TCD MS 3416 page 58
[June 1916]
Late that evening we reached Eskischehir, and were immediately taken to some deserted Armenian houses where we got beds; the neat kitchens and the remains of wood fires in these houses brought to my mind the happy home of some mother who had gone – God alone knows where. After a battle with the insect hosts, we turned in, Captain Tomlinson RE choosing the floor as the safest place against further onslaughts: shortly afterwards a Turkish Cadet Officer, who had apparently been detailed to look after us and had been very civil and obliging, looked in and expressed surprise that one of us was sleeping on the floor, and enquired if he was ill? Not wishing to hurt his feelings, I explained that he was not ill, and that sleeping on the floor was a peculiar fad of his – a mutual salute and he retired! The next day saw us still without our baggage. We refused to go on further without it, and General Delamain represented our case very strongly to the Commandant, who, evidently fearing the possibility of being reported to the authorities at Constantinople, gave in. The Turk is the oppressor of the defenceless and weak, and if once