Cooper, Ethel – September 1918
8.9.18
My dear Emmie,
I had luck last week and got a pound of real white flour – under the hand, of course, and it cost 3/6d, but never mind! – so I made some scones, and some of my treasured English tea that Sandor brought me in March from Denmark – and Connie brought some milk and a little pot of jam – otherwise we should only have had honey-substitute – it was really a genuine afternoon-tea.
Now I will wash up the Dresden china, which Fraulein Ludicke lent me for my tea.
15.9.18
My dear Emmie,
I had a letter from you yesterday – I was so very glad to get it. I begin to have very great hopes that by the time Christian [her third nephew] is in training next year, there may be no need of him. If all goes on well in the West, and the American advance on the St. Mihiel bend is a great step, it looks as if we might see the end by next year. One is almost afraid to write down such hopes – one has been deceived so often, but you know I write all this more for myself and to keep myself cheerful than for anyone else.
Most people complain of being under-nourished….You see we have neither meat, fat, milk, oil nor fruit. Breakfast consists of ¼ lb of black bread. Dinner and supper are just alike – a plate of thick barley soup, then potatoes and whatever vegetable is in season, and the other ¼ lb of bread daily is for the afternoon. It is deadly monotonous, but I can’t say that I feel under-fed – I am certainly always hungry, but I have never felt better or fitter in my life, and I can’t understand why so few people seem able to adapt themselves to the same regime.
I have just sent in another application to leave, so the waiting for an answer begins again!
22.9.18
My dear Emmie,
I must write quickly and then get to bed, for I seem to be living in a lunatic asylum, and that is tiring.
On Friday evening came a line from Herr Jaeger – ‘Come at once to Connie.’ I fled there, and found that the poor dear had tried to take her life by inhaling the gas-jet! Fortunately nobody was in the house but Herr Jaeger – we got her into bed, got Dr. Knopf and a nurse, and by now she is alright physically, but her mind is a blank….
Nobody knows the facts – we simply say it is a bad nervous breakdown and that is the truth.
29.9.18
My dear Emmie,
What a week! The steady pressure and the retreat of the German line in the West – our rush forward in Palestine, the successes in Macedonia, a Reichskanzler crisis, and today the Bulgarian break-down and overtures for peace! If I have not lost my head and my judgement entirely, it is the beginning of the end – Turkey must topple down next, if Austria does not decide to do it before her – it can only be a question of weeks, and then Germany’s position is desperate beyond words.
I think that in my flurry about Connie I forgot to tell you that I put in another application to leave – tomorrow I shall advertise my furniture and sell it. I want if possible to have at least £100, so that my hands are free when peace comes.
