France                                                  

15th Battalion. B.E.F.                                                          

10th June - 1918 -

My own darling Wife

I have just received a most heartbreaking letter from you, dated March 14th with the enclosure from the pay office, I hope you have not sent them the money they ask for as they have no right to stop your allowance, I cannot understand why they should do so, I have never interfered in any way with your money, in fact if it had been possible I would have increased it, there can only be one explanation to mind my mind & even then I am sure that the authorities have no right to interfere & it is this, you may remember that I told you my pay book was in debt, well, that is not settled yet & I am still drawing short pay & the paymaster here has a notification from London that I am $5835/100 in debt, the result is I only get 10 francs on pay day instead of 40 francs, I have taken the matter up with him & he is looking it up for me, my book should be square long ago as I have been drawing short pay for a long time now & it beats me how my book should be in debt at all as I have never drawn more than the proper amount at any time, & even at that your allowance should not have been stopped on that account, I am the one they should come at, I have shown your letter & enclosure to the paymaster & he is writing to London about it, but there is so much red tape about these things it may be some time before we hear anything, in the meantime, don’t give back a cent, but I hope that before this you will have received your proper allowances & that there will be no more trouble, it is most annoying that a man who is out here risking his life & doing what he considers to be his duty should have his wife & family treated in such a scurvy manner, it would be more like the thing if they would give more money to you instead of trying to take it away from you, this is one of the things that I would like to take up with the Great War Veterans Association, there are lots of things that could be taken up & somebody made to smart for & some day this bone heads that are running departments in Canada will wake up & find that there are a few live soldiers yet, men who did not count for much before the war but are going to count for an awful lot when it is over, I know I have some scores to settle, but if I put them down here the censor would cut them out, so there is no use saying anything now, but there is always a to-morrow. We are out from the trenches for a rest just now & I don’t know how long it is for, but I hope it will be a long time as the weather just now is lovely & it is very warm, this is one of the prettiest parts of France that we are in now but even here the Hun tries to get at us, we had an air raid one night & he dropped bombs right in the field that we are bivouacked in but no one was hurt fortunately, it is a peculiar thing but all his bombs seem to light in the fields & very seldom do any damage at all except to the crops. There are lots of things that I would like to tell you but I cant as the censorship has been made much more strict than it was & it is hard to know what to put in a letter & what not to put in. Thank God I am still all right & in good health only for a touch of trench mouth & a sprained foot, but I am working hard every day, we are training to beat the band & everyone is as hard as nails, everything is going all right with us, we have Fritzie beat a mile, don’t think because he gets a little ground now & again by using overwhelming numbers of men that he is winning & walking all over us, he is’nt, & he wont, he cant, because we are too strong for him, he has’nt got our wind up yet, but we can get his any time, don’t be uneasy if you don’t hear from me regular, dear, as we are moving around a good deal & don’t have much time to ourselves, but I will write as often as I can, & I guess the mails are very uncertain too just now as the boats are so busy bringing over our American friends; but don’t worry dear one, I am all right & feel good enough to see this thing through to the finish now that I am into it again & I feel quite confident that I am coming out all right.  God bless you, my own darling & keep you safe & sound till I come home again, kiss my darlings for me & give them a big love from daddy who is so far away from them & loves them so much, & with all the love that is in my heart for you my own darling wife, I remain now as always & for ever Your loving Husband Jack.

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some great big ones for the children - J