternoon in the mud. If we had to drill in the same "which we do of course", we would cuss the army for fair, but of course we do that too. It is different though when there is some sport in it. The game was a tie but it helped a lot to break the monotony of the days. When I went in I & the rest too were mud from head to toe & a lot dragging along at our heels. The venture was a good one though for it made absolutly necessary the much needed bath that I had been contemplating for some time. We have the best of conveniences here for we have large bath rooms with both hot & cold shower baths in them. Some times the water is not very hot but then the care taker gets talked to.

Well mither I guess I had better ring off pretty soon for I want to enclose that much ridiculed picture & if I don't finish on this page I will have to pay extra postage. Waite till I get to France where postage is free. Then I can write whether I am broke or not unless its my arm that is broke. They say they try to hurt you over there, That is the Germans do & as one old chap in our hut said the other day. "I knew if they kept on some one would get hurt". He was Irish.

Well mither its time for eats & slim as they are my old habit of being on the job for eats has not left me yet. So I will have to quit. Love to All.

Lovingly Rae

P.S. Say King did not get a box from the R.C. at xmas & I believe he feels lonely pretty often he is so quiet so if you have time you might write him once in a while. He is a much finer fellow than I ever thought. He never touches the booze or gambling at all. Don't tell him I mentioned it you know.

Rae