next draft I know I can get past the M.O. at the Base in F. as I can tell him I have had 15 months front line work & know what I am going back to. But this place has had such a lot of men sent back to them that they have got to be more careful & the next draft is going to be very carefully looked over. My being A.2 will make it harder to get past as I certainly am not a 2 & it will mean a close look into my case if I B2 I most likely could pass easier. They have just sent back a lot (several 100) from here to Canada many had never been to France & a lot of those that had, never went past the base. If you tell a poor story at the base (you can if a little old or unfit) you are either sent back to England or made P.B. (permanant base, usually a BP job) I have heard them at it, & had to talk like a man to get past both times I was there. In the last batch sent back from here to Canada there were many who were being sent back the second time to get thier discharge who had never even been to France. Old stiffs whiskey soaks in some cases, who usually have a wife & kids & draw heavily on the Patroitic Fund. It is a snap for them eating up the grub in England that ought

BC Archives, MS-0426 Box 1 File 5 / TREGILLUS, Frederick James, 1862 - 1962. Barkerville, miner. / Correspondence from Ernest Seeley, 1915 - 1919.