Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"Here I will wish you a happy new Year, full of keen experiences, and quietly joyful times of fallowness.May the War end soon, and let us dream again, but nobly and to active ends. May England grow dearer, sweeter in herself (for we deserve better weather and more amiable smiles) and in our memories. And may the President of the Women Musicians be preserved to sanity."
Ivor Gurney, English poet and composer, writing to the composer Marion Margaret Scott, President of the Society of Women Musicians from 1915 to 1916, on January 1, 1916. Gurney was a private in the Gloucestershire Regiment. His letters to Scott in previous months wish her improved health, and refer to overwork and 'weak nerves.'
War Letters, Ivor Gurney, a selection edited by R.K.R. Thornton by Ivor Gurney, page 54, copyright © J. R. Haines, the Trustee of the Ivor Gurney Estate 1983, publisher: The Hogarth Press, publication date: 1984
1916-01-01, 1916, January, Gurney, Ivor Gurney, New Year, Happy New Year
