June 16 1943
DEAR MOTHER

I have decided to devote some time tonight to writing you a letter like every mother wants her son to write. I am at present sitting on a promenade which extends along the front of Three Rivers, where all the fellows come in get pick-ups. there are a few freighters, ocean-going, tied to the docks, loading with birch logs which I presume will be used to make cordite—a powerful explosive. All the freighters are heavily armed .

Three Rivers is an industrial town with the world’s largest pulp and paper plant, a cotton mill and iron works. There are all kinds of monasteries and churches, and no public library. At Cap de la Madeleine 5 miles away, on the edge of town there are the most horrible habitations that I have ever seen with about 20 kids in a room. The kids in a family don’t appear to have one year’s difference between them.

Well you may now announce to the Mt. Dennis News Weekly that Candidate R. Dowson has passed Army examiner’s, the amateur psychologists, the Army board, the Dental Corps and is now a Cadet. What can one think of the Army examiners—the psychologist when they pass me—eh! I am to remain in Three Rivers for Officers Training . at last we have a success in the family. My pay from now on is $3 a day—I have become a war profiteer.

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