September 24th 1914

I long for the finish of this war and it is war. Hell cannot be worse. It is just like waiting for death, but still we are lucky to have escaped so far and can safely say it is a game of luck and I trust luck will be with us to the end. Whoever is spared will have thougts and memories of a war, the like of which has never been before in history.

One has only to think of the countries involved, the up-to-date guns we all have in action and the range and the power of the weapons in use and then try and form an opinion as to the result. We are not against a lot of farmers but against a nation with fighting material.

One of the most touching events I have seen in this war was in Belgium in our advance and retirement on and from Mons. There we met the unfortunate people leaving what had once been their homes with a bit of food all tied up in anything they could carry. Aged, young and babies, all destitute. We met them in the woods, in the fields, and in fact everywhere we went we found these poor terrified folk. It was heartrending. At one large house as we advanced on Mons there was a family which was leaving and with eyes much swollen by crying one young girl about 22 or 23 unable to hold herself in check ran forward at the sight of our troops and before we were aware of her intention had kissed several of us on both cheeks. That sort of thing tends to touch the hardest of hearts. The people of Belgium behaved to us splendidly. Never to my dying days shall I forget their kindness.

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