Baghdad May 12. Dearest Father. Your letter of April 28, written on the eve of the strike, reached me by last mail; I wonder whether letters will have got through in the first week and fear that the next letter may be delayed. We have no news but Reuter and you may imagine how eagerly we await it. Indeed anxiety is never out of my head; there has been word of disturbances at Middlesbrough and today there are railway accidents which, I suppose, are bound to occur. But these things don't make one feel easier. As far as I can see, matters look better, not in the direction of peace - there's no hope of that yet - but of successful resistance. Sir John Simon's utterance was very remarkable. But if the strike is prolonged - and it is impossible to judge from here how long it may last - it seems inevitable that bitterness must increase; that is what is so alarming.
You ask about my plans for the summer. This doesn't seem to be the moment to make any plans which involve expenditure, for I don't know whether I shall have an income or whether any of us will. My duty to the museum is of the first importance. I can't go away and leave all those valuable things half transferred and the work goes very slowly. It will take months and months, I think. I have made a little headway this week. The alterations in the building itself are finished and a few simple fittings in one of the lower rooms were ready so on Sunday morning I called on Squadron Leader Harnett to help and we placed all the big gate sockets (dull things but valuable) on the bench along the wall that had been made for them, or rather we superintended the placing of them by porters. In the middle of the wall I had had a solid cement pedestal set up and onto this we hauled (I didn't!) a great roughly blocked out Babylonian statue. When we had done, we were quite pleased with the look of it, but we have not got any further for we are waiting for a wooden pedestal for a statue which is to stand in the middle of the room and some shallow boxes in which to set some broken bits of relief in cement. In one corner I am going to reconstruct the tomb of a deified king of Ur which was found this year and as that is about all the room will hold for the present, I mean, I have nothing more for that room, it ought not to take very long to get it finished. It will look, no doubt, rather home made, but even now it is beginning to look like a museum. When it is ready, I want quickly to make a catalogue of it - no great task - and then get the King to open it so as to show people that we are doing something.

On Sunday I went straight on from the museum to lunch with Col. Tainsh who is to make my fittings in his railway workshops. There had been a good deal of misunderstanding about the drawings for the cupboards etc. and we put it straight. But what makes things slow is that it is so difficult to get materials exactly as you want them - the right size of plate glass for instance.

Baghdad society has concentrated on a polo tournament. I went to see the last two games, once with Sir Henry and once with Bernard and Ken. The first time the King and ex-King 'Ali were there. 'Ali, I think, feels that he is seeing life. Even Baghdad is Life compared with being besieged in Jeddah [Jiddah (Jedda)] or even with living at Madinah [Al Madinah (Medina)]. He is a very gentle, lovable, ineffective little man. I hope he is happy.

Darling, I write about all these silly little things but all the time I am wondering how you are faring and hoping you're not having a very horrible time. Now I have Nuri Pasha with his wife and Iltyd to dine and play bridge. Mme Nuri is diligently learning and very much pleased at being asked to a bridge party. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude