June 29 Baghdad Darling Father. Last mail came your letter of May 1 with Sir G. Trevelyan's enclosed. They were interesting, especially what he said about the U.S.A. but there was one thing above all which gave me pleasure and that was his saying that he felt there was a unique relationship between you and me. That's what it is, dearest Belloved one. You know there's nothing in the world which I could not bring to you, big things and little, with complete assurance of your perfect sympathy and understanding and when necessary forgiveness. What you were to me at a time of sorrow so acute that I still wonder how one can endure such things and live, I shall never be able to say to you - but you know; and in the midst of all this new world which has grown up round me my regret is that I cannot share it more fully with you. I had a darling letter from Elsa a fortnight ago and wrote to her. If she were only well again. It's a constant shadow across one's thoughts. Dearest, you know I'm very lucky in my life here - oh, I recognize it. All my colleagues are enchanting to work with - they make our collaboration delightful, and best of all is Sir Percy's kindness and consideration. He treats me with what I can only describe as an absurd indulgence. Anything that I want done, anything reasonable - I don't want unreasonable things - he puts at once into execution. This week, really to please me, he has rushed through the arrangements for a local Arabic newspaper for which we have all been longing. We have been held up till now for lack of paper, but it would have dawdled on through long official stages, but for my great desire for it. Mr Philby is official editor and my principal friends in Baghdad, Arab friends, have posts on the staff and we bring out the first number with a flourish of trumpets on July 1st. We are going to make a great splash for there is no lack of local literary talent of a very high order and I have it all at my disposition. It is called the The Arab because it is the first paper published under the new order of Arab liberty. I have, as indeed I ought to have with the opportunities I am given, a growing sense of mastery in my own work, of familiarity with country, people and conditions, which is very enjoyable. There's always an immense amount to learn, but one knows how to learn, which is the main thing. I've had two or three people to dinner this last week, one at a time which is about all my establishment can run to, and one night Richard and I invited ourselves and Colonel Stokes (of Persian fame) to dine with Sir Percy and had a very pleasant evening. Sir Percy loves Richard and no wonder. He is so wise and so wide-minded, so understanding of the political situation - if only there were more soldiers like him it would be a much easier and more satisfactory business to govern Mesopotamia. But he is almost unique. He does a great deal of good, shapes the attitude of whatever staff he serves with, shows some glimmer of vision to the blind and gets a hearing even with the deaf. More power to him. To me personally he is a great resource, I need not tell you. I am looking forward to having General Wanchope back again; he returns from leave in the middle of next month. He has been staying with the Tony Grants and he and me are godfather and godmother to Mr Tony's latest daughter, which we feel constitutes some kind of relationship. I'm glad you liked the Uhlan story! I'll tell you another, also from the I.G.C. with something of the same flavour. There was an officer of this force who put in a petition for leave. He said he had been in Mesopotamia 13 months, during which time he had endured many hardships from war and climate which had affected his health, though not so specifically as to enable him to obtain a medical certificate. Still he thought leave was due to him and he had moreover a particular reason for wishing to visit Bombay. His wife was there and she was going to have a baby. This document passed through the official routine from one department to another until it reached the I.G.C. who annotated it solemnly "I think there must be some mistake" and so returned it. History records no more. The sandflies are outrageous tonight. I stop in every sentence to engage them in mortal combat, but they carry out a strategic retirement after inflicting severe casualties. The flying ants are as numerous, but they don't bite, Heaven be praised. Still I hate the way they cock their tails in the air. I also pause to mop my brow.
To turn to a still more serious subject. I have a Bellated letter from Mother dated Ap 24 in which she says that much of my wardrobe has gone down in a ship from which Cis Lupton succeeded in making his escape. To be frank with you, I could have spared him better. She adds that she is going to ask Moll to send me a list of what I might have had. But the list won't go far to clothe me and I trust the combined intelligence of the family will have led them to take the next essential step and order a repetition of the articles lost. By the same post I did indeed receive a white muslin gown and silk dressing gown, for which I was exhuberantly grateful, sent off on Ap 12. So I still bury myself with hopes. I've received 3 muslin gowns but that's not really much out of 12 ordered and despatched.

We're having fun over Kiepert and Herzfeld's Samarra, aren't we! I wonder where they can be. I'm being a terrible bore, I feel, but no one here has the maps in the Herzfeld pamphlet or the revised sheets of Kiepert, which are among my lot.

Yes, I was deeply interested in Maurice's letter. Goodnight dearest. Ever your very devoted daughter Gertrude