1 Nov. 26. My p r. No letter last night from you tho' a nice little scrap from
Jessie which was of course a good substitute. Please thank her.
Perhaps it will come midday with the ordinary letters. I think the
censor must have a special predilection for your letters & don't blame
him if so. It hasn't come the result Last night I was up till midnight having had a busy day
with our move. I just glanced at the paper, read Redmond's speech,
& promptly seized my pen & wrote to Carson. If the tolerance shown
by our men — to the nationalists is merely to be used as a means
of exploiting Home Rule, there will be a row, & I shall not stop it,
I have suggested to Carson that we should write a counterblast. Reallly we want him as dictator, the Govt seems more weak kneed
than ever ! The 107th Brigade has been doing very well at the front, &
everyone is finding fault in this Division with our its substitutes, so
that the General now seems keen to get them back, I fear more
so than they are to come ! The 14th got badly strafed yesterday. Major P.Kerr
Smiley is not a great commander & the Gen' Hickman now thinks Col C would
be better employed elsewhere, having realized that he won't go
down with the General when he comes, so I think he won't come
after all. I think I should write to Mr J Cunningham if you can make
it quite clear to him that you want advice not a subscription You have 2 the army list. I could have
thought out such a polite letter for you which would have made them writhe. I am thrilled about the flat in Sheffield Terrace. Lady K was
not the Co Down one I suppose wife of Sir Robert of that ilk? The Spectator on Thursday will be quite in time. I usually
see Russell's Times so don't do so badly now. I went to the bombing of the Brigade Bombers whom I have
been coaching, & the Gen' was really pleased for once. They did better
than I expected. You would have been amusedto day to see a horse looking
out over the road from a room upstairs. The horses are many of them
billeted in semi ruined houses & in this case this was a house built into
the side of a hill so that the first floor was level with the ground & the
horses walked in on to it. The wall was a bit broken & an old horse
looked out with much complacency. I am longing for further news of your Com'meemeetings &
plans, but your letters have a way of arriving one day late as far
as I can make out. Would you put the time of posting on occasionally. It
is obviously wrong for Tuesday's paper to come before your Monday's letter, &
I wonder if they get delayed en route. If so the Censor must often
learn something curious about the natural history of squirrels & a p rabbit. I think you would do well to encourage Mater to think of going
to an chemist later. Had we been at Belfast I would certainly have
suggested DrCraig. Best love to "you all" (how does P.R like this ) Wilfrid BSpender