CHALDARI CAMP. 1917
“Those at the top, responsible for running the show, have run it very well indeed.
“I have not had any letters from any of you for weeks, but expect letters will turn up eventually; the advance was so rapid that they are bound to have gone wrong.”
2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder—June 7.—“Just been told I may go on the next leave to India; if so, I shall sail from Basra on the 18th, and will probably go up to Mussoori or some hill station....
“Our routine at present is: 5.30-7, training remounts; 7-8, stables, and nothing else all day but lie in a tent and get bored, so I shall be very pleased to get away. It’s not really hot yet, but quite hot enough to stay in a tent all day. Absolutely no news.... Well, cheerio, Guy. No letter from you for three weeks.”
2nd Lieutenant Pedder had returned shortly before from hospital, on recovery from his wound received at Lajj.
2nd Lieutenant F. N. Payne—July.—“The Cavalry have a splendid camp all along the river. They have an ice-barge, cinema, ice-cream shop with many coloured drinks, polo, bathing, and fishing, so that it is ten per cent cooler than in Baghdad. They can dress as they please, and are pretty comfortable.
“Most of the officers have had mud walls built round their roomy tents.”
A pleasant picture, and a contrast to the earlier phases of the Mesopotamian War, when our ill-equipped and out-numbered troops were struggling with all the initial difficulties and hardships, or vainly throwing away their lives in desperate assaults on the Turkish trenches to relieve Kut.
2nd Lieutenant Pedder—August 28.—“Here I am back again and very fit. Most of the people here are very fed up. They had one very hot spell, otherwise the heat hasn’t been too bad, and they have got plenty of ice and soda, &c. It is still pretty warm, but much pleasanter than Basra or being on the river coming up....