S.S. Euripides. Feb. 1. Dearest Mother. I hear I can post letters at Aden [('Adan)] tomorrow morning - we're calling for some anti toxin because there is a little diphtheria among the troops on board, but we shall only be there an hour, I expect, and no one will land. We reach Karachi on the 6th and I'm cabling to Domnul to let him know. It's an extraordinarily quick voyage. The cat and I are the only two people not in uniform on board. I don't see much of my fellow passengers except at meals, when I sit at the Captain's table with a general and two colonels, dull dogs, all of them. There is a chaplain called Wood who is a friend of Hugo's and was ordained on the same day. I have foregathered with him a little - a worthy young man. He has asked me to come and talk to the troops this afternoon about Arabia or anything - they get so bored, poor dears. I shall love to do anything to amuse them but I wish I had pictures to show them. The adjutant has also asked me to give a conference on Mesopotamia to the officers which I shall like less. They are the 23rd and 24th Rifle Corps coming out to do garrison duty in India in order to relieve younger troops. These are all oldish men, old soldiers many of them. I'm luxuriously comfortable with a large cabin and a big room next to it, usually the nursery, where I go and work all the morning and again after dinner. It's the first time I've ever succeeded in doing any work on the sea. It's like glass, the sea, and the weather is deliciously warm. I haven't mentioned however, the discomforts of my journey to Suez where I arrived at 4 AM, the train being due at midnight! We were packed like herrings - men going back from leave in Cairo - so that you could not stretch yourself out or attempt to go to sleep.
I'll cable from India. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude