Paul writes that he has been placed in the signal corps because of his background in engineering. He is glad that he is useful and gives him the morale boost he was looking for. His battalion has just been named: the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, consisting mainly of Canadians. Both Mackenzie and Papineau are fathers of Canadian democracy. Paul thinks that having a battalion named after two Canadian statesmen will help Spain's campaigns in Canada. Now that Paul has had some time in the International Brigade he can make first-hand comparisons of the IB army versus bourgeois armies. He is also surprised by the competition between workers in socialist countries, even compared to capitalist countries. He encloses a picture he took with some friends in Valencia (not included).