LINES OF COMMUNICATION
Everything goes forward without noise, haste, or
delay. The big bags crammed with letters arrive
from England in their thousands and soldiers that
were sorters in peace-time and are sorters still, get
to work on them immediately. The pigeon-holes
follow the arms: Infantry, Artillery, Engineers,
R.A.S.C., Headquarters: and then the units:
battalions, batteries, columns. Sorting into divisions
and sectors, which must be kept secret, is not done
until later, and then by other men. If a battalion
moves, a coded telegram advises the Base Post
Office.
T)o many letters remain undelivered?' I asked.
*No, very few. As you can see, it only needs one
man in that quite small corner to classify them.
While there remains the slightest chance of finding
the addressee, we keep searching. .. . You've only
to look at this envelope, which has been covered
with so many corrections and remarks that we've had
to stick a piece of paper on it to cope with them all.
When every possibility has been exhausted, the
letter is returned: but it doesn't happen very often/
*And censorship?'
'Well, you know that contrary to the practice of
the French army, all the men's letters are censored by
their own officers. But if a soldier wants to write
things which he'd rather not have read by his direct
chief, he is entitled to use a special green envelope
which is given him for the purpose, and to seal it.
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