Cooper, Ethel – March 1916
5.3.16
My dear Emmie,
The principal things we talk about this week are the 4th War Loan and the new taxes. The War Loan is unpopular – there is no doubt about that. And the new taxes make one wonder how it will be possible for anybody to live in Germany by the end of the year…
Sugar has got very scarce – as each thing disappears we say ‘Now that is serious’ but somehow we get along alright in spite of it… Anyway, the fact remains that I was in 9 grocers shows yesterday before I could scrape together 1/8lb of butter, 1 lb of sugar and 3 eggs! The time one spends in collecting one’s daily bread now is appalling…
12.3.16
My dear Emmie,
The first sheet of this letter is missing – I tore it up long after – because of a scare I had through a police-raid, and as it would have compromised several other people. It told you the details of the new cyanide gas bombs, I heard from an Englishwoman who has been lady-in-waiting for 36 years to the Princess Schonberg-Waldenburg. The Prince had seen the bombs tested…
You can imagine how desperate we were, for we knew no possible way of getting the information out before they were used… [page missing]…
19.3.16
My dear Emmie,
I wish I could spare some of the cards I have in my bag to send and show you – but they are so precious, and each one means a week’s butter, or sugar or bread, of potatoes… To me the food question can be a joke – I flourish on bread and potatoes, with either and egg or a scrap of sausage, but to the poor and to the housekeeper, it is a tragedy.