“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.... “Robinson lent me a very good book the other day, ‘In Mesopotamia,’ by Martin Swayne. “We are giving a concert to-night, and each mess has got at least three guests. “In a week’s time the Division is holding a race-meeting. I am not riding, as I have had no time to train my horses.... “A week after our meeting there’s to be a huge regatta at Baghdad, and then I suppose war, at least I certainly hope not before then.” _September 4._--“Many thanks for your letter, dated July 8th, which arrived a week ago. We won’t get another mail for another week, when we expect the Colonel, who arrived Basra on the 1st. “Hurrah, it’s getting cooler. However, when it gets cool we’ll move, and I don’t know which is preferable--heat and peace, or pleasant climate and fighting: I wouldn’t vote for either. “I got back just in time for the Cavalry Division Race Meeting, but not early enough to train ‘Matches’ for the Lajj Cup. The meeting was a great success. The Regiment did awfully well--won three events out of six. Ormrod won the big event, Baghdad Cup given by Maude; Hartigan won the Kut Cup, and was second in the Lajj Cup; and Peat, who is now my servant and was Eve’s, won the Br. Ranks open, a very fine performance, as there were forty-two starters, and it was a flat six furlongs. Our Brigade showed its superiority by winning every event.