{"id":431,"date":"2013-05-26T05:40:17","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T05:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=431"},"modified":"2013-06-26T21:13:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T21:13:16","slug":"neil-mother-18-dec-1917","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/warletters.falkor.gen.nz\/?page_id=431","title":{"rendered":"Neil \u2013 Mother: 18 Dec 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"

From 49123
\nPvt N. H. Smith
\nN.Z.M.C.
\nFrance
\n18-12-17
\nDear Mother,
\nI received letters from you all yesterday, the first letters I have received, I think, for over seven weeks. \u00a0We are still in quite a safe place here and likely to be for a week at any rate. \u00a0I cannot understand how it was that they received two batches of mail at Curran St, and at Jervois Rd without your receiving any from us. \u00a0Both Norman and I write fairly frequently – I dont think an interval of ten days has ever passed since we landed without one of us writing and each of us \u00a0has averaged at least one a fortnight. \u00a0We arrived here too late to see Norman Matheson, (son of Norman Matheson, brother of Neil’s mother, so a cousin of Neil’s)<\/span> – he had gone up the line. \u00a0So had Charlie Musker, and, I think, Alec. \u00a0Jolly glad to hear Gorrie failed. \u00a0This is no place for anyone who has not lungs like a bull. \u00a0I am writing to him separately. \u00a0Leslie, Eric tells me, \u00a0is taking his going into camp very philosophically \u00a0and is almost keen about it. \u00a0You would think an M.A. would have more sense. \u00a0Your letters to us are not censored, though ours to you of course, now are. \u00a0We have not yet received the third cake though we are looking forward to it eagerly. \u00a0We think of very little now except our stomachs and blankets and N.Z. \u00a0We have received so far two lots each of cake and butter all of which was A1 except one cake that had a slightly gassed heart and was about B3. \u00a0We have been going into a French town near here very frequently of late. \u00a0I am able to make myself perfectly well understood of the natives though I have difficulty at times in following them. \u00a0I’m sick of tent life (13 in a small bell tent), sick of the climate, but the tucker’s good and I’ve four blankets so I oughtn’t to growl.<\/p>\n

Yours
\nNeil<\/p>\n