Cooper, Ethel – December 1914
6.12.14
My dear Emmie,
Another week has dragged by, and still we don’t know if we have to go or stay… I can’t tell you how sick we are of this waiting, nothing seems worthwhile, and one can’t make plans for 12 hours ahead. It isn’t worth while buying a pound of butter when you may not have time to eat it, and I ran out of coffee two day ago and since then have been drinking cocoa, which I detest.
… On Thursday I helped a Mrs Faraday to pack and leave and today, Miss Williams. We can’t go to Halle or Weimar, or any place outside the district of the 19th Army Corps… Most of them are going to Chemnitz, as it is the biggest , and has at least a library and a theatre, but it sounds to me deadly…
13.12.14
My dear Emmie,
Still no news, but everyone else has to go – everyone English, I mean, so there is no likelihood of my staying. Miss Barron and Miss Feez had their orders yesterday, and are also going to Chemnitz – there will be quite a little colony of us there…
Little Hilda and her husband have just been here – I was so pleased. They got permission two days ago from the military authorities for an emergency wedding and were married at the registry office yesterday… As a soldier’s wife with a child, she gets £2 a month pension… so at least she can pay her rent and has a shilling a day nearly to live on… The man leaves for the front next week.
Everyone is called out now – every male being between 18 and 45, and many older men, if they have served before. Many of them are being put to railway service if they are not fit for the field, or used as postmen, guards for bridges and railways and depots, and military clerical work…
It is nearly Christmas, but even here it will be very little kept this year – nobody has any heart for it.
… We went and saw Cheops yesterday – he was in a different pond with very big crocodiles – I fear he will get too advanced for his years –
20.12.14
My dear Emmie,
The unbelievable has happened – I have had notice to stay here – how it happened, I don’t know – there are only two other English people left here at all – old Mrs McLean who is too ill to go, and her daughter. Everyone else, people who have lived here for 22 years, people who have businesses here – all are gone, and somehow or other I am left. I have a form, a sort of pass with my photograph on it, to say that my presence in Leipzig is agreeable to the military authorities! and that I only need to report myself twice a week… You can’t think what a relief it was to lie in bed this morning, and then to have a bath and breakfast, instead of scuttling down to that beastly police court after breakfast…
We have brought Cheops home in triumph, after nearly five weeks in the zoo – but he knew us quite well, and has settled into his corner by the fire as if he had been born there. It is very cold though, and this is his lethargic time of year, so he doesn’t run about much, except in the bath…
28.12.14
My dear Emmie,
Christmas is over – very different to last year’s… there is absolutely no sort of festivity anywhere this year…
Miss Barron and Miss Feez write very downheartedly from Chemnitz, where their luggage has all been confiscated till it can be examined. And they can’t find suitable rooms…
