country is, you can’t depend on the district for any supplies like you can in France; after we’ve had nothing but a couple of biscuits and one 12-oz. tin of bully from day to day for several days, when we get out of touch with the ration stands, that just seems to be the time when one could do with about four good sit-down knife-and-fork square meals per diem. When it’s like that I go up two extra holes in my belt and try not to think of steak and chips or anything in that line. Never mind, I will make it all up when and if I get home. Roll on that time too. Have just received a letter from Fannie, and she says people at home say, ‘Oh, he’s safe in Mesopotoom,’ but by the H.P. I never felt unsafer in France, Somme or no Somme. You may think that it’s generally understood that the last round is for yourself, before being taken alive by Arabs, although the Turks seem to fight very fair, and there are no tanks to walk behind and no trenches to bob down in.” _Lieutenant Chrystall--January 20._--“To-day we were within one and a half miles of Kut. ‘So near and yet so far,’ and we hear to-day some trenches have been taken, so things are looking up a bit. To-day we got a splendid ration of beef, a sirloin, probably the first one ever seen in Mesopotamia.... One has to be very drastic with these people, the women being just as bad as the men. If you do not take strong steps they will shoot you in the back, even if they have shown the white flag, which they usually do when we are advancing, but when retiring they shoot at you.” _Captain Eve--January 20._--“When we approached our objective, the big native town [Hai Town], they came out with a white flag and pretended to be friendly, and we treated them as such, and _bought_ supplies and things from them, and of course they made a fortune out of us.... Then Sunday, the 14th, we started back. As soon as we had left, our rearguard was heavily attacked (native regiments), and we had some casualties, and were very much delayed, and the Regiment sent to their support, but had very little to do.” _January 26._--“I wish I could tell you _really_ all about things out here, but it is quite impossible. Only I do wish now above all else that I could have gone to Infantry or gunners. I have slowly but surely come to the conviction that we are years out of date, and entirely or almost entirely useless, and will never take a real part again.”