The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1918-02-08
A FEW LINES FROM FRANCE.

Under the date of Somewhere in
France, December, 1917, Frank NJ.
Dallam, Jr., writes letter to men,
Der of his family from which the fol-
lowing extracts are taken. Attention is
called to that part of the letter in
which he states that under the rules
and regulations governing letter writ
ing by soldiers the censors are foolish
ly strict in curtailing subjects that the
writer is allowed to mention. One can
understand the necessity Of guarding
against information falling into the
hands of the enemy. but those who
have relatives at the front feel that
this restriction is carried entirely too
far. Relatives are very, very anxious
to hear as much as possible as to the
conditions and situations in which
their soldier boys are surrounded so
far away, and the information that
those boys are permitted to give Is so
meagre that the folks at home are in
constant worry. Again, the handling of
mail seems to have been neglected, or
those in charge are negligent in their
duties or very inefficient. The writer
of this letter says he has received no
mail, and it is doubtful il there is
soldier in the service to whom more
letters are written. And these letters
have been going daily since the divis-
ion sailed from Long Island. There is
something rotten somewhere when our
boys in France cannot receive their
mail. So much is dependent upon the
morale of that force. That morale is
endangered by homesickness and moth
ing tends more to homesickness than
failure to receive word regularly from
home. But what's the use. The rules OF
the service are inflexible, and those
at both ends of the long separation
must submit with as good a grace as
possible:
"The sending and receipt Of mail is
bound to be erratic and uncertain,
with many long intervals between let
ters The writing of letters is a puzzle.
Practically all of the things one wants
to write about, and that make an inter-
esting letter possible, must not be
mentioned. You will understand why
practically all expressions of what
think and feel are suppressed when
you remember that all letters pass un-
der the eyes of some censor, which
naturally enforces reticence concern
ing all personal matters.
"A trip across the Atlantic was a
great pleasure to me- Fortunately
was not sick at any time, and I never
tired of watching the ocean and look
ing for the small events that are SO
magnified by the very nature of a sea
voyage, such as the sight of a distant
ship upon the horizon. You can i'm
agine with what joy we greeted the
sight of land, and how eagerly we gaz-
ed upon the strange sights of new
country to us as we entered port. 1t
Is difficult yet to realize that we are
in France, and that We are here bent
upon the grim business of war instead
of just completing a pleasure expedi-
ton. When ! return there will be
thousand and one things to tell that
wish it were possible to write of now.
But the impressions we receive will
doubtless remain clearly enough for
years to come. Letters from the folks
will be the chief joy in life over here
and / hope that mail will soon reach
us. We have heard no news concerning
the war since we left the United
States" (We may add here that it
seems a senseless restriction on the
part of the authorities to keep the SOL
diers ignorant Of what is progressing
in the war zone. However, there must
be some reason for this attitude.-Ed.)