Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 479
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[Page 479]
One loss more in these means so much lee way to be pulled up. It would also be a pleasing change to know that we had made a success worth noting in one of the fighting areas. Shall every one of us not for his whole life be sick, close unto death with the names Ypres, Argonne, Soissons, and the others that have been printed day after day as the salients from which so much has been attempted and nothing accomplished, each of the belligerents boasting after ten months that he has held his own. There must come a time when one party to the fight must yeild, then woe be to the other. Which will it be that must weep? If us, then only temporarily till we pull ourselves together for a fresh effort. I still fear the German weight. The picture of the great man and his six sons has always been to me a nightmare, and it is none less today than that upon which my eyes first rested upon it, and when it was my pleasure to show it to you. Member you how much we spoke of it, and how oft I examined it, and opened the paper to show it to others. It counted for much. Bill is reported to have said that the war will be ended with October, had he so expressed himself he meant that he will first have taken Warsaw, and then he will have driven the British out of France. From such disaster Lord deliver France? The strip of water will be real protection at all times for our lands, and the command of the seas which belongs to the ships that fly the white ensign ensures a supply of food and of other things that count for all our people. Let us hope that Bill and his warriors will not get into Warsaw, and that he will be pushed back from the land of Gaul.
Did you read in the Melbourne Advocate a short article by me on the dining room in Cairo's swagger hotel? I read it in a paper that reached me a few days back from Mrs Knowles? I liked it better than anything I have ever put on paper. I should like your opinion on it. The words were arranged around the picture of New South Wales legislators in Egypt. I have mislaid my copy, but I hope to find it before many days have passed. There is heaps to write about, but for the present my fingers must cease, the muscles may tire, because they have been going strenuously all day. We had twelve operations during the afternoon, besides heaps of other duties each moment of the daylight and dark.
An English officer wrote to me a minute three days back about doing certain things in a particular way. I replied by reminding him that it was evident that there was a war going on and that if he wished me to do as he desired, would he please communicate with me through the D. M. S. Egypt. I had mentioned the matter last week to General Ford, and he agreed with me that