Allason had been one of my Brigade commanders in the Peshawar Division, and it was a great joy getting so fine a unit with us. This Division was transferred to the Fifth Army Corps on the 31st May, but once more rejoined us in June and remained as one of my Divisions till 24th July. Changes of Divisions were of course inevitable, but it was always a blow when just as we were getting to know them they were taken away. In the same way the Eighth Division, which had fought so fiercely on our immediate left at Neuve Chapelle, joined the Corps on 1st June, and was again transferred, this time to the Third Corps, on the 26th. Major-General F. Davies was in command, and I was extremely sorry when he was transferred to Gallipoli, where, however, he got his chance and took it, as I knew he would do. Likewise the 49th West Riding Division (New Army) joined us on 31st May and left us again on 26th June. The last Division to join the Corps was the Nineteenth (New Army), commanded by Major-General Fasken of the Indian Army. They arrived on the 24th July—strength, 13,400 bayonets, with their war proportion of officers, sabres, and guns. How Great Britain was awaking to realities! The Infantry of the entire Indian Army Corps in November 1914 did not number more than this one Division; and as for the equipment it was an education to look on it. The Nineteenth stayed on with the Corps and took part in the battle near Mauquissart in September 1915. Amongst many notes and stories sent to me I extract a few giving some experiences of officers of the Indian Army. On one occasion a medical officer was extracting a tooth when a small mine exploded under the trench. He and his patient were both blown sky-high, and on his again alighting on mother earth he was so dazed that, holding his forceps, he ran round in circles and finally into a brother officer’s dug-out. With the greatest indignation he demanded: “What do you call this? War?” “No,” replied the officer, “a joke.”—Laughter. An officer, who had a great friend in a Gurkha regiment, could get no news of him. One day, whilst kicking a football it went over a low wall; he jumped over to fetch it and landed on a grave, the cross on which showed it was that of his friend. During my year in France I nearly always found that the French people were not only willing, but glad, to have officers of the Indian Army billeted on them. One Vicomte ——, who was at first quite annoyed when he was told that British officers of an Indian unit were to be quartered in his château, could not do enough for them after a few days’ stay. With true French politeness he followed the fortunes of the unit after they had left, and frequently sent his card up to the trenches with enquiries as to their welfare. Later on he sent a formal request that all British officers who came to that neighbourhood might be sent to him.