| Description | Sorry not to have received letters from home due to deficiency of postal service. "It seems odd to us here every letter that everybody gets begins in the same way : about the excitement and breathless dispute there is in England with regard to our goings on here, while we from habit think no more of the siege than of going to Parade in England. We go to the trenches and fight as part of the daily routine and then come back after 24 hours, eat our dinner, drink Champagne, play at Whist and go to bed as regularly as possible. If an unfortunate fellow comes to be mauled he is pitied, but as we all are always running the same risks little is thought of it. You can hardly fancy this when the most important siege that was ever undertaken is going on under our noses. It only shows how very little real information the Government in England choose to give to the people. We all wonder much what is said, what they hear of the total failure of the second grand bombardment; it only shows now completely big guns are thrown away upon real science which the Russian Engineers possess. I suppose they intend to have another try as new batteries have been built much nearer and filled with guns of much larger calibre. At present nothing is going on except perpetual night runs as we are not fifty yards apart and two minutes would get them into our trenches. You can fancy this intense anxiety of mind when one is in an advanced rifle pit with a few men and the night so dark that you cannot see the other side of the parapet. I frequently sit all night on the top of the parapet tears running from my eyes from perpetual straining and listening for the slightest sound. Then turning round and saying in a whisper, now then men stand to your arms, here they are. The men are so brave you would hardly believe it, we receive them with a cheer that makes their blood run cold I am sure. When daylight comes we all sleep from pure exhaustion as this goes on all night. The trench work comes round to us about every third day. In the interim the whole thing is forgotten. We have such splendid weather here, it is a beautiful climate. There is always a fine sea breeze blowing which takes off the heat of the sun. It would suit you to a nicety, not variable like England and not too hot. Of course it will be much hotter. I am sorry to say that the cholera has broken out again but do not be alarmed. I am not the least. It is confined at present to unaclimatized people and drafts newly come out. It was expected, and from the quantity of carcasses, both men and horses, buried all round us, was to be expected. The sanitary arrangements are good, considering all things. I never know how to say those two verses in the Litany in earnest before - From plague, pestilence and famine, and from battle murder and sudden death, Good Lord deliver us! It ought to be our daily prayer. Said in England, where one is beset by no dangers, it does not come home to a man like it does here where all those evils are of daily occurrence." Has heard news of his brother Frank at Sandhurst from newly arrived young officers. Urges his father to write and encourage him to work harder in hopes he may join the same regiment next year. "What a failure the Kutch Expedition was, just like everything we attempt, but if the war is to be conducted by telegraph from London and Paris, the sooner the thing is given up the better. |