A little snow in the night, and frost again. More snow coming, very cold. Quiet night. Two men slightly wounded yesterday by shrapnel in arm and shoulder. It turned to cold rain about 11.00 a.m., and has continued all day. A miserable day and E. wind—bitter. The ground with a bone in it, and greasy on top. With the thaw of course, trenches falling in, and work carried on under the worst conditions. Yes, I take it they have Beaucourt Station, chateau, and village. Don’t know about [Schwaben] Redoubt. The guns seem to have done well. Really the flood was not so bad as it sounds, it might have been much worse; pouring rain, and heavy shelling. No sign of general leave yet. No, we shall not return to the Elephant. The risk of a flood is imminent. Lloyd has got Y.C.V.’s. [14^th Royal Irish Rifles] I read the article in the ‘Times’ of November 11^th, and loved it. Have recommended Mat Espie and Campbell both to go to Cadet School for six weeks before being commissioned.

Footnote

It is difficult to suggest which article in the ‘Times’ Blacker was referring to but it was probably that by D. Thomas Curtin. It was part of his series ‘Ten Months in Germany’ and this installment was titled ‘War Children / Incubated Hate / No Games’; it sought to explain how ‘militarism, the worship of the State, the House of Hohenzollern, and hatred of the rest of the world are inculcated and fostered in the infant mind’.