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[Page 88]
Flanders.
20th September 1916.
Dear Dad,
Don't know whether the Postal Authorities made a mistake in the date or not, but they must have thought it was my birthday. I received no less than 15 letters last night and a parcel of tobacco from Mr. Pauch. It was a double mail, six of them being from Home – yours dated 17th & 31st July . I wrote to Mother a day or so ago, and she has absorbed all the news I had to give. Am writing this to thank you for the way you have fixed up my money for me. It certainly is a better way than the one I suggested, and I must say you have treated me splendidly. As you say it is going to be a hard job to settle down to Office again after the excitements of a life like this. It would mean starting in on the ground floor again in the wool business, and three years is a lot to pull up. However will have plenty of time to think it out when we finish knocking Germany about. My ambition at present is to see some of the world before coming home, and if I can get a mate think I will do so. Think I would get more out of my Military pay that way, in education and experience, than merely busting it in Sydney. Its been too dearly earned to think about putting it away for a rainy day, and besides I can always buy an umbrella for that.
Had a letter from Os and one from Billy this mail. Os sent along the only first-hand information of their scrap I've had so far. Charlie says I'll find it all in the papers, but he doesn't send them along.
I'll willingly hand the palm over to Os for letter writing and also the cake, but that unwillingly. With an incentive like that I almost feel like starting again, but I'm enclosing you a cutting out of a Sunday Sun you sent me (and you will probably have seen it) for you to take warning by. If you will have me write long letters you might have to put up with something like this, and then you wont be far wrong in saying the war was getting on my nerves. It puts me off writing letters to read the letters some fellows send along for the papers. Anyone would think to read through them we were just having one long picnic over here.
Billy's letters are full of the good time he is having in England. He talks about London as if it was some one-pub joint he'd lived in all his life, but I hope to be over there shortly now and get my own impressions.
The shaving gear has not happened along yet, but I must give it time I suppose. There have been very few parcels