Baghdad May 13 Dearest Mother. Your letter of April 27 - I'm sad about Mrs John Talbot, dear old thing, but how wonderful that she and Lady Frederick died at the same time. I shall love to have the plays and thank you so much about the ring; I am very glad to have it back.
I am not writing to Father this week as I can't catch him anywhere but at Port Sa'id [Port Said] and next week will do as well. You will be very glad to have him back, won't you, though I daresay life will not be so peaceful with him rushing about in it.

We have had a week of very disagreeable weather, not hot - not for us; it's rarely 100 - but south wind and cloud and heaviness and dust. It takes all the stiffening out of you. On Saturday night it suddenly became wonderful fresh for a few hours and we made the most of them by going out to the Karradah gardens and dining on Haji Naji's roof Ken and Iltyd and Lionel and I. He gave us a very good dinner - roast fish and chicken and rice and all the different kinds of vegetables he grows on his farm, and fruit. After dinner we lay on his cushioned benches under the moon and talked to one another while Haji Naji and a friend bubbled with narghilehs. Presently Ken asked him what he usually did of an evening. He said he dined about 8 and then people came in and talked till 10. "You hold political meetings!" laughed Ken. "Political meetings!" said Haji Naji scornfully. "We talk of the crops and what we will sow next day and of what we will reap. And of the rain and locusts and prices, but never never of politics."

I like to think of them sitting every evening and talking of what they are going to sow and reap.

On Sunday I had Mr Cooke and Dr Chiera (the Italian who did the dig at Kirkuk) to lunch. Chiera was very interesting on the subject of Babylonian legends and their biblical parallels, on which he has done a great deal of work. He is a nice man; I hope he will come back and dig again. He is very eager to try a big site near Kirkuk.

Ken and Iltyd dined with me and Sasun Effendi to play bridge. Sasun is getting very old and thorny - not with me but with his colleagues over whom he tyranizes [sic] fearfully. They can't do without him for till we get a good adviser - since Mr Slater went there hasn't been any - there is no one else to whom they can entrust the Ministry of Finance.

The next two nights we had private royal dinner parties. H.M. dined with Ken on Monday and we played bridge on the balcony over the river till a strong wind got up and blew away our cards - just as I was holding very good ones! so then we retired into the house. And yesterday we all dined at the palace - a small party of 8, all intimates, Arab and English. It had been a terribly overcast afternoon ending in a violent thunderstorm which didn't seem to do much good, but the big rooms in the palace were very pleasant and we spent a cheerful evening.

There has been a scene at the palace - I'm not supposed to know about it officially. The Queen finally told Mme Safwat (the intriguing Chamberlain's wife) that she would not have her inside her house, and Mme Safwat has gone off to Syria, but no one knows if that will be the end.

There has been a nice, very young Guardsman here, Mr Codrington - don't we know his father, General Sir Alfred C.? He brought letters to me and I took him under my wing. I have just been showing him some of the sights of the town. Goodbye dearest - every your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.

What a dirty piece of paper!