The books-for-the-troops scheme Ralph Glyn had sponsored was going very well, and there was plenty of money in hand.
55 West Regent Street
Glasgow
24 Feby 1916
Dear Captain Glyn
I am so very glad to have your letter & to note your cheerfulness as to our only interest, the war. I share it, though with me it is more a matter of faith than of information. As it happens, I got your note the morning of a meeting of the ‘Unionist Council’. It was of course purely formal, everyone being re-elected to everything for another year. That having been done, Donald McKay demanded ‘Does anyone know anything about Mr Glyn?’ So McDonald who in the Colonel’s absence was in the chair asked me to read your letter, which I did & I was asked to send you the good wishes of the Company & their hopes for your continued good luck & success.
In regard to the books &c we are continuing to send them, tho’ of course they go now to Salonica or Egypt – I have a young cousin in the A&SH [Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders] who is at Salonica now & writes that it is a splendid place & that he is having a ‘rest cure’ there. Probably the rest won’t last very long.
Down to this time we have despatched rather more than 50 bales of about 50 lbs each. An appeal was made for money at the same time as that for the books &c. Dugald Clark who acts as Treasurer is worried about this. He has between £50 and £60 on hand. The expense of sending the bales to the QAFFF is trifling. We would like to know whether you have any ideas as to how the balance should be expended. We are of course not getting in any more money & we are always spending something; but it would require a very long time – much longer than I think the war will last – to exhaust the money. If you can spare time for a few lines, I shall be glad to know what you think about this. The people who gave the money will imagine it is already spent & won’t of course want any of it back; but it should I think be spent on some purpose connected with the war.
Yours very truly
G A D Kirkland
Letter to Ralph Glyn (D/EGL/C32/10)