Samawah [Samawah, As] March 17 Dearest Father. I haven't got very far on my way since my last letter, but unless I write from here I shall not catch next mail. I sent Mother a hurried letter the night I arrived in Shinafiyah [Shinafiyah, Ash]. Next day I had a long morning's work at tribes and maps - fortunately I met the Survey Officer and corrected all the names on his last sheets. He was a charming man and I rode with him in the afternoon to a high point in the desert to the S. whence we had an admirable view of the rivers, the marsh and the desert borders. All along the desert edge there are great springs; one of these we rode past and found a fort and a little village by it - the fort itself not old but no doubt the successor of an older building. There too I met Col. Leachman's caravan with my old servants in it - I think I told you one of my Damascenes who was with me in Arabia came over to me at Baghdad and I gave him to Col. Leachman. He is now governor of one of the desert oases! A good man. Col. Leachman was on tour and we had met the night I was at Kufah [Kufah, Al] when he and Capt. Balfour and I spent an entertaining evening. As he takes about his various oasis people with him and they are mostly old acquaintances of mine, these meetings are joyful. While I was standing on the high point aforesaid I saw some black tents and camels in a hollow to the S. and presently the owners crept up to us and laid their difficulties before me. They were men of the Ghazzi, a semi nomadic tribe near Nasiriyah [Nasiriyah, An], and they had been out in the desert since Oct. Now they wanted to go back to their own people by the river for the summer, but when they got to Shinafiyah where they meant to cross the river, behold there were soldiers and people riding about and the devil's own puzzlement. And they wanted to know whether there was permission for their crossing or what was to happen to them if they might not come down to the river. I said their shaikh was a friend of the Govt. and bade them go in peace where they liked, but they were not happy till I wrote them an order to say they might cross and continue on their way. With that they kissed my shoulder and departed reassured, I hope, but think what bewilderment all these strange happenings must cause to camel folk who don't know what the intentions of the soldiers and the Govt. may be. Next day was disgusting, a high wind and terrific rain. Fortunately my tent stood (by a miracle) and my roof didn't leak much water. There was nothing to be done but to continue sitting under it. I wrote up my tribal notes, and in the afternoon was visited by various shaikhs and saiyids and had some interesting talk, the net result of which was that they too were a little bewildered and anxious, like the camel people. We have only been in effective occupation in these parts for the last 3 months; we are new and strange to them, and they to us. Moreover the country was scarcely administered at all by the Turks and the wonder is that it should have quieted down as much as it has. Captain Goldsmith, the Political Officer of Samawah, was up in Shinafiyah holding a court and I came down with him in his motor launch. Luckily the weather had cleared up, after a terrific night of rain, and we had a pleasant journey down river. But it is most desolate country. The river here has cut itself very deep banks and the water has also diminished, with the result that the land is difficult to irrigate and there is practically no cultivation - no willows and no palms, nothing but a barren expanse of thorny scrub. But this year, thanks to the good rains, there is plenty of grass between the thorns. We had two shaikhs with us and got through a good deal of checking of tribal records in the launch. Samawah lies on both sides of the river with palm gardens above and Bellow, a picturesque mud town, dirty and tumble down, with the Turkish Government buildings all in ruins. I've had a pleasant 2 days' visit and go on tomorrow up the Hillah [Hillah, Al] channel. Capt. Goldsmith has had in masses of shaikhs to see me and I think I've made a pretty good tribal register. The chief person here is an old saiyid who was always a great person in the time of the Turks, sometimes in favour but more often not. We lunched with him today and he told us his life and times, and how before the war the Turks had sent troops out against him and he had had to seek refuge for months with the tribes and much more besides. I've no doubt he is an old rogue, but he is a very intelligent one, a mine of information about the country side and a staunch upholder of the Great and Just Govt. of the English. He has had many vicisitudes [sic] since the war, for a couple of years ago a gunboat of ours came up on a reconnaissance from Nasiriyah and he abounded in welcome, not liking the Turks. Unfortunately it hadn't come to stay and no sooner had it left than he was siezed by tribes hostile to us and kept in imprisonment in the desert for 12 months or more, till Baghdad fell and the tribes moved off and let him go. He was of great assistance to Capt. Goldsmith when he first came down into this restless world where most of the tribes were robbers by road and river, and he continues to be helpful in counsel and in influence. I think I told you before that the landowning saiyids of the Euphrates are an asset to us. They are nearly all of them anti-Turk, being Shi'ahs and having no love for a Sunni Govt., they have great influence with the tribes, but they stand outside their feuds and jealousies. They are professional peacemakers, skilful cultivators of their own lands and their interests are all on the side of law and order. There is an important group of them at Shinafiyah also and I always find them invaluable when I'm busy collecting information.
It's immensely interesting seeing this bit of the Euphrates and making acquaintance with its inhabitants. No doubt I've only got the vaguest outline of what there is to know, but at any rate it is an outline, more or less right, of a very complicated bit of tribal country concerning which we were, a few months ago, in complete ignorance. I'm looking forward now to my return journey up the Hillah river, though nothing can be quite so nice as the 2 days' sailing down the lovely Kufah channel.

Goodbye darling family. I'm in perfect ignorance of anything that may have happened in the world during the last 10 days but as so little that is good seems to happen, I'm just as glad not to know. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude