14.

May 18, 1937

Dearest love,

It's just after a very foggy midnight and the stillness of 
the barracks is disturbed only by the mixed snores of a 
hundred men, and I have been thinking of you so much 
these days that I must write before retiring.

Our Commission today examined each prospective stu-
dent separately. We are rejecting three and the remainder 
are a fine lot; more or less the cream of the Anglo-American 
volunteers (excepting that part of the cream which is dead, 
in hospitals or completely indispensable in the front lines). 
The course is an intensive one---it requires about fourteen 
hours work per day for four weeks and means real work. 
But it is tremendously interesting and valuable.

There is a young miner here who came all the way from 
Australia to get into the fight. There's another chap who 
was at the front for six months, at Madrid, University City, 
Cordova and Jarama; had his whole outfit wiped out and 
was never hit---but who finally made the hospital and nearly 
died as a result of a truck crash while on a two-day leave.

Your letters are a major help. Each time up in the lines 
that I see a fascist, I am sure that I'll be more effective if I 
say to myself: "That bastard is trying to keep you away from 
Kitty." So I'll say it and do my job right.

Joe

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