TCD MS 3416 page 13
[May 1916]
followed a wild rush of starving officers, old & young each carrying a tin mug, to buy this concoction of sour milk & water of which latter plenty was always added to make the supply meet the demand. I always felt dreadfully sorry for our men, for they had practically no money to buy even the concoctions of beastly food which we with more money, were able to buy; I am sorry to say that the poor fellows had a most appalling time as prisoners of war in Turkey, & I hope later on in this story to describe the suffering they went through.
We slept in the waiting rooms & round about the station buildings; we had very little water, for as the only water near the station was that brought in tanks from Baghdad, the Station Master could only spare but little at a time. He was a Greek and did everything that he possibly could for our comfort, & as we were obliged to despence with a certain quantity of kit owing to the lack of transport, we exchanged different articles of our kit with his wife for groceries: here I parted with a very nice cork matress for a cone of beet sugar. While at Samarra we met