I hope the bitterns will stay where they are. The snipe are less
interesting: they move about all over the place, wherever they can
pick up most food. These people put the size of the flock of teal at a
hundred and fifty and the mallards at five hundred, but you should, I
think, multiply the first by a hundred and the second only by ten.

I got Mamma's letter via the India Office just after we got here. I
quite agree with her view of war, though I must admit the officers of
1/4 Hants seem to me improved by it. While sitting on that court
martial at Agra I expressed my view in a sonnet which I append, for
you to show to Mamma:

How long, O Lord, how long, before the flood
Of crimson-welling carnage shall abate?
From sodden plains in West and East the blood
Of kindly men streams up in mists of hate
Polluting Thy clear air: and nations great
In reputation of the arts that bind
The world with hopes of Heaven, sink to the state
Of brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind
Gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind,
Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long
Shall Satan in high places lead the blind
To battle for the passions of the strong?
Oh, touch thy children's hearts, that they may know
Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest foe.

I must stop now, as a mail is going out and one never knows when the
next will be.