1 P.S.
The suffrage
notice for Fr Sydes
arrived 24 Jan. R.I.P.
F.S. letterhead: Order of ST.JOHN BRITISH RED CROSS
JOINT WAR COMMITTEE. (Indian Branch.) Archbishop's House Wodehouse Road Bombay. 19 Jan. 1919. Dear Reverend Father Provincial, P.C. I forwarded to your Reverence
last week through the Eastern Bank, the sum of two
hundred pounds, as a start. I hope it reached you safely.
There is more to come, but the Indian people, as is only
expected from them, have not yet managed to get through
the necessary formalities for claiming it. When I get
it credited to me you shall have it at once. I think I'll
telegraph it; it will cost about 1/10 a word, but that won't be
much out of about £ 300, and it will save weeks. I bought
a new tunic (I did my best to hold out to the end) lately.
It is just a light unlined affair — price, Rupees 95, or
just over £ 7.! So you see there is profiteering in Mesopotamia
too. I had a card from Fr Farley acknowledging notice
of Masses, and saying the Catalogue and Ordo were not
ready up to 3 December. He said Fr Sydes died of pneumonia
in London in November. I got no suffrage notice yet. R.I.P.
I was FrSydes' 'Angelus' in the Noviceship. During first
probation he used to correct my Scripture mistakes when I gave
him points for meditation. His best 'hit' was at a Socius
conference, when somebody was accused of starting 'innovations'.
Fr Campbell declared emphatically that the new practice was not to
be tolerated, as the old method had been in vogue in the noviceship
for 'forty years'. 'Please, Father' said Br Sydes, 'That would be
our chief reason for changing it in Australia!' Rumour, official
and other, still says we shall leave Mesopotamia before May. I commend myself to Your Reverence's Masses & prayers. Francis M.Shaw S.J.