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of lives in harms way - murder I call it - through the incompetence of such officers. Well - to proceed - with the narrative - I've just had a danish to buck me up & its wonderful what a glorious effect it has. The trip over to France was beastly uncomfortable - no berths even for the officers (5 of us on the boat) but just a large bare cabin & the beastly boat rolled like the very devil. I fancied I was certain to be ill, but I wasn't, thank goodness, but 3 of them were very very sick & nearly all the men helped to put the passages awash, as they couldn't stay on deck as the water was coming aboard. It really was a filthy sight when I went out early the next morning. I slept on the floor with a life belt as a pillow, & it smelt horribly & when I saw the condition the men's life belts were in, I guessed what caused the smell, & wished I hadn't used it. There were 700 men on board. On arrival at Havre we marched through the town - mostly the slums - & the children continually asked for money in broken English , & the soldiers threw them pennies & watched them fight for them. There were an extraordinary lot of children, & I think every woman I saw was within a short period to increase the population. We hear of the decline in the birth rate in France, but By Jove they must have left out Havre in their figures. We had to go to the Camp at Harfleur about 6 miles from the Docks. The men were pretty heavily loaded & we moved very slowly - arriving at the Camp about noon where the men were taken over by Dane officials & we went reported to the Commandant and were told that we shd be notified when to return. Well we had a couple of days in Havre & had quite a good

BC Archives, MS-0089, Box 1, File 4 GLASSFORD, Deborah Florence (Leighton). Vancouver Correspondence inward, 1916.

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