His death struggles were the finest sight I saw

TCD MS 3416 page 40

TCD MS 3416 page 40

[June 1916]

one bedroom at the Hotel de Faro: this room contained three large beds and was also occupied by gentlemen from the insect world, so we were again defeated and slept outside on a flat roof, which we found cool and airy. The climate, although still pretty warm, was cool when compared with Mesopotamia. The first sight that met my eye the next morning was a Turkish deserter being hanged in the market square; this wretch was merely suspended, with his toes a few inches off the ground, until death eventually relieved his sufferings. From what I had seen and heard of the Turkish atrocities to the Christians, and the ill treatment which they had shown to my own comrades in arms, I could find no sympathy for that Turk horrible as was his end; and I openly say that his death struggles were the finest sight I saw in Turkey. We did not feed at this hotel but took our meals outside in a restaurant; the first one we went to was a dirty place, frequented by soldiers and police – I have no doubt but that our Ziaptieh was a friend of the proprietor and wished to bring him some customers. English people in the eyes of Orientals – are always, presumably, considered to be walking gold-mines, for everywhere we went we always