COMFORTS FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—Many thousands of American soldiers are now on the fighting lines and in the receiving camps in France, and thousands more are arriving from week to week. These young " Sammies " have journeyed from three to six thousand miles (those from the Pacific coast have had a continent to traverse before embarking) for the purpose of doing their bit, shoulder to shoulder, with the " Tommies" and Poilus in the great fight against the Huns. We know the Americans are properly suppplied with the necessaries of life, but they are too far from their families to receive the little packages of comforts that help soldiers to feel that they are not entirely cut off from home circles, and that serve to lessen the loneliness of the camp and the trench. Transatlantic mails are now very slow, and we understand that packages have, in any case, been practically prohibited. The men are not likely to com- plain, but there is risk that when they see home packages arriving for their British comrades mot none for them, they may feel a wee bit homesick. We have had the personal experience of the great pleasure evoked by the receipt of such a parcel by an American officer now fighting in France, and the gratitude expressed in his letter was such as to fill one with the desire to be able to send every man over there a similar parcel.
It is proposed that a Committee be instituted to be charged with the duty of collecting funds with which to meet this need, and to keep the American soldiers cheered up. "Home parcels " will be made up, to include, of course, only unrationed articles, and these parcels will be distributed, as transportation can be secured, by turns to the men of the different Commands. Even if the inter- vals between the packages must of necessity be considerable, an occasional arrival will save the soldier from the feeling that he has been entirely forgotten. We ask all who may be interested in the purpose of this appeal (an appeal which is addressed particularly to Americans resident on this side), and who are willing to render any measure of co-operation, to send their names to Lady Walston, Newton Hall, Newton, Cambridge.—We are, Sir, &c.,
FLORENCE WALSTON.
GEO. HAVEN PUTNA3I (late Major U.S. Vols.).
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