c/o Base Post Master M.E.F. Basrah [Basrah, Al (Basra)] Dearest Father. After heart to heart talks with the head post master we conclude that this is the best form of address. Will you please adopt it and inform Smith and Sons? I've had letters from you this week dated Sep 20 and 28 and from Mother Sep 27. She related to me the tale of the bomb at Bow and that poor Sophia has been in the war zone. You give me very interesting accounts of your Free Trade activities. Of course the idea of boycotting German trade is the purest tosh and your arguments are convincing - if one needed to be convinced. I feel persuaded that when they come to try it they will find it wholly impossible, but the talk is will go on for the present and perhaps as long as it is backed by a roar of cannon. Clear thinking is not achieved under present conditions. Anyhow to a large extent it is passion and sentiment, but those are very powerful factors in the world's argument. To my mind, but I'm speaking from so far off that I may well be wrong you should be very careful to give no one a handle for accusing you of being pro-German - the preposterous charge it would be! but any stick serves in the heat of battle. If once that cry is raised your sound reasoning will fall on deafened ears. It is a difficult path to tread, but there are many Free Traders who will do Free Trade a great deal more harm than good. You cannot afford, if you want to win over the idiot public, to ally yourself with Charlie and his colleagues, for instance, nor would I personally be inclined to blame the public in this matter. I think Charlie and his like have put themselves outside the pale, and so completely outside it that I should not be surprised if people thought that a man so misguided on some supremely important subjects should be a bad judge of all others. And therefore on any matter which I had at heart I should decline his co-operation - his and theirs, the co-operation of all that lot. It's not easy, but it is essential if you are to give yourself a fair chance. I feel very strongly on this subject, as you may observe. Meantime I console myself by comparing notes with the I.G.C. who is a man of sound good sense, on the folly that appears in the papers and retailing to him your observations with which he entirely agrees. It is truly refreshing to find a soldier who has got beyond the most primitive conception of economics!
I am so glad George thinks I'm being useful. I have complimentary letters from various people about the memoranda I've sent in - the last was from Austen Chamberlain. But I'm inclined to think that far the most useful part is the part that doesn't appear and I'm glad of it, though I welcome the appreciation of the high and mighty because it gives me better standing ground to carry on the jobs that don't see and won't hear of. I'm gradually becoming a sort of cushion between bewildered and mostly miscreant shaikhs and the ultimate authority. The latter is exceedingly just and I think both liberal and generous, but time is short and work overwhelming and the cushion business wastes innumerable hours. My hours are not so precious and though I sigh over them occasionally and feel I have desperately little to show for my day's work, I comfort myself by thinking that it's all part of the game and that I can give a hand that way when I can't help much in any other. The East needs a lot of handling and it's well to approach it by many different channels, by the awe inspiring as well as by those which send it away laughing. The latter is my modest walk in life! It's an easy one because my chief is so very good in the higher role. They have an immense respect and admiration for him.

To turn to another subject - quite right about the hat! I shall be so thankful to have one and would gladly pay its weight in gold, provided it's not too heavy. I'm surprised that George commended my clothes - no the cotton gowns were all right but winter clothes are a more serious problem. If only I had come out prepared for a prolonged sojourn in Asia!

Yes, it has been a godsend, all this. I can't think what I should have done without it. And it stretches on into the future - but I don't think of the future; to live today and then sleep that's enough. I should like to see my own family sometimes, there's almost no one else I ever think of or want to see. They belong to a previous existence to which I can't get back, and nothing solid has survived but you Belloved ones. Your daughter Gertrude.

I'm in danger of becoming book purveyor to the community - will you please order for me (at my expense) 4 copies of Hillprecht's Explorations in Bible Lands - no, I'll write to Batsford and tell him to send Mother the bill to pay for me.

I'm dreadfully sorry about Philip Howell.