3.

of lives in harms way - murders I call it - through the incompetence of such officers - Well - to proceed - with the narrative - I've [illegible] had a danish to luck me up & it's wonderful what a glorious effect it has. The trip over to 76 area was beastly, uncomfortable - no berths even for the officers (5 of us on the boat) [illegible] just a cage cabins & the beastly boat rolled like the very devil. I deared I was certain to be ill, but I wasn't thank goodness, but 3 officers were very, very sick & nearly all the men helped to put the passage 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't life belts were in, I guessed what caused the [illegible], & wished I hadn't saw it. There were 700n men on board. On arrival at Harve we worked through the am - 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. Are [illegible] of the decline in the birth rate in France, but By Jove they must have left out those in their figures. We [illegible] to go to the Camp at [illegible] about 6 miles from the Docks. The men were pretty ready looked & moved very slowly - arriving at the Camp where the men were taken over by Dane officials & we went reported to the Can [illegible] that we should 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.