Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 19]
kindly to take a hand and patronisingly approve of the "works". This they did cheerfully though somewhat in the manner of Laodicea. I think they didn't know what to say. The jocund convener of this reunion of critics then informed me that "before I went I could "take" him. What a lout! The whole performance mortified me. He then proceeded to tell me that the C.R.E. wished to see me with regard to camouflage, so round I went to his office at the other end of the village. He proves to be John Mather's son Leslie; a very able and nice chap whom I know but, when I got there he was engaged. I saw his adjutant and likewise he proved to be an old acquaintance and a gentleman. As a result of this interview to-morrow I am to mount a bicycle and ride out a few miles to prescribe camouflage for some brigade dugouts that are being heavily shelled and bombed. Had I that promised commission I could argue with him on the easily foreseen futility of such an expedition. They don't seem to grasp the fact that covering or disguising a once seen and registered spot bluffs nobody. But with my present rank I musn't open my mouth, so to-morrow I go on this wild goose chase. The weather has cleared up finely and I was promising myself a pleasant day's sketching to-morrow. I'll get it but, it will be plans for dug-out covers; if that is possible.
St. Gratien, 24/6/18
This morning I was given the original safety bicycle and directions which were to take me out to the place I was to inspect with a view to remedying. I had a cycling companion part of the way and together we pedalled through several villages now occupied only "by soldiers, some poor old women who probably feel that it is too late in their lives to move, and cats. Poor, ancient creatures! It seemed all wrong that after living the whole of their lives in one place that that place should so change in character that though these aged dames believe they're on the old spot they really aren't. They've stayed, but the village hasn't. They and the cats have remained for the same reasons. After comparatively little trouble I found my objective. It turned out to be what I suppose was once a castle wall or rather one of the faces of a "butte" reinforced by being bricked. The dug-outs which the engineer officer reckoned