TCD MS 3414 folio 32 recto
[June 1915]
law decreed that the population were not allowed out after dark. They petitioned the Governor and their request was ceeded to. The heat was now intense, reaching a temperature of 122[] F in the shade, dysentry and sunstroke cases were daily filling the Hospitals, & deaths were very frequent. Our Hospital & medical arrangements were truly disgraceful in my opinion, though it must be clearly understood that I do not in any way fix the responsibility on the heads of the executive directors, who under these distressing conditions were endeavouring to “make bricks without straw”. As a case in point there was no X Ray equipment, it was well on in the summer before ?purkahs werre erected, & ammonia could not be obtained in anything like sufficient quantity from Basra for the local ice plant. Ice being most necessary for heat & sunstroke. On reading one of the leading English Papers, I came across a most glowing account of an answer in the House by Mr Austin Chamberlain to inquiries as to the Medical arrangements in Mesopotamia. It mentioned that we had electric fans and light in the Hospitals, ice & innumerable comforts;