r
Edward Grey in the House of Commons, as we have promised to assist
Servia with troops should this eventuality come about. We half expect
some of us will be withdrawn from here and landed in Greece or
wherever it is most suitable for a march on the Bulgars. Many of us
would go right gladly, the monotony of living all these months on a
small patch of ground gets more irksome as time goes on.

I am now at the dressing station, having come out for twenty-four
hours' duty. We have a collecting station, where we keep a few
stretcher squads, half a mile in front of this, and this is to be
withdrawn to a site near our old station in Azmak Dere, but slightly
further forward, between the Green Pool (a filthy hole full of frogs
and tortoises) and the end of a communication trench. I had to inspect
the situation this evening, and marked off the boundaries, and
to-morrow our men start to dig themselves in. The position is very
exposed and I reported that I did not like it. Three artillery
officers who passed said they were to plant a battery a few yards in
front of us, and they thought the place anything but safe. However,
the spot was chosen by General de Lisle and there is no getting away
from it.

_October 3rd._--Dressing station. I was up to-day at 6.30 and at once
set to work with pick and spade, not stopping till breakfast was
announced at 8, when Morice, the cook, brought me three huge slices
of bread, two chunks of very fat bacon, and a mug of black dixie tea
that had boiled for a full hour, all on such a lavish scale that at
ordinary times they would have taken away my appetite; but not so
to-day, I devoured the lot and never enjoyed a breakfast more in all
my life. I next had a large Sick Parade drawn from twelve units, and
returned to their duties several who were on their way to the C.C.S.
with very trifling ailments. This will put up the backs of the
Regimental M.O.'s, but in such serious times, with our numbers getting
more depleted every day, manners must not be considered. I mentioned
this subject to the A.D.M.S. to-day, and he backs me up and is to see
what can be done to check this wastage.

Padre Mayne held a short service under the tarpaulin-covered space we
reserve for patients, his congregation being twelve poor beggars on
stretchers waiting to be sent down, and about twice that number of
sick walking cases. The wounded tried to cheer up and suppress their
groans, but these occasionally got the better o