Arrived at Bombay, the Regiment was informed that it was definitely for Mesopotamia, and the news was received with the greatest pleasure, as doubtful rumours had been in circulation. They had, in fact, been better founded than most rumours, for shortly before the arrival of the Thirteenth, it had been decided that the Brigade was not to leave the country again. The Thirteenth were to return to Meerut, and the Seventh Hussars were to take their place with the Mesopotamia force. Why this decision was altered does not appear, but report said that the Seventh were wanted on the North-West Frontier, where trouble was brewing, and the Thirteenth were taken for Mesopotamia after all. Nevertheless, the old Meerut Brigade was broken up, the 3rd Skinner’s Horse and 30th Cavalry being retained in India, to their intense disappointment. The 3rd and the Thirteenth Hussars had lain alongside one another for five years, and it was with special regret that they said good-bye to each other. The place of the two native regiments was taken by the 13th and 14th Indian Lancers. The Meerut Brigade now became the 7th Cavalry Brigade of the Mesopotamia Field Force. It retained with it V Battery of Horse Artillery, which had suffered so severely in France. Meanwhile the Regiment had lost the services of some officers from illness. Second-Lieutenant Guy Pedder writes on the 4th of July, evidently from the Suez Canal, though after the manner of the time his letter is dated only “on ship going out”:-- “Four officers have fallen out now--Covell in France, Kennedy at Marseilles, Munster at Port Said, and Wingfield at the next stop.... I wonder where we will get our first letters, &c.; it will be rather interesting. We travel very slowly along here, and stop at each lake as far as I can make out! There are no more submarine guards to be done, thank goodness. I was on eight hours each day, four by day and four by night. Saw a paper yesterday which said we had got the first-line trenches over sixteen mile frontage--wonder if the push is going on as well as was expected.” _July 14._--“I expect the first news you will have got of me will be the cable I sent from Port Said; we haven’t put into harbour since then, but were able to drop some letters to a small boat just opposite Suez, but I don’t know whether you will get that letter. We hope to reach Bombay to-morrow; if so, this letter will just catch the mail, and I will cable to you to-morrow. “Of course we got out of the danger zone when we got to Port Said. It was very hot, but very interesting in the Canal. Then followed the Gulf, which was calm and dull for four days. Then we got into the Sea, and the so-called terrible monsoon; but it wasn’t a bit terrible, although the ship rolled like anything for four days; lots of fellows were sick, and felt very bad, but I was as fit as anything all the time, and smoked cigars and pipes, &c. [Illustration: THE “ISLANDA”]