Our masks are very effective and cool

TCD MS 11290/34 folio 2 recto

TCD MS 11290/34 folio 2 recto

(15th June [1918]) should be very effective if used in large enough numbers. We also sat for an hour while an infernal fellow threw gas bombs at us. I must say our masks are very effective and cool but would be horribly uncomfortable if you had to sit many hours in them.
We are having a bad drought here hardly a drop of rain since we landed with bad results for the hay and oats unless we have lots of rain soon however it gives the people a great chance to clean their fields at which they are working early and late practically the whole population from 12 to 100 with the exception of the young men most of whom are now killed and missing.
I have only met one man of military age and he was wounded early in the war later getting exempted from military service as his sixth child was born now he expects to be called up again but doesn’t seem worried at it at all.