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This Etext was produced by Eve Sobol, South Bend, Indiana, USA





AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT: A TRUE-TO-LIFE FARCE

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW




I wish to express my gratitude for certain good offices which
Augustus secured for me in January,1917. I had been invited to
visit the theatre of war in Flanders by the Commander-in-Chief:
an invitation which was, under the circumstances, a summons to
duty. Thus I had occasion to spend some days in procuring
the necessary passport and other official facilities for
my journey. It happened just then that the Stage Society gave a
performance of this little play. It opened the heart of every
official to me. I have always been treated with distinguished
consideration in my contracts with bureaucracy during the war;
but on this occasion I found myself persona grata in the highest