What Soldiers Want

This is Lieutenant Jack Scott with the First Canadian Army in Belgium. I got a letter from my mother out in Vancouver today, and she's kind of worried about something. Seems that the deadline for mailing Christmas presents to the troops over here is getting close, and she's pretty much in a fog about what kind of a gift will be suitable for a son who's in France or Belgium, or maybe in Holland.

There are probably a lot of mothers and wives who are in the same boat, so I've got three fellas here at the microphone, our own particular brain trust, to find out what the troops really want. From left to right here they are.

Well I'm Corporal Bob Christie from Toronto. Corporal Jack Monroe here, my announced Montreal. Right. And I'm Lance Corporal Waterhall of Boonville, Ontario. Right, well how about this Bob? Well frankly I hadn't given Christmas much thought, except kind of figuring the war might be over by then.

But you're right, Jack. We're in a different boat this year than last, and I guess it's going to be tougher for our people at home to know what to send. That's right. I'll tell you one thing, though, that's a sure bet.

Well, what's that, Jack? Practically anything to eat that you can't get to eat over here. Such as well canned fruit juices or tomato juice, biscuits, coffee, homemade candies, nuts, fruitcake, almost any kind of canned stuff.

Except, Billy B, sure. Things like canned shrimps and lobster, even canned soup, now that the weather's got turning cold. I think the thing to say is to send the guy the particular food he used to go for when he was home It's gonna be kind of hard to send over strawberry shirt cake