LETTERS FROM MEN AT THE FRONT
(IN FRANCE
)
Sergt. T .C. LAPP WRITES
Before being wounded in the big drive, Sergt. T. C. Lapp wrote to the Belleville Ontario of which he was formerly foreman, as follows:
'There has been so much written concerning the world war and the part our Canadian forces have played in it, that it would be presumption on any part to attempt to add anything concerning the greatest issues; but I thought it might be of some interest to you to know that the men in the trenches are thinking and saying among themselves.
'In "funk hole" 'dugout' and billet gatherings men will express themselves on subjects that they won't ordinarily mention in visiting home, or in conversation outside their own particular circle of comrades. The things that affect us personally - rations, mail from home leave, working parties' patrols, vermin, mud. etc. - are talk of most, but the range of subjects include politics, religion, literature, poetry, and sometimes war. No debating society ever had more earnest speakers than I have heard in my experience of some five months in France.
When we can forget our surroundings for a few minutes our thought naturally turn to home folks and home activities. The Canadian Daily Record a publication giving the news of Canada by cable - keeps us in touch with passing events, and our letters and papers give us the details. Comments concerning the severity of food regulations, as published in Canadian papers, have caused many a smile. ‘Let ‘em try European rations for a year.' Is what we generally hear at such times.
The numerous strikes and threatening strikes cause great irritation. It is incomprehensible to us that a man earning $7.50 a day, with all the comforts of home and family , should choose a time of crisis to ask for a 100 percent increase, such as some of the C.P.R. men have recently done. Compared to $1.10 a day in a hole in the ground under constant shell fire, the majority of the working men at home are enjoying the extreme of luxury.
Most of us have illusions about the possible duration of the war. While we hope for an early finish we are not building any hopes on leaving the shores of France before the close of 1919. In the popular estimation next year will mark our lasting triumph; even at that allowance should be made for some great unthought-of event either shortening or lengthening it. With this delightfully indefinite deduction, we cease to puzzle our minds further. The main point is - we must win, and win we will, regardless of the time and price.
I am writing this from a forward line where daily the price of blood is paid. One never knows who may be next, but we don know that if we go under, that Canada will see that the vacant places are filled without delay, so that while our fair Dominion is carrying on the fight for peace and right, her dead shall sleep in peace.
T.C. LAPP
