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Oct 1944
Dear Friend
When the folks at home ask us to choose and send you something special on their behalf, they confront us with a not too easy problem. The “War-time log” is one solution – others may be coming your way before long.
These blank pages offer many possibilities. Not everyone will want to keep a diary or even a journal – occasional notes on the story of his war time experiences. If you are a writer, here is space for a short story. If you are an artist (some people are) you may want to cover these pages with sketches of your camp, caricatures of its important personalities, whether residents or authorities. If you are a poet, major or minor, confide your lyrics to these pages. If you feel the circumstances cramp your style in correspondence you might write here letters unmailable now, but safely kept to be carried with you on your return. This book might serve to list the most striking concoctions of the camp kitchen, the records of a camp Olympic, or a selection of the best jokes cracked in camp. One man has suggested using the autograph of one of his companions (plus his fingerprints?) to head each page, followed by free and frank remarks about the man himself. The written text might be a commentary on such photographs as you may have to mount on the special pages for that purpose. The mounting corners are in an envelope in the pocket of the back cover. Incidentally, this pocket might be used for clippings you want to preserve, or, together with the small envelopes on the last page, to contain authentic souvenirs of life in camp.
You might want to do something altogether different with this book. Whatever you do, let it be a visible link between yourself and folks at home, one more reminder that their thoughts are with you constantly. If it brings you this assurance, the Log will have served its purpose.
Yours very sincerely
War Prisoners’ Aid of the YMCA
