[4 May 1918] May 4. Baghdad Darling Father. Most provokingly I missed the mail this week - it was put on a day and I wasn't told in time. However I am writing today because I go up to Ramadi [Ramadi, Ar] tomorrow for a day or two, to stay with General Brooking and finish tribal stuff there. I don't want to risk missing another mail. I telegraphed to you this week that I shall probably go to Persia (in July) therefore letters are to be sent here. Gen. Gillman (the C.G.S.) will provide me with tents and mules which I shall send on to Karind [Karand], over 4000 ft up, and go there myself by car - one gets there easily in 2 days. Then I can wander where I like in the mountains, or sit still if I like. Things are moving rather rapidly on that side and all should be easy by July. The great temptation of it is the avoidance of the long intolerably hot journey to India - it takes a fortnight. I'm extremely well, much better than I was at the beginning of the summer last year. Also we have already shortened our summer by 3 weeks, for it hasn't begun yet. Only now the sun is getting hot in the middle of the day. The river has been in great flood this week. We trembled for our sown fields but it's a wonderful sight, the great wealth and bounty of water. All the little water courses flowed in spate through the fields and gardens, things grew as you watched them and the Mesopot. nightingales shouted through the orchards. I've been out riding up and down river several times in the early morning, or after tea with General Stuart Wortley. On Sunday the C. in C. came to tea in my rose garden, self invited. I like him so much. He is developing into a friend. Next night I dined with him and Gen. Gillman - they had a little party and we went to a concert after. The concert was distressingly bad but I like being with those two and enjoyed even the concert. But the event of the week was a tea party which I gave to the ladies of Baghdad in Sir Percy's house. I asked no one but the big people, mainly Moslems, and to my surprise they came in flocks. An Armenian family (Madame Sévian and her daughters whom I like very much), the Mother superior and some of the nuns came to help and it was an immense success. I've heard that the ladies said that not even in a Mohammadan house would so much care have been taken to exclude all males - it's odd, isn't it, that the success of a party should depend on the absence of that element! One woman, the wife of the Director of Religious Bequests (Moslem of the Moslem) said as she went away that if only they could see one another and meet more in company life would be quite different. So now I'm concocting a scheme to hire the cinematograph for an evening and have a Ladies' night. I shall engage the sympathies of the C. in C. and march ahead. They never see anything or go anywhere, think of it! Some of them remain quite human and cheerful but a great many are hysterical and nerve-ridden. They look like plants reared in a cellar - the little Adonis gardens that you see round Italian altars on Easter Saturday. I would like to put a few flowers among the colourless leaves. But you can't think how nice they were at my party. The only contretemps was when I insisted on seating and plying with coffee a very shy damsel who was trying to hide behind the family she accompanied - and was afterwards told she was the servant! She looked just like the others. I paid a call on the wife and daughters of the greatest Shi'ah religious luminary now living - he shines at Najaf [Najaf, An] but the family has come in for medical treatment - one for hysteria. The wife was a merry jolly Arab woman with an enchanting little solemn boy, a twinkle in his eye for all his solemnity. He had been to see me at the office. One of the daughters was a really splendid creature with magnificent plaits of black curly hair hanging to her waist. They gave me coffee and tea and sweetmeats and were most cordial. They couldn't come to the party - I didn't even ask them. We have had a great success over the Najaf business. We've caught all the people implicated in the murder of Capt. Marshall, as well as all the murderers. We shall have peace there now. If only things were as rosy in France as they are here! We don't seem to be able to make a mistake here. Mrs Taggart's grandson came to see me again. He is gone to India for a month's leave. He is a very nice intelligent boy.
No mail. As for the parcels post it's a thing of the past, at least as far as I am concerned. Bain's books arrive but I do long for riding boots. Mine are all patched. Your ever affectionate daughter Gertrude