PLAGUES OF THE TIGRIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 19, 22 January 1916, Page 11

PLAGUES OF THE TIGRIS.

FLIES, DIRT, AXD SHELLS AT . KUT-EL-AMARA. An officer with the British force advancing ou Bagdad writes home as follows:— KUT-EL-AMARA, October 10. Someone swears it is Sunday, and we did have sausages for breakfast, co 1 suppose it is. Well, here we arc in camp outside of that delectable spot Kut, which fe one of the finest combinations of dirt, Hies, and smells I have ever met in or out of the East. We don't go more often than we can help through it, you bet, for the Arab at any time is not exactly a savoury person. They all seemed blessed with the most diabolical squints, too, and that, combined with blood-red eyes, makes them look firstclass ruffians. 1 think for twopence down all or any of them would cheerfully slit your throat and thoroughly enjoy it. We are waiting here for a bit while a certain little lot are following up the nimble Turk, though whether we catch him or not is another matter. He is a fine sprinter when Thomas Atkins is after him. You see all our transport •has to come up by river, which at this time is at its lowest, and everything, especially mail boats, seem to s-tick. I have not had a mail for a month, and "don't believe I'll see one again for years iind years and years!" The prisoners we took at Kut were a wretehed-4ooking lot, and the majority quite old men, with their clothes in rage. The Turks actually prepared their position ready for six months' defence, and it was extraordinarily strong. It must have been a nasty jar, losing it after a two days' scrap. They had lota of old Persian guns mounted on dummies to deceive, and were using Krupps for business, worked by German gunners. The sandflies are simply awful, and one never gets any peace from the little brutes, although the scrub on both sides of the river has been cut away and burnt to get rid of them. At night the tem-peratm-e is down to 50deg., while by day it is UOdeg.j so we are alternately baked and frozen. The great point about this part of the world is that you can't spend any money, and 150 rupees covers everything, even down to your bearer's screw. I can strongly recommend it to the impecunious subaltern, who, if he does not mind a few minor discomforts such as eand in his tea, food, hair, eyes, boots, and bed (and sandflies), can save enough money to be quite a millionaire when he returns to civilisation again. October 14. We are off again soon to try another little gaone with the Turks, and I hope as successful ac the last show has been.