after evening service (the Bishop of Lahore is coming on board), so I
shall have to cut this measly screed very short. We load kits on our
river-boat at 7 a.m. to-morrow and start sometime afterwards for
Amarah. My letter to Mama will give you such news as there is. Since
writing it I've seen Basra city, which is disappointing, less
picturesque than Ashar: also the Base Hospital, which strikes me very
favourably, the first military hospital that has: Dum Dum wasn't bad.

We have a lot of Turkish prisoners on board here, and the Government
is trying the experiment of letting them out on parole and paying them
Rs 10/- a week so long as they report themselves. It is a question
whether the result will be to cause the whole Turkish army to
surrender, or whether their desire to prolong the war will make the
released ones keep their parole a secret. I daresay it will end in a
compromise, half the army to surrender and the other half to receive
Rs 5/- a week from the surrendered ones to fight on to the bitter end.

I must go and dress for Church parade.

* * * * *


To P.C., _September, 1915._

"I believe that if I could choose a day of heavy fighting of any kind
I liked for my draft, I should choose to spend a day in trenches,
under heavy fire without being able to return it. The fine things of
war spring from your chance of being killed: the ugly things from your
chance of killing."