GAULLE Charles de. L. A. S., [Rosenberg-Kronach] 8 September 1917, to his mother Jeanne de Gaulle in Paris; 6 pages in-8 with camp censor stamp, envelope with postmarks. Letter from the prisoner commenting on the evolution of the French command. His "dearest Mama" is "now alone with Papa, since Pierre has had to leave you. He had never left his father's house before, and the first time he does so is to fulfil the greatest and hardest of duties. So my thoughts these days are perhaps more with you and Papa than with our dear Pierre. At least he has the satisfaction of a generous desire finally fulfilled and soon the continuous and absorbing reality of action to support him. [...] I still receive your letters fairly regularly, my dearest Mama, which are for me the only external comfort I receive, the only way I have left of communicating - and still in what an incomplete way - with French thought". He informs us that "for nearly a month now, the parcels have hardly arrived at all, and we don't know exactly what to attribute these delays to. In fact, I feel obliged to ask you, my dearest Mama, to suspend once again the dispatch of Bread from Switzerland. Sometimes for one reason, sometimes for another, it always arrives completely spoilt and inedible"... This is followed by an interesting comment on command: "With my mania for generalising, I'm even more convinced that we have finally adopted an economical regime and method. We are now rid of the reign of the École polytechnique, one of the fatal influences on the minds of those it trained was to give them a taste only for a priori judgements, and to make them believe in the absolute value of men and means. You may rest assured, as I am, that we will find this change most welcome"... He added: "I see winter coming without alarm, although in my situation its sorrows are more poignant than in any other, but alas! I know that materially I will hardly have to suffer from it, and that redoubles my grief. Vigny advises us to be energetic in our heavy and hard work, but I don't even have to move a burden. It is true that all this is of no general importance and that 'the whole' is the only question that should count"... LNC, I, p. 333-334. An L. A. S. from Jeanne de Gaulle to her son Charles, dated 4 September 1917 (4 p. in- 8, envelope), in which she talks about the departure of all her children, which leaves her alone, and worries about whether her son has received his parcels: "I'm afraid not, according to what the newspapers say"; she continues: "Of all my children, you are the one who has the greatest place in my thoughts and prayers, because you are suffering so much more".