epetition of the trying work we had when last on duty.

A Frenchman has just come into our station with half a loaf under his
arm. Great excitement! We were all willing to purchase it at any
price, but he handed it over to one of our men who had been hobnobbing
with him in the morning. All are deadly sick of army biscuits, the
only form of bread we have, hard as the nether millstone and
tasteless. The only decent food we have is McConnachie's ration of
meat and vegetables, which is excellent cold or hot, or as soup.

7.30 p.m.--Had a weary day--little doing. Thomson in very low spirits,
thinking everything is going wrong. News we get from a padre is that
in France everything goes badly. Pirie, M.O. to the Lancs, has just
looked us up and reports no progress here. We are certainly making
little speed, and it is now announced, whether correctly or not, that
Achi Baba is to be besieged into submission by starvation if
necessary, owing to the great loss of life a direct attack would
entail. In the afternoon I went out with a few bearers to the Lancs.
Aid Post to find they had gone into reserve for forty-eight hours, a
rest they much needed. Shells were coming fast and furious round us, a
battery we had to pass being the object of attack. Two big shells fell
very near our dressing station this afternoon, a pile of stores being
taken for ammunition boxes, the first shell landing among these with
terrible crash, and destroying a lot of jam. Rather a hot bombardment
of Krithia goes on to-night, while a number of Tommies are enjoying a
game of football close to our camp.

_May 12th._--At 8 p.m. yesterday a message reached us that the 29th
Division had been withdrawn to give them a much-needed rest of
forty-eight hours. We accordingly packed up and returned to our camp
at W. Beach, and lucky for us we did, as it rained heavily during the
night, and we had shelter against showers in our dugouts. On the whole
very little fighting went on to-day till 6 p.m. when our big guns all
along the line bombarded Krithia and the face of Achi Baba.

When studying our camp fires this morning before daylight I concluded
that we really had made but little progress since April 28, and a
Lancs. officer I saw this afternoon agrees with this conclusion. Still
we are said now to have about 100,000 men here, while I cannot believe
the enemy has anything like that number, but while they are on the
defensive, with their well-planned trenches and the