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cing them all (rather superfluously) to Confinement to Barracks for the remainder of the voyage. There are no fewer than forty-one units on board this ship. They include drafts from almost every Territorial Battalion in India, convalescents rejoining the regular battalions already in Mesopotamia, and various engineers and gunners. The ship is grossly overcrowded--1,200 on board an ordinary 6,000 ton liner. The officers are very well off, though. She is a bran-new boat, built for this very run (in anticipation of the Baghdad Railway), with big airy cabins and all the latest improvements in lights, fans and punkahs. There is nobody I know on board and though they are quite a pleasant lot they don't call for special comment. The C.O. is a genial major of the Norfolks. He did some star turns the first two days. There was a heavy monsoon swell on, and the boat rolled so, you could hardly stand up. However the Major, undaunted, paraded about a score of men who had squeaked on to the ship after the roll-call at Bombay. These were solemnly drawn up in a line as defaulters and magisterially called to attention to receive judgment. On coming to attention they over-balanced with the regularity of ninepins in a row: and after three attempts the major had to harangue them standing (nominally) at ease. Even so, his admonition was rather impaired by his suddenly sitting down on the deck, and having to leave rather hurriedly for his cabin before the peroration was complete. We are just going through the Straits of Ormuz now: we saw the coast of Persia on and off all to-day. We spent Thursday, by the bye, at Karachi, an awful hole it looks--treeless and waterless and very much the modern port. It reminds one strongly of Port Said, though not _quite_ so repulsive: and there is a touch of Suez thrown in. So far it has been quite cool, 84 to 86 deg.: but we shall be beyond the cloud-zone to-morrow and right inside the Gulf, so I expect it will get hot now. We expect to reach Basra on Tuesday evening. After that our movements are wholly unknown to us. The casualty lists just before we left were so dreadful that I am rather dreading the moment when we see the next batch. * * * * * "H.M.S. VARSOVA," OFF FARS IS. _August_ 22, 1915. To R.K. It is too warm to be facetious, and I have no letter of yours to answer: so you will have to put up with a bald narrative of our doings since I last
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