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[Page 20]
Picardy
21/7/16
Set out at 9 a.m. on a bicycle for Rubempre and with the wind behind soon covered the intervening 8 miles passing through little villages with twisting streets en route. Most of them we had marched through before. A good many officers had assembled to hear a very good lecture on machine guns delivered by a Staff Officer with a good string of ribbons and a splendid grip of his subject. The place was the village school.
Boys and girls are educated at separate schools and as far as one can judge the educational system is very good. All the little girls (pretty clean little youngsters 7 to 8 years old) sat outside on their forms in the yard with their neat little teacher, a mademoiselle aged about 22. Inside the school were the usual fittings and pictures of places in "Notre Belle France".
After the lecture we returned home, and while having a little lunch orders arrived for a route march and in 25 minutes we were on the warpath with full transport and marched about 7 miles. From a high portion of the road we spotted a very large shell burSt. Observation baloons were up all round the horizon. A great deal of motor transport passed and repassed continuous trains of wagons running along.
At night, we all attended C.O's billet for a conference and the question of discipline came up. No doubt there has been a tremendous amount of drinking lately and it is the curse of the A.I.F. and only noticeable after pay days. With beer at a penny a glass they get too much for their money. They should be cut down to the same rate of pay as the Tommies and then a lot of the trouble would cease, but at present the men work like the deuce all day and do their duty splendidly but after parades in the evenings drink gets going on and one sees fellows drunk in the company who never before touched liquor. We have not had a church-parade for weeks now owing to moving round and although not a religious individual I think the weekly church parade has a good restraining influence on men.