Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 244
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[Page 244]
2.
with the aid of a magnifying glass I have just read the name of your machine – the "Firefly".
Miss O'Brien sent me the receipt for the £22 for Westminster Cathedral, so that is all right at last, in spite of the two bank drafts having been sunk.
It is great news that when you are promoted to your next step – squadron commander – you will do most of your piloting from the ground. Of course we can't say we are wildly enthusiastic about your going back to France, but if your orders come, you will obey, & God bless you & keep you safe for us again. We should love to see you promoted again, & we are sure you will be, whether you go again to France or not.
Everybody who knows anything about you speaks so enthusiastically about your work in the R.F.C. & says what a splendid officer you are. We knew it all the time. You would not be you, if you were not. Still it is nice to hear you "so well spoken of" as they used to say of the hotels in the European guidebooks in our wonderful year.
Mother sent you a cable for dear Roger's anniversary. We also sent you another to get his name put in the Roll of Honour at the end of the Catholic Who's Who for 1918. I should have written direct to Burns & Oates, but I left it too late.
The Conscription fight still rages here. W.M. Hughes is growing madder & madder, & his eccentricities in his fight with Ryan the Premier of Queensland have not done our cause any good. Hughes has made good his threat to create a Commonwealth Police Force, presumably to act as a bodyguard for himself when he visits Queensland! The rest of his time is spent in screaming at somebody