The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-08-25
War News Direct From Wales

War News Direct From Wales
Following is an extract from a
letter to Mrs. Hale by one of her
! Welsh cousins:
Aberavon, S. Wales.
/ My Dear Florence:
Crops are excellent this year. but
we have been told to be very careful
OF our flour, and are being most care
full. 1t is wonderful how people who
never thought of gardening before
are taking allotments and raising
/ their own vegetables. There are hun
dreds of allotments for gardens all
about US and they look extremely
well. While the hay crop was light
there IS now second cutting ready.
on asked men many questions re-
gardIng conditions attributable to the
war. Every fit man (unless starred)
has gone to fight We look upon a
young man in Mufti as a sort of dis
grace The high cost of living of
course affects us all. Sugar is scarce;
but the government has allowed those
who have fruit, enough sugar to pre-
serve it. Very many have lost their
dear ones, but their is so much more
money earned and saved than former
~ that there Is no real poverty here
as yet Last winter potatoes were
scarce-this year we will have plen-
ty. Our flour and cheese, butter and
bacon are about the same as Ameri-
can prices quoted by you. The women
OF our country are doing we'll There
is not drone among them now
everyone works, regardless of social
class They are in banks, Offices of
every kind, train eondustresses, Dor
ters, drivers of all sorts of motors,
post glrls-and holding positions they
could not have entered, had they
wished, before the war. You asked me
several years ago what l thought of
suffrage for women. At that time I
felt quite out of sympathy with the
women when they smashed windows,
etc. / felt they were a reproach to
womanhood. But the general attitude
toward the woman of Britain has
changed. They are filling the places
ofstheir soldier husbands, fathers and
brothers and have earned their rights
of suffrage You ask If I feel free to
discuss as to whether we should have
king or queen or not. Certainly. |
England is u free country, and we are |
fighting to keep 1t so. Our King and /
Queen have no love for the rulers
of Germany, and they are good peo-
pie, who love their country. Unfor- |
tunately the late Queen Victoria had /
=
land has, through their sovereign, no /
doubt, strengthened Germany The 1
English have great admiration for i
Roosevelt. You might be interested i
to know-that William Lloyd George |
spent night at our home two years
ago. He is a most charming man. We
expect great things of him. l really /
do not think that the English people |
imagine that the war Is a struggle be-
tween autocrcacy and democracy.
The men who have taken ADVANTAGE
of conditions here to build up their
fortunes were and are from the
democracy
Our obility have done so splendidly
in this war. The best blood In Eng
land has been split in Flanders and
they are proud of it. Nearly all Of
them have given up their beautiful
homes for wounded soldiers and their
wives and daughters have gone as
nurses. Their hearts have so gone out
to the "Tommies" that the soldier
cannot but feel that they are all fight
ing for the common cause of freedom.
We have 1000 German prisoners a
mile from here. They are working on
a new factory that IS being erected.
They have the very best of every
thlng-even to shower baths; very
different from the treatment our own
poor boys are receiving as prisoners
IN Germany. God has been very good
to brother Willie, who is at present in /
Palestine He Is a Captain with the /
r. A. NJ. c. There are only three off,
GERS who went out together left IN
that. division They've been sick, /
wounded and killed Willie has been Il
through Dardonelles campaign, home Il
on leave through Egypt, for few
days last October-iust missed a U
boat that was torpedoed, he then went I
back on the hospital ship Britanic
and had just been taken of when I
she also was t0rpedoed- The Welsh i
summer has been ideal, but we had
the coldest spring that ever remem-
Der. We had snow frozen on the Il
ground for three weeks most un-
usual thing for this place, which is
but mile from the sea
Shall you not come over TO Europe 1
after the war is over2 believe France
viii be visited by great many from II
over seaS-many to visit the graves Il
OF their dead. wonder what will i
happen to the old Kaiser after the Il
war Is overl believe him to be the 4
very worst man IN history-to have Il
deliberately prepared for such a num-
Der OF years to XIII people in this II
fashion IS unbelievably cruel am
speaking IN defense of the German
people also-for they cannot want to
Kill their neighbors- God grant rs a
speedy victory.
Your affectionate cousin,
Annie R. Williams.
Brvnhvfrzd 4ai0gz<z II