Dear Mother,
Received your ever welcome letter January 16 with Norma's enclosed. Also had one from Mae and Bill.
I am not going to write to Bill just now as he will no doubt be leaving Canada before the letter would arrive there. However I'll get into communication with him just as soon as I find out where he is going to be stationed in England and then I'll try and make arrangements for us to have a few days leave together. We are sending about five or six away every week now, but as my number is 191 it will be a long time before I get mine. However the number of men going on leave will doubtless be increased shortly. I am looking forward to getting away by the end of April or May at any rate.
If at all possible I am going to transfer into Bill's Brigade when they get here. The 7th Brigade I believe came out last week so as the 8th Infantry Brigade that Bill will be with is here already, so he should not be long coming out after they reach England. I am not sure whether I can transfer out of the 2nd into the 3rd Division or not, but I am going to make inquiries just as soon as I have something definite as to when Bill will be here.
There is very little doing up around here these days except artillery and air fighting. Number VI Field ambulance had a German patient the other day but he didn't talk much. He was a Sergeant. There was also an officer captured the other day. He seemed to think that all the Germans had to do now was beat the Canadians and then walk over to Paris and London. He had come from the Russian front and had been in 37 engagements.
What is Archie Gillies in? I didn't know he was over here at all. Mrs. Button would sure be the one to buy to good advantage but she would be apt to quibble too much over a cent or two and get the Patriotic League in wrong with the trades people.
Say that was a good drubbing the hotel people got and it will make them sit up alright. Are they making very good progress in their Temperance Campaign for prohibition by July next?
Does Bill expect to get home before he comes away? He said he was going to try for a four day leave and also a pass to Stratford for a week end. They are a hanged sight more liberal with their passes this winter than last. All I could get was a single day last March.
Say everybody has been going to send me a program of the school play but I never received one so far. The news has been coming quite regularly and I received the issue of January 13 sometime ago. I also got the letter from Miss Howie and am sending her my address. I got Maude's two bundles of papers although they were a month old. They had been held up somewhere I guess. Say I would not bother sending the Sunday World and Star Weekly because they are sent to nearly everyone who comes from Toronto and so I can get a chance to see it often. Send the Globes though for no one else gets them and I can get more news etc. out of them than any other Toronto paper.
I suppose you think these are nearly useless letters but they are is there is so little going on that would be of interest to write about that I have quite a job finding material for letters.
Mae was asking me to tell of some of the cases we have to deal with. I haven't seen a badly wounded man since I left LaClytte. All we have here are "sick" officers. This is the kind of a job that makes me sick of the Field Ambulance and I am going to get out of it the first chance I get. We have had so few as six patients here and it requires 50 to 60 man to keep the place in running order. I don't know why they can't give us a little more leave. Of course every part of the service is inactive now but we seem to get the worst deal.
Tell Vern to write and tell me all about the hockey team etc. How is the drilling going with the Teeswater platoon of the 160th? Well I must ring off now and get my dinner. Hoping everyone is real well. I am feeling fine.
Lovingly, Harold
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