Eregli [(Cybistra Heraclea)]. June 27 My dearest Mother. I got a whole sheaf of letters here today, the last dated June 17 from you so I feel quite close. I telegraphed from Kaisarieh [Kayseri (Caesarea Mazaca)] telling them to send my letters here. I can't telegraph to you yet because from here I can only telegraph in Turkish which wd not be much good to you - here are my plans: I go tomorrow by train to Karaman [(Laranda)] and next day to the Kara Dagh [Kara Dag] where I have a couple of days' work to do. I shall go to Konia [Konya (Iconium)] I hope on July 2 and thence will telegraph to you. As the Doughtys are still at Adana [Seyhan, Ataniya)], I shall only stay in Konia to pack and on July 4 I shall leave for C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)], arriving there July 5. I really must stay there a few days - it will be so exciting to see it under the present conditions and I want to see Ferid Pasha and Hamdy Beg and others. So probably I shall leave there about the 12th. I may go to Graz for a couple of nights on my way home - I shall telegraph from C'ple to Strzyg. That wd bring me to London about the 18th. I expect you will be gone but I shd like Marie to meet me there and I shall stay a day or two - I shd like to see Willie [Tyrrell] and tell him what's up in this country and I also will see Mrs Bell! I did not post my long letter at Kaisarieh for I found it was quicker to post it here, so it will arrive with this one.
Now for your news: first, I'm dreadfully sorry that Elsa has not been well. I have letters from her, from Moll, from Hugo, bless them! I hope I shall find a telegram from you about her when I get to Konia and oh I do hope she is better. The rest of the family seem to be flourishing but how you all get through what you do get through I can't imagine. This remark is specially called forth by your and Father's account of the Congress. To me, in the midst of a simple primitive existence it seems almost incredible that such things should be. Father is the most delightful of correspondents, my spirits go up (though they are pretty high already) when I see his fat envelopes. Next, I'm annoyed beyond words to find that my misadventure was in the papers and specially annoyed because it must have given you a good deal of anxiety when you saw it like that all of a sudden. I never dreamt that it would be reported - one might think that in the Tur Abdin one was safe from horrible newspaper notoriety. However there it is, and by this time it's forgotten. I must say that the cuttings you sent me are astonishingly funny. What with the Kurds in the Baghdad desert and my return journey via Syracuse [Siracusa] (what can he have meant?) I got a hearty laugh out of them. But really Father should not speak of me "with a grim smile" (vide the Yorkshire Post). It seems so very distant. Still I won't doubt his genuine affection in spite of the newspapers. It's gratifying to find that my relations and friends thought I should be a match for the Kurds. I don't think they will often steal from the passing traveller again in that particular district, but the whole incident is one of which I don't wish to think at all. No, no interviews; never any at all, as the Turks wd say. I have an unreasonable (I think it's reasonable) hatred of them and a loathing for all catchpenny publicity which which I can't put into words in any language. What I've got to say about Turkey I'll say at my own time and in my own way, but to pick out one silly little episode (of which I'm heartily ashamed) and make a sensational tale of it shall not be done as far as I can help it. There, there! I daresay they won't any of them want to interview me at all.

I wish I could have seen Major Doughty. I'm capable of running over Taurus [Toros Daglari] and spending a couple of days with him, but I expect I should only give him trouble. I hear he still has 15000 people in relief camp and she 70 in her hospital. But I've heard queer tales from the American missionaries - one of them fresh from Adana - and my idea is that the Armenians deserved - not of course what they got, no one could merit that, but a very severe lesson at the hands of the Turks. They have been spinning a bad cotton ever since last July: their violent, intemperate language is almost past belief; they have been preaching even from the pulpits revenge on the Turk and political independence for the Armenian. I've got my facts pretty sharply defined but I wish I cd have heard Major Doughty's views. He wd be quite dispassionate and I wish to be so too.

To return to more important things: I can't help regretting that Father has had to take on the I. and S. Institute for another year. I suppose there was nothing else for it but I fear we shall lose him if he goes on like this. I am distressed to hear about Hilda and also the news of Phyllis is disturbing. Poor Aunt F. [Florence] must feel anxious about them both. Dear me! I'm glad to think I shall soon be back with my dear family; 6 months is a long time to have been away. I can't say how sorry I am for Florence and Springy; they have nothing but worries. It's too hard that they should have to leave both their babies in England, poor dears.

I've been telegraphing all over the country today to protect my two ex-muleteers who bought 8 horses from me at Kaisarieh and set off happily with their loads to earn their way back to Aleppo [Halab]. I heard here - one of them telegraphed to me - that they had been stopped 4 days out from Kaisarieh and that a Circassian had claimed one of the horses as his - one of my horses! So I've sent stringent messages to the Kaimmakam of that place and directed that news should be sent to the Vali at Konia and I'll have the whole constitutional government by the heels if I don't get the horse back for Selim. Fortunately the Minister for the Interior is Ferid Pasha, my particular friend. But it's an odd country is not it! It's so delightful to be rambling on to you at a distance of not more than 8 days - but I must stop for I have a good many arrangements to make. I part with Jusef here and my last muleteer and take only the faithful Fattuh to the Kara Dagh where we go in very light order. The Stanleys! I can't feel reconciled to Lady Sheffield of Roscommon though it's got a good ring to it too. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.

Oh dear! I'm so grateful for your letters.