My dear Father,

Very many thanks for another excellent box of cigars, which I very greatly appreciate. Please thank Mother C G & O for lots of letters books & papers. I had a truly enormous post from the family to-day & I am the envy of everyone. Tringham is still away so I am looking after the shop, while he surveys from a higher sphere in the Brigade office. From various small indications I can’t help thinking that he is in the running for a Brigade himself, though how it will affect me if he goes I don’t know. We have had a senior officer [probably Major T. Weeding] of the line sent to us in the last few days & it made things a bit awkward, as he has at least 15 yrs. regular service & has been home wounded twice. However he has been here for 3 days in the capacity of a visitor & has to-day

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gone to a school as an instructor, & I fancy that if it has been definitely decided that he was eventually to have the Battn. he would not have been sent away. However I think he is of opinion that he is to have it & of course from his point of view he ought. It is all in the air & there may be nothing in it. He is quite a good fellow & knows his job, but whether he would make a good C. O. I have not seen enough of him to say. I am sorry to hear about Aunt Meamie & hope she is better now. We had a really good concert when we were out the other day & produced some surprising talent in two professionals. We also took the precaution to bar the people who usually sing, as they

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are all bad & we know their songs by heart, so the thing was quite a success. I am rather anxious at the moment, as I am half anticipating a raid by the Bosch. The difficulty is that my suspicions are so slight, that I can’t make the preparations I could if I knew more. However I ought to know definitely to-morrow what is in the wind, & provide accordin’. I hope we catch him on the bend. The bucolic peace that used to pervade this place has rather died away lately & it is now no unusual occurrence to hear a rifle bullet & a shell. Whether we or the Bosch is the aggressor I do not know, [illegible] but things are getting much

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more normal & rather what one expects in trench warfare.

Love to all

Jack.

A fellow has just joined who was billeted with Arthur Ellis at Epsom when the Public Schools Battalion was there. I have not yet discovered his name.