Letter from 1804 Alexander James Boyd to Mr Reeve

PR82/8
AUSTRALIAN 
WAR MEMORIAL
LIBRARY
14-8-16
Dear Mr Reeve,
This morning I saw an xtraordinary spectacle. In a 20
acre paddock 'somewhere in France' men and women representative
of 12 different countries were cutting corn. I would like to send
you along a picture; but, as you know, c'est defendu to possess a
camera even in these parts. Men from all the States of Australia,
Canada&, Newfoundland, India, Ceylon, West Indies, and other distant
parts were busily engaged assisting the local men and women, and boys
and girls to gather the harvest.
France is assured a rich harvest - come/ aht what may - thanks
in a great measure to the manner in which the British authorities
have aided her. The resources of the country were sized up a few
months ago by the Military authorities of France, who, never for a
moment, have lulled themselves into believing the end of the war is
in sight. They were satisfied with all they saw; but the problem wh
that perturbed, them was that of labour. All the young farm hands of
France were holding rifles in the trenches and the people on the
farms were not capable of carrying out the work of gathering the
harvest. The British authorities then stpped in and offered to
provide so many thousand men - all more or less skilled in agl,
work-to be used as they farmers desired. The offer was gladly
embraced by the French, who were given to understand that not a sou
was to be paid to the men.
These were the chaps I saw this morning.and. They worked
at great speed, and although there were several barrels of French
beer and wine standing on the outskirts of the paddock I did not see
[*men*] in which visited ^them until dinner time arrived. Then they sat round in
groups and I will guarantee that never before has such a babel been
heard in a corn field. The old farmers were delighted to see the men
happy and the sight of thousands of little bundles of corn in all
parts of the fields pleased them still more. This sort of thing is
going on all over France to-day. It does not seem to be much of a
rest to a man, perhaps, to be sent to cut corn; but there are few men
in the trenches who would ^not jump at the chance.
Apropos of the forthcoming harvest I may mention that
thousands of French homes were made happy this week by the receipt
of news from fathers, brothers, relatives and sweethearts, who are
incarcerated in German camps, that they were now being issued with
a ration of bread. One large loaf of bread a week per man does May not
xcite the palates of those who are still fortunate enough to be
taking 6 course dinners; but it means a lot to the poorly-fed,
badly housed and wretchedly clothed men of France. As soon as they
reeieved Cheerful letters home thanking the French Govt. for their
intervening on their behalf, arrived this week from the prisoners,
and prayers of thanks were offered in all the churches.
What little bread the French soldiers have received in
Germany up to the present has been of the black variety, and mouldy
at that. German Censors have not objected to prisoners asking their
connections to forward bread, or to words of protest against their
the treatment they are receiving. Photographers are allowed entree
to the prison camps of Germany, and copies of those which have come
to hand depict not the chic, buoyant Poilu, who marched away two
years ago, but a meagre, underfed French soldier whose sky threadbare sky-blue costume touches where fits where it touches.
The friends of these men have forwarded parcels galore
from the time of notification that they were prisoners; but the
proportion of the parcels that reaches the soldier is about one in
ten. It is alleged that the plumpest men in Germany to-day are the
persons who constitute the guards on the Camps.
Yours Sincerely
Alex. J Boyd