The other men were all pretty tired out and I think it does credit to their constitutions they stood it so well.

I, having my private spine-pad and glasses, was comparatively comfortable, also I had had breakfast and didn’t have to shift kits or even my own luggage.  I don’t dislike even extreme heat nearly as much as quite moderate cold.

I gather it doesn’t get so cold here as I thought. 37 deg. is the lowest temperature I’ve heard vouched for.

I haven’t time nowadays to write many letters, so I’m afraid you must ask kind aunts, etc., to be content with parts of this; I hope they’ll go on writing to me though.

* * * * *

“P.S.S.  KARA DEUIZ,”
BASRA,

To N.B.
August 29, 1915.

I hope you will be indulgent if I write less regularly now:  and by indulgent I mean that you will go on writing to me, as I do enjoy your letters so much.  I expect I shall have slack times when there will be plenty of leisure to write:  but at others we are likely to be busy, and you never can be sure of having the necessary facilities.  And personally I find my epistolary faculties collapse at about 100 deg. in the shade.  I wrote quite happily this morning till it got hot; and only now (4.45) have I found it possible to resume.  We get it 102 to 104 deg. every day from about noon to four, and it oppresses one much more than at Agra as there is no escaping from it and flies are plentiful:  but about now a nice breeze springs up, and the evenings are fairly pleasant.  I thought we were leaving for Amarah to-day, so I told Mama my letter to her would have to do all-round duty, which is mean, I admit, but I had no day off till to-day.

Not that I’ve been really busy, but I’ve been out a lot, partly getting things and partly seeing the place.

I’ve just heard I must go ashore with another sick man immediately 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.