Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 443
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[Page 443]
7th A.A.S.C
4th Aust. Inft Bgde
B.E.F.
21/1/17
My Dear Mrs Dunlop.
Your pretty Australian Card with best wishes & the enclosed letter, came to hand to-day. Many thanks to you & the dear Dr. Its the next best thing to a trip home, to gaze on at least the picture of ones homeland & the national wattle
Only 20 minutes ago, my mates were asking how it is that people do live in a country like "La belle" France with its climate, so dreary for 6 months of the year? I suppose its a case of knowing none better, through lack of travel, they are satisfied. I must honestly say that for a couple of months it is very nice here.
At present it is snowing & has been so for the past 3 days. We are in a very busy area & please watch the papers for further announcements in the Spring. Depend upon it, the circus will show, wet or fine then, with Haig as the ringmaster. Ah, sure we are disgusted with the NO conscription vote. Still, I half expected the result as it was, for many cold-footed individuals had shown by their actions in not enlisting previously, how they valued their skins with their honour. By such a referenda, taken 2½ years after the commencement of war, it was like asking Bill Sykes if he desired to go into such a nasty horrid place as gaol. [Bill Sikes, a criminal character in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist".]
What a number of our poor Yes's are under the soil – deprived of upholding a Nations Honour
[Written sideways in the left-hand margin:] Don Dunlop 9.8.32