ave come to an honourable end before many
months, and that we may all meet again.

With very best wishes for 1915.

Yours very sincerely,
W. CLINTON BAKER.

IN TRENCHES.
_December 20th, 1914._

I heard that our people of the 2nd Battalion were driven out of the
trenches by bombs from the Germans, with a loss of 8 officers and 200
men, but that may be one of the many yarns always spread about this
sort of show. We have just this moment received a report that an
attack is expected on us towards 4 p.m. It is now after 3 o'clock, and
we have had to hurry indeed to get things ready. This morning, after
our standing to arms, which always takes place at five o'clock, the
Germans opened on us with heavy and moderate guns. The first shell
sent the fuse through my roof, the next knocked a brick in at the side
of the wall, and then I jumped out and started putting the men into
covered ditches. We had between 50 and 100 shells thrown at us within
three-quarters of an hour, but fortunately no one was hit. All the
time, of course, rifle fire went on as usual. Such was our Advent
Sunday's amusement, and the shelling continued intermittently during
the whole of the morning. Our trenches are a perfect bog; I shall find
some difficulty in getting round them to-night even if we are not
driven out of them. As to the shelling of the East Coast, you should
see what these places look like after the enemy gets through with
them, for their guns (howitzers) fire nearly as large shells as
warships do from their guns. The man who brought the message to me was
blown off his bicycle as he came along by four shells bursting and
knocking down two or three houses beside him, two miles to the rear of
us. Life is too awful for description out here now, and the men feel
desperate at times. Whether the Germans are equally badly off I do not
know, but there is little doubt that they must be; still, they are
such a disciplined nation that it is difficult to see where the first
break will come, excepting that as Germany consists in reality of
several nations put together, the smaller ones may think it worth
while to break off from the Empire and to make terms for themselves.
My opinion is that Hungary will shortly do this. By the way, what we
thought was another plum pudding turned out to