Item 04: G. O. Hawkins letters to his family, 2 January 1915-November 1917 - Page 45
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[Page 45]
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hybiscus [hibiscus] grow and bloom amongst them.
Men of the Queens Own, of the Gordon Highlanders and of other famous regiments rest here for ever beneath the palm and pine
The trials and troubles and sorrows of their day are felt no more
The weeping beauty and grief struck parents of them time have aged or passed away, while only a memory of their and their glory remaining.
It is a sad spot far from the homes of the dead, [indecipherable] with the solemn little pines [indecipherable] with their thoughts of the western world and its [indecipherable] and with the palms of the East which have no thoughts at all but a presence of aged mystery.
The little pathways are dust, the marble headstrong and wooden crosses are bleached and the intense lights is a blare which cheapens mans poor attempts to build a memory for the dead.
Still the blooms of the holyanders [oleanders] and scarlet hybiscus [hibiscus] and a painted butterfly in its undulating flight are here, [indecipherable] signs of beauty and of life.
Within a new and roughly fenced – in portion of the plot are several new made plaques of men who have fallen in this instant war. No tree or shrub yet guards or shades them o'er. There in the blinding glaring light they are. Simple little mounds, cheap inglorious [ragged?] end of