A correspondent has been kind enough to send us the following letter received in Shanghai a few ago from Lieut. F. Defries who, with other mem: bers of the Middlesex Regiment, is attached to the Ist Batt, West Yorkshire Regiment, I don't quite remember, says the writer, when I wrote to you last or what I told you in my Jast letter. I received orders to join the Expeditionary Force on December 10, at about 12.5 a.m. (midnight) and left at about 5.30 a.m, on the 1th. Fortunately I was not kept hanging about at the base but came straight up to the firing line. I found the battalion in billets in support and we remained there until Boxing Day.
On the evening of Boxing Day we moved into the trenches, where we have been until last night. The trenches are all right in fine weather, but in wet weather with a heavy soil they are the extreme of discomfort. (You will understand that I could not write to you in the trenches: we are in billets for a few days before returning to them.) Ours are in a soil like friable clay.
The rain has been extremely heavy, causing their sides and the parapets to fall in.
In many places there were also small springs in the ground which prevented ux making deep trenches I had a good section of trench at first, but was afterwards moved to a very bad part. no cover, because we could not mak our trenches deep and we could ne our parapets high, and the rman snipers were busy all the eral very narrow ved up and down platoon, Original fror
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.