.NzE.MTE1ODA

Ypres Apr-May 1915

LETTER TO LOCAL MAN FROM FRONT TELLS OF BOMBS -- CANADIAN SOLDIER DESCRIBES VIVIDLY SCENES OF THE GREAT WAR -- PROCESS OF "DIGGING IN" UNDER GERMAN FIRE -- Description of Shrapnel Bursting and Effect of Asphyxiating Gas. -- A letter recently received in this city from a soldier at the battle front in France tells most vividly of the use of the asphyxiating gas which the Germans have been employing in the war. It further describes the "business of war," as seen by the men who take an actual part in the great battles. The letter came to T. A. L. Leach of this city, from Private Frank Swannell, a boyhood friend of whom Mr. Leach went to school in Toronto, Canada. Swannell went to France with the British Columbia contingent, but has since been transferred to the 16th Battalion, Canadian-Scottish, half of whom were killed in action at the recent battle of Ypres, where the Germans first used asphyxiating gas. THE LETTER Canadian Expeditionary Force, France I have received your letter of the 5th of April and I think another letter still, which I have lost. As all our letters are censored I can give you no place names. We are "Somewhere in France."