gb0551ms-33-19

Transcription

[Page] 19
[continued from page 18]

taken almost a full year to accomplish.
The card catalogue of the contents of the
Museum has been commenced,
Excavation on Traprain was started towards
the end of April and though we have found
a number of interesting things the results so
far are not so remarkable as last year.
I am a special constable for the period of
the war. At first our duties were nominal,
but now that 200 out of the 600 men who
constitute the police force have enlisted, we
are given more serious employment. On the
occasion of military parades or processions
we are called out to the line the streets. Every
third Sunday also we are told off to take a
policeman's beat for four hours. Hitherto I
have always been called out for an evening
eat, and my last beat, which I understand
will be my regular one lies round about
the Dean Bridge and out to the Ravelstone Park
A pleasant, respectable neighbourhood. My
hours have been 6.0 to 10.0 and as I
have to report myself on going on and
coming off at the office at Torpichen St.
I may add another ¾ hour to my attendance.
When my task is accomplished, I own to

feeling very tired.

3rd. Aug 1915
It will be a year tomorrow since this cruel
war began and the end still seems far off.
The Germans still occupy a large part of France,
almost the whole of Belgium, much of Poland
and in the last country they have been forcing
the Russians to retreat for many weeks so
that now at any moment we may hear that
Warsaw has been abandoned. The cost in fine
young lives has been dreadful, and yet the
worst of the slaughter is probably to come.
As for the expense, Millions, some three a day,
are being poured out of this country alone!
Today I was told that the War Office now es:
:timate the duration as at three years more!
Who will be left to fight by the end of that time,
and who will have the money to pay the piper?
One's usual occupations seem so trivial now
in the light of such happenings. No one
an care for the Museums or Archaeology. All
my attendants have now gone, and to save
as much as possible I have offered to carry
on till the end of the war alone with the help
of Miss Dennison, the Society's typist. George
Archibald the library attendant, whom we
all regarded as a nimcumpoop called on
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