Sat. June 30th 1917

Dear Effie: -

Well I guess this letter won’t be an awfully long one, mainly about persons. And by the way I wish you would hurry up & write. You owe me two or three letters, almost. I’ll bet Ed, gets all kinds of letters but you can’t spare time to write to your own poor brother. And just before I forget it. Tell mother to send me a dozen Gillette Safety Razor Blades. I asked for them before but that letter may not got to you. Also if you can get any of that powder for making lemonade or lime juice, send it along. No liquid tho’.

Well anyhow, the 11th Field Ambulance is right around here, working in the line we are holding. Also the 12th. I haven’t seen Bill Straith or Gordon or any of them, but they are still going strong. I’ll likely come across them some time. I’ve come across several people lately that I didn’t expect to see, Tommy Shearer. for one.

I guess you have heard by now that Isaac Johnston has had both legs shattered & taken off. He is in a hospital near here now, I guess in a pretty serious condition, too serious to take him to England anyhow.

Say, have you ever heard of Tom Wright ‘17. Well did you know you were related to him. Uncle Earl Greenway is his uncle. I just found out last night.

Well I was over to see the C.M.R’s last night. I could almost imagine I was back at the U. There was Colon Black & Harvey Mutch & Stuart McIntyre, & McHaffey & Jan Cross & Cliff Mori & also a whole bunch more of the 196th. It sure was too bad I didn’t get to the C.M.R’s.

I saw a few more of the old college boys there too, visiting like myself. One was Dan Broadfoot a lieut. in the 44th. He has won an M.C. I believe. You knew Jack Verner had won one too, I guess, Stuart Seotl has also won one. So the old ’17 clan hasn’t done too badly at all, with two. There was also another old Wesley fellow there Montford by name, a lieut. in the 44th. He has won a D.C.M. & an M.C. and a bar to the M.C. That’s pretty good alright. Too bad he wasn’t [?]. I also saw another very dear friend of yours, at one time an officer in the 203rd. He was saying that you owed him a letter, so you had better get busy. His present address is Lieut. (Pat) Carruthers, 44th Battn. Canadians, France. You ought to see him. Gee but he is fat; not a heavyweight, you know, but by no means thin, & he is looking fine. He just arrived over here a couple days ago. He will be out on Divisional Post at the same place as me, being in the same brigade, so I guess I’ll see him again. There is a better chance of seeing your friends in other batls. here in France, then in England, because they all come out to rest billets in something like the same district. The C.M.R’s are [?] & we are [?] & they are only 25 mins walk from us.

You might just tell mother to send me $10 a month till further notice. When we were were coming to France they told us; Don’t take any money to France, you don’t need any money there, the franc a day that you got is lots. Well I’ve found that that isn’t so, & everyone else has also. We need just as much money here as in England. I was getting $18 a month in England. I’m now getting $6 a month. The extra $10 will give me $2 less than I got there, & so of course I’ll be saving more than I did there. I’ve got quite a little bit in England now but I want to leave that intact, in case of emergency. And say, be sure & send that $10 in Canadian Bank Notes, not Money Orders or Postal Notes or such like, but ordinary bills. You can cash a Canadian bill anywhere here but not a money order. Of course register the bills.

That’ll be all.

John.