TCD MS 3416 page 18
[May 1916]
“have neither business principles or <morals>, tomorrow to them is the same as today, & they lie, they lie, they lie.” He had summed them up well.
I will here insert an extract from Major Baines, which illustrates how our wretched soldiers were treated by the Turks. This officer left Baghdad with Sir Charles Melliss V.C and Capt Shakeshaft his orderly officer after the convoys of British and Indian prisoners had left Baghdad; so the extracts from his diary which I am going to insert in this story will show how the poor soldiers fared and the reader will be able to comment on it.
“I found” says Major Baines, “192 Indian and 43 British soldiers at Tekrit all in the most miserable condition, all without money, many without blankets, sufficient clothing boots or socks. They were men who had fallen out through sickness from convoys marching from Mosul to Baghdad, and were mostly suffering from dysentry or fever. Many could not eat the bread ration which constituted the routine ration given them; they were dreadful to see emaciated to skeletons. They were quartered in a couple of overcrowded buildings at the time of our arrival, but previously they had been