ays in trenches. There was a great
hue and cry after a German spy yesterday. Telephones going all over
the place. I was wickedly sceptical about him from the first, and
ultimately triumphantly proved him to be an officer of the
----Regiment who had been detached on some duty. The unfortunate
gentleman had an impediment in his speech, and this was noted down as
proving him to be a German, of course! Six divisions of K.'s new army
are expected to cross over to France this month. I hear that the
Canadians have also arrived, and that they are full of dash. Thanks
for collars, duly received. They will last me a long time. Major Baker
brought some mincepies back with him. Mr. Argles wonders if I have
time to see any of the sports out here! No one has the least idea of
how busy one is out of the trenches getting rifles right and men
cleaned to keep them from dirt whilst in the trenches, when it is
impossible to do anything, for you cannot lift your head there for
fear of having it punctured before you pull it down again.... You ask
if I have seen any of my relatives who are at the front. No. I think
they are all farther back, and if they should come up where I am they
would have an awful time of it.... I hear the whirr of an aeroplane. I
wonder if it is ours or a German bomb dropper; you never know which it
may be! So glad to hear you are feeling better.

Yours....
G----

_February 2nd, 1915._

I must say that I think quite the worst news we have received so far
in this war is the sinking of those three ships in the Irish Sea by
the German submarines. The British Navy must just get to work and
build a submarine destroyer which will catch and destroy these
nuisances. As a matter of fact, I believe a great many more German
submarines have been sunk than the British public know of, because it
is not announced unless the Admiralty is absolutely certain. For
instance, the other day an old naval carpenter who works on the
Bayfordbury Estate in Hertfordshire, and who returned to his naval
duties when the war broke out, told Major Baker that whilst dragging
for mines in the German Ocean they had come against two submarines
lying on the bottom of the sea, and, having nothing else to do, they
dropped a charge on them and blew them up. That may be correct or not.
I have certainly