[censored] 1.3.16
Dear May,
By this mail I have posted you two separate parcels one containing a few shells that I got when bathing down at the salt lake on the Suez canal and a couple of menu cards from different restaurants. In the other parcel are 6 or 7 negatives taken locally, the bulb I promised to send you & the pieces off the Turkish boats. I hope they reach you safely, especially the neg’s. I have not been able to get any prints off them & from now on I will have to send them all home unprinted. Perhaps you will be able to do something with them. You could easily take proofs off the most interesting. Since writing last Frank Marshall, G Moffitt & all their crowd have joined us & as they are now attached to our headquarters they will probably be with us till the finish. Last Sunday Billy Hume & I went over to see them & on Monday night they were over at our camp. Holmes Hartley is also camped with them. When I wrote last
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I was under impression that George Moffitt had not been wounded but he was telling me that he was cut in several places around the knee. He thinks it was an exploding shell but he doesn’t know just how it happened. It doesn’t seem to have been anything serious & it was his run-down condition that got him his trip to England. I have seen nothing of Mark Collins nor Mark Farrington yet but I understand they are both in England, at any rate they have not rejoined their units. All the W’side & Gore boys I know here are keeping in the best of health. When I was home on leave I remember hearing that the Busbridges wouldn’t believe the cable about Billy’s death but Billy Hume tells me there is not the slightest doubt about it. He was killed outright by a shell & his cousin Peter was at his funeral. I have not seen Peter yet but I am trying to come across him. We are having a big football tournament on here just now & it is causing a good deal of excitement. Today the maoris play the artillery & I think the maoris will have
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a win. They are very popular here. They are the happiest crowd in camp & are great fighters. In fact all colonial troops seem to get on well together. Maoris, Austs, the different indian tribes & the N.Zers are all very friendly & have great admiration for each other but none of them are too favourably impressed with the fighting qualities of the territorial tommy. Frank Marshall tells me that Rev. McLean who used to be in Waikaia is their chaplain. I haven’t seen him & doubt if I’d know him now. Frank reckons he is having a rather uphill fight. There are still all sorts of rumours afloat concerning our future movements but so far we know nothing definite. Things here are pretty much as usual & news is rather scarce. We are all as fit as fiddles & have all put on weight. When I enlisted I turned the scale at 10st 8lb now I go to 11st 9 inspite of all the perspiration I have lost on the desert.
Love to All
Len
Mar 4th Sent a letter with Geo Hicks today – hope it reaches you alright
