Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-02-15
American Army Zone In France,

American Army Zone In France,
January 21.-The censoring of letters
is a tedious but necessary job. 1t has
been particularly tedious before the
Thanksgiving and Christmas s. seasons.
Often it is hard on the officers eyes to
make out the hieroglyphics of some
soldiers; it is also tiresome to read the
trite observation, to which the soldiers
are limited. (They are not allowed to
mention what would be most interest
ting). Third, it takes a distinct mental
effort to decide what may go. Before
Christmas every soldier also slipped
in some present in almost every letter,
all of which has to be put back into
the proper envelope and sealed in such
q way hat 1t will arrive in good shape.
Most of the officers would rather put
their units through the hardest drill
than read their letters.
There are some officers, but not
many, who have tried to limit their
men to one letter a week. This is alb
surd. Letter writing is often the
soldiers main diversion. 1t is the only
way he has of keeping himself from
feeling lost in the world. A general
order should be issued, warning officers
against limiting too much their mems
letters, and it is very importsnt that
the soldiers mail be promptly deliver
ed. Every day, as the men come back
to their billets after a hard days drill,
the first question they ask is:
'tIs there any mail for me?n
In the French army there is very
little censorship any more on the let
tiers sent to addresses within FRANCE.
In the British army the censorship on
letters is very strict, and the American
doctors, serving in the British base hos
pitfalls, are equally bored by the task of
reading their patients mail. 1t is
something like correcting examination
papers, and all teachers know what a
task hat il.
Football AntidOte for MushinesS.
AT the beginning of the wal a GER
tain British officer became bored read
ing the letters his men sent to their
sweethearts. They were 80 exceeding
ly sentimental hat the young officers
own sentiments were offended. In his
distress he wrote to a friend In Eng
land asking him to send a couple of
footballs to the training camp in
France. This was done and they had
the desired effect. The letters to the
girls became much less sentimental
after that.
Somewhat similar measures have
been tried by the American officers of
the engineering regiments. The off,
GERS who have to censor letters are en-
thusiastic promotersof sport wrestling
and boxing, as we'll as football. Each
match reduced the weekly pile of let
tiers, and "toned up" their contents.
'While some letters run to sentiment
tality,n said an American officer,
-''others are sublimeIy ridiculous by
their exaggerations. Some men write
the same sentimental twaddle to three
or four different girls, besides some
futile attempts at billet doux' to a
French sweetheart. Others write the
most lurid( descriptions of battle they
have " seen. To read their letters
you would think they had licked whole
German companies single handed,
when. as a matter of fact, 1 know they
have never seen a shell burst, much
less have taken part in any fighting.
'"There are other men who loaf on
the job to write five or six letters a
day. That is unfair. 1 know 1 have
had as many as 1856 letters a week to
censor, and with my regular work to
do, / either have had to sit up until
2 o'clock in the morning and then get
up at 6, or else let the letters pile up,
which delays the mail of the boys who
write only a proper amount. 1t is Un-
fair TO limit the men to one letter a
.,oolx h..k kharo o1,1,,II ho - uaatr{n !