22/10/16
My dear Father
Many thanks for your letter of the 8th and the wallet, and also the seeds which I handed to the OC for the “gardening department”. They have put up a little greenhouse made from old X-ray plates, and are getting quite a lot of plants going for bedding out next spring.
I hope you have quite recovered from the indisposition May spoke of a few days back; cold weather came on rather suddenly here this week also, and fires and warm clothes became necessary.
I’m glad to hear that the War Savings Scheme has made a good start. I’m sure the committee will be pleased, and if it continues popular a big sum should be invested.
I feel very well and able to do any amount of work, of which there is plenty and likely to be. Sir W Leishman was here today and doesn’t hold out any prospect of sudden fall in the number of cases, but thinks it is diminishing; of course for the army as a whole the number of cases is trivial, but when collected in one hospital it appears big enough. Fortunately fatal cases have been extremely rare – it is the preventative side of the business that is taxing us, not the curative.
How have the winter apples turned out? I suppose you have practically all the crop in now.
Have you any recent news of Cyril? I don’t seem to have heard anything of him for a long time. I hope our plans out there are maturing well, the issue in the near and further East is by no means clear yet, the southern Balkan situation looks a bit better, but it will take some time and great effort to set the whole Balkan position really straight.
It is curious how the subject of U boats off America has almost dropped out of the papers: there must be something behind it all, and one wonders what. You remember how we both were so impressed by the Lloyd George interview, subsequent talk makes it evident that it was a very important pronouncement, though wrapped up in rather novel fashion.
I hear that Baby now climbs upstairs, she’s an active little morsel and I expect improves in her talking too.
With love to you all.
Your affectionate son
Arthur
