No. 5 Camp
My Dear People,
Just a few lines to let you know I am doing alright.
I have been here nearly a fortnight now and according to my own opinion, I am nearly fit for active service again. This camp is only a few hundred yards from where I was living here last year.
I noticed it a bit cold here in the huts after the steam-heated ones at Dartford, but, it is not nearly so cold as it was last winter. We had a little bit of frost and some heavy falls of snow & a lot of rain. Last year it was very cold & dry at this time. We have practically nothing to do here in this camp. Every few days we are classified by the M.O. & as you improve you are sent along to other camps & have to do fatigues, drills & guards. I will stay here as long as I have nothing to do. But as soon as I am sent drilling etc. I will put in to go to the overseas depot & then to France. Our boys are having an easy time in France now & I guess they deserve it.
We wear our uniforms here so I have finished with "blues" for this trip, in Milton & Dartford you were not allowed out in uniform & if you wore your overcoat, you had to have a blue band on the arm. This is so you cannot get the good and joyful liquor which makes the boys sing. There are a lot of "pubs" in England and a lot of drinking is done here. The women drink a lot too & come into the bar to drink it. Of course I know there are plenty of "hussies" who drink in Australia but they do not generally go into the bar to drink it. I have got a very nice uniform & will look fairly decent on leave.
I wrote to the Australian Hospitality Bureau & got a very nice letter from the Secretary. She tells me she has plenty of invitations for men on furlough to to spend a few days at private houses, & as I think it would be very nice to stay a fewdays at a private house. I will go & see her when I go to London.
I intend to go to Ireland & it will not be my fault if I do not get some fun out of my fourteen days. I hope the Sinn Fieners do not hang me when I get over there.
It is not much of a game stopping in London as the place is fairly swarming with Australians. I want to get away where we are not so well known.
We have a fairly decent time here - concert parties at the Y.M.C.A.s and the old Picture show is still going. I am enclosing a card of some of the badges on the hills here they are made of white
stone. There are a lot of them on the hills here of different Regiments. There is a big map of Australia & I will send it to you. I saw a pack of hounds out the other day & a considerable number of ladies and gentlemen after them, but, they did not stir up any fox while I was watching them.
Well I will close now, hoping that you are all quite well.
I remain
Lour Loving Son & Brother
Tom.
P.S. We got another parcel from the Red Cross the other day, more tobacco & Sweets. I swapped my tobacco for chocolate.
