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You will have plenty of fresh war news each of these days. From what the men coming from Galipoli tell me, one has just come in, an Englishman, our side is having a rough time indeed. The information vouchsafed by Ian Hamilton is not encouraging. The absence of prisoners and the presence of such large crowds of wounded speak more eloquently than words. Matters all round are in a critical state for the Allies, and unless they can pull themselves together they may go from bad to worse. That terrible German weight!!! When saying this in Sydney ten months back I spoke better than I knew.
The three coloured prints, as those of Seppings Wright and Villiers, in a recent issue of the I. L. News, are very artistic. Some excellent ones of French generals are appearing in L'Illustration which is published weekly in Paris. I send it sometimes to Mollie Please do not allow the festive Maria to draw you from your ways of industry I am sure that the happiness of life lies with the industrious, while the whole game is a burthen to those who idle it away. You appear to have enjoyed the day on Middle Harbour. You should know Sydney and its waterways well. Melba got together a great heap of money by her concert. She is a remarkable woman, big in more ways than one, as a singer, as a woman of the world, and it may be in averdupoise in these days.
The way in which the war is going is enough to make one sad. Straws serve to show how the wind blows; e.g., in general orders a paragraph is devoted to warning General officers and others to exercise economy in all directions in regard to the expenditure of money. Think what an encouraging sentence that would be for the Germans to read? Were it be issued by the German Government and discovered by the English press, what a howl of joy would go up because of the straits to which the German government was being driven to conserve money and to husband its resources. Such is the game as she is played in these halcyon days of 1915 A. Domini. We can still hope for the best. My hospital I still full to overflowing, and there is little prospect for emptying for the present, all the ships are too busy transporting troops to and wounded from Galipoli, to have leisure for other work.
Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night.
I do daily offer up thanks tha He who hath made you fair hath also made you good.
[A line of Xs and Os.]
Caggie. Joseph. Kitty.
14.8.15. 10 p.m. Two communications from you to day. The first a letter from you Carrie dear, dated Sydney 5.7.15. The second a cable message dated 13.8.15, 5 p.m. For both many thanks. The former