es me. Now the Government of a country is
nearly always in the position of B. not A., because a country is not
an individual. In our case we were emphatically in the position of B.:
but I would justify the resistance of Belgium on the same grounds.

Of course as I said last week, national standards can't be as
self-sacrificing as individual standards: and never can be until all
the individuals in a nation are so Christian as to choose unanimously
the self-sacrificing course.

I agree that the Dardanelles outlook is very serious, and it now looks
as if Germany had got Bulgaria to come in against us. We ought to
concentrate on a decision there as vigorously as the Germans did in
Poland, and let us hope with more success.

The big offensive in France came off and seems to have done remarkably
well for a few days: but we have heard nothing more of it for over a
week. I'm afraid that means we exhausted ourselves and lost heavily.

The outstanding fact here is that the hot weather is over. It is now
only unpleasant to be out from 10 till 4, and then only in the sun.
The transition is going on rapidly and by the end of this month I
expect to see cold weather conditions established. I have played
football twice and been out shooting twice. There is a large black
partridge to be shot here which is very good to eat.

I can give you no details about the Kut fight. In fact you probably
know more than we do: I must stop now.

* * * * *

AMARAH.

_October_ 11, 1915.

TO L.R.

The weather has got cooler so rapidly that I have been shooting and
playing football quite happily. The chief things to shoot are a big
black partridge (which will soon be extinct) and a little brown dove,
later on there are snipe, and already there are duck, but these are
unapproachable. Many thanks for your letters of August 27th, and
September 8th, which arrived together this mail.

I think Mrs. Ricketts takes an unduly optimistic view when she says
the Germans mean the war to be decided out here. Nothing would suit us
better. Meanwhile, we certainly seem to mean to go to Baghdad, and
that will mean at least one other big fight: but so far they show no
sign of moving us up to the firing line. This last show was a big
success and nearly was a much bigger, only our men having fought for
two days and marched twelve miles in the intervening night and having
run out of water, were not able to press the pursuit very vi