No 1 Coy.

15th Can Inf Btn

B.E.F.

France.

26/6/18

My own darling Wife.

Just a few lines to let you know that I am all right & still going strong, I have not had a letter from you since I wrote you last but I had a Vernon News the other day dated March, so I guess there will be a letter soon, I took up the matter of your assignment with our paymaster & he tells me that you are getting it again, he says that it was stopped on account of my book being in debt which they had no right to do, as it is strictly laid down that a soldiers family will not suffer for any debts contracted by a soldier, but that he will have to bear the stoppages in pay himself, my old pay book is finished & I have been issued with a new one & I find that I am not in debt at all, but that I am over $30 in credit, so the paymaster is trying to get the money re-funded to you that has been kept back, I hope dear, that everything is all right now & that you wont be troubled any more with these things, I am dreadfully annoyed about it, because I do not want you to think that I was interfering with your money & I think it was a d – d shame for the govt to stop it & ask you to give some back to them, it just shows what all their talk amounts to about looking after a mans family when he is away, they would see you starve before they would give you a cent more than what was coming to you, one would think that they would be the other way round, seeing what you & I have given up in this war, I have given up the best part of my life & so have you, dear, & you have had the hardest part of it to bear, but do we get any thanks for it? I should think not, they would probably turn round & say we had not done enough, it will soon be four years since I left home, it has been a long time, dear, & a lot of things have happened in that time, perhaps I ought to be thankful that I am alive, but I don’t know, there have been lots of times when I thought I would have been better dead & have it all finished with, however, now that we are so far gone into this thing, it is better that we should look forward to a finish & hope that everything will be all right, I have been lucky so far, lets hope that the luck will hold till the end. I see by the Vernon News that Bob Griffiths is back in Vernon again, he sure must have swung the lead to get sent back, he only had about a month in France & then he did not get wounded, he was sent down the line with barbed wire scratches, he has been an officers servant all the time & I suppose he will be a flunkey all his days, Cy McLellan is back in Vernon too, he had a hard job to get back, but he has made it at last, rheumatism was his complaint, I’ll bet that both of them will have some story to tell, I would like to be there to hear them. We have been having a very quiet time just now, we are out of the line & are mostly engaged on working parties, it is much better than fighting, the Aeroplanes are sure busy these days & nights, & the aircraft guns are working all the time, even as I am writing this, by looking up at the sky I can count dozens, & every here & there is a shell bursting, it is wonderful to watch how close a shell can burst to a plane & not do any harm, & every now & again, plunk, a piece of shell comes whizzing down & you hear the thud as it hits the ground, but it comes too fast to see it, so we don’t pay any attention to it, it is all very interesting to watch. I got hold of a daily paper yesterday & I see that Germany has at last given up all hopes of winning the war & it is sure about time, after the smash that the Austrians have had it is about time they were beginning to think of peace & somehow I think it wont be long now, the Americans are coming in strong & fresh & they should be a big factor in getting it finished up soon. I am afraid there is not any news that I can give you, dear, as it is pretty much the same old routine with us every day & one day is pretty much the same as another, it has been very cold for the last couple of weeks & there was snow in some places, but it is getting much warmer now & it is turning out lovely.

Kiss George & Eileen for me, dear, & give them a great big love from daddy, I suppose they will have grown so big now that will have pretty well forgotten me, Ah well, I have not forgotten them or you either, dear, & I still love you all as much, if not more than ever I did, so with fondest love & lots of kisses to you my own darling Wife I still remain as ever

Your own loving Husband.

Jack.

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I sincerely hope, dear, that you will have no more trouble about your money - J.