ger, or baked tea dregs. In January English
tobacco fetched forty-eight rupees a half pound (equal to eight
shillings an ounce).

"Just before General Townshend's force entered Kut a large consignment
of warm clothing had arrived, the gift of the British Red Cross
Society. This was most opportune and probably saved many lives. The
garrison had only the summer kit they stood up in.

"Different units saw very little of each other during the siege. At
the beginning indirect machine-gun and rifle fire, in addition to
shells, swept the whole area day and night. The troops only left the
dugouts for important defense work. During the late phase when the
fire slackened officers and men had little strength for unnecessary
walking. Thus there was very little to break the monotony of the siege
in the way of games, exercise, or amusements, but on the right bank
two battalions in the licorice factory, the 110th Mahratas and the
120th Infantry, were better off, and there was dead ground here--'a
pitch of about fifty by twenty yards'--where they could play hockey
and cricket with pick handles and a rag ball. They also fished, and
did so with success, supplementing the rations at the same time. Two
companies of Norfolks joined them in turn, crossing by ferry at night,
and they appreciated the relief."

A personal acquaintance of the heroic defense of Kut-el-Amara drew in
a letter to the London "Weekly Times" the following attractive picture
of this strong personality:

"A descendant of the famous Lord Townshend who fought with Wolfe at
Quebec, and himself heir to the marquisate, General Townshend set
himself from boyhood to maintain the fighting traditions of his
family. His military fighting has been one long record of active
service in every part of the world. Engaged first in the Nile
expedition of 1884-85, Townshend next took part in the fighting on the
northwest frontier of India in 1891-92, when he leaped into fame as
commander of the escort of the British agent during the siege of
Chitral. He fought in the Sudan expedition of 1898, and served on the
staff in the South African War. In the peaceful decade which followed
Townshend acted for a time as military attache in Paris, was on the
staff in India, and finally commanded the troops at Bloemfontein,
Orange River Colony.

"The outbreak of the Great War found him in command of a division in
India, longing to be at the front in France, but destined, as events
turned out, to