I have just seen in the _Times_ that Charles Lister died of his
wounds. It really is heart-breaking. All the men one had so fondly
hoped would make the world a little better to live in seem to be taken
away. And Charles was a spirit which no country can afford to lose. I
feel so sorry for you too: he must have been very dear to you
personally. How the world will hate war when it can pause to think
about it.
I had quite a cheerful letter from Foss this mail. I wonder he wasn't
more damaged, as the bullet seems to have passed through some very
important parts of him. I am rather dreading the lists which are
bound to follow on our much-vaunted advance of three weeks ago. As for
the Dardanelles, it is an awful tragedy. And now with Bulgaria against
us and Greece obstructed by her King, success is farther off than
ever.
No, Luly is not with me: I was the only officer with the draft. As for
impressions of our surroundings they are definite but not always
communicable.
If this neighbourhood could certainly be identified with Eden, one
could supply an entirely new theory of the Fall of Adam. Here at
Amarah we are 200 miles by river from the sea and 28ft. above sea
level. Within reach of the water anything will grow: but as the Turks
levied a tax on trees the date is the only one which has survived.
There are little patches of corn and fodder-stuff along the banks, and
a few vegetable gardens round the town. Otherwise the whole place is a
desert and as flat as this paper: except that we can see the bare
brown Persian mountains about forty miles off to the N.N.E.
The desert grows little tufts of prickly scrub here and there,
otherwise it is like a brick floor. In the spring it is flooded, and
as the flood recedes the mud cakes into a hard crust on which a
horse's hoof makes no impression; but naturally the surface is very
rough in detail, like a muddy lane after a frost. So it is vile for
either walking or riding.
The atmosphere can find no mean between absolute stillness--which till
lately meant stifling heat--and violent commotion in the form of N.W.
gales which blow periodically, fogging the air with dust and making
life almost intolerable while they last. These gales have ceased to be
baking hot, and in another month or two they will be piercingly cold.
The inhabitants are divided into Bedouins and town-Arabs. The former
are nomadic and naked, and live in hut-tents of reed matting. The
latter are just like the illustrations in family Bibles.
What I _should_ be grateful for in the way of literature is if you
could find a portable and readable book on the history of these parts.
I know it's rather extensive, but if there are any such books on the
more interesting periods you might tell Blackwell to send them to me:
I've got an account there. My Gibbon sketches the doings of the first
four Caliphs: but what I should like most would be the subsequent
history, the Baghdad Caliphs, Tartar Invasion, Turkish Conquest, etc.
For the earlier epochs something not too erudite and very popular
would be most suitable. Mark Sykes tells me he is about to publish a
Little Absul's History of Islam, but as he is still diplomatising out
here I doubt if it will be ready for press soon.
As for this campaign, you will probably know more about the Kut battle
than I do. Anyway the facts were briefly these. The Turks had a very
strongly entrenched position at Kut, with 15,000 men and 35 guns. We
feinted at their right and then outflanked their left by a night march
of twelve miles. (Two brigades did this, while one brigade held them
in front.) Then followed a day's hard fighting as the out-flankers had
to storm three redoubts successfully before they could properly
enfilade the position. Just as they had done it the whole Turkish
reserve turned up on their right and they had to turn on it and defeat
it, which they did. But by that time it was dark, the troops were
absolutely exhausted and had finished all their water. Nobody could
tell how far the river was, so the only thing to do was to bivouac and
wait for daylight. In the night the Turks cleared out and got away. If
we could have pressed on and seized their bridge, we should have
almost wiped them out: but it was really wonderful we did as much as
we did under the circumstances. Our casualties were 1243, but only 85
killed. The Turkish losses are not known: we captured about 1400 and
12 of the guns: we buried over 400, but don't know how many the local
Arabs buried. Our pursuit was delayed by the mud-banks on the river,
and the enemy was able to get clear and reform in their next position,
about ninety miles further north. We are now concentrating against
them and it is authoritatively reported that large reinforcements have
been sent from India. This means they intend going for Baghdad. It
seems to me rash: but I suppose there is great need to assert our
prestige with the Moslem world, even at the expense of our popularity:
for B. is a fearfully sacred place.
I should also like from Blackwell's a good and up-to-date map of these
parts, _i.e._ from the Troad to the Persian Gulf.
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