"Short History of French
Literature" and Dumas' "Vingt Ans Apres." I wish you would send
me Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," or one of Hegel's books.
This evening I listened to Beethoven's "Egmont" overture--what a
glorious work it is! Keep your eye for me on any books dealing
with Beethoven or the immortal Richard.

_September 2nd, 1916._

I am still in command of the ammunition working-party, and,
entailing as it does real work and responsibility, am enjoying it
hugely. All our men seem very happy. Their rations and living
conditions are excellent. We have our own canteen, which does a
great trade. It is a bad day if the canteen fails to take 250
francs, although it is open only from 12 to 2 and from 6 to 8 as
per regulations.

We get our stuff from the nearest branch of the Expeditionary
Force canteens, a military unit which does a colossal business at
the back of the Front. It has depots almost as large as those of
the A.S.C. A sergeant-major of the nearest branch of the E.F.C.
tells me that they calculate that at one depot they take more
money in a day than Harrod's Stores do in a week. The place is
chock-a-block from morning to night, and outside there is always
waiting a string of lorries, mess-carts, wagons, limbers, from
all over the place. The part played by the E.F.C. in the war is
by no means unimportant. It is a regular military unit, with
officers, n.c.o.s and men (in khaki, of course), run under the
authority of the War Office and subject to military law. Profits
on sales go to the purchase of fresh stock, and I believe, in
part, to the Military Canteens Fund at the War Office. The whole
thing is run by the Director of Supply and Transport at the W.O.,
and is commanded out here by an A.S.C. major. It is difficult not
to make profits on canteens; even in our comparatively small one,
we constantly find ourselves saddled with more money than is
required, and this although the prices charged to the men are the
lowest possible. One great merit of the canteens is that they
prevent the men from being "rooked" by unscrupulous civilians,
who, I regret to say, are to be found in force in some of these
French towns and villages.

The military canteen movement on its present huge scale has o