Life with Army in the African Desert Shanghai, Apr. 4.
The letter below was received in \Shanghal recently from (Captain Colin MacDonald, of the Royal Corps of Signals, who Io serving with his reglment in the Middle East. He gives fan interesting description of the life of the troops in the desert, although, at the time of writing, he had not actually been in any uetive fighting. The letter follows keep hoping that one day we shall meet again. somewhere. Anyway at the lime of writing Iam well, and ooking forward very much to whatever lies ahead. T hope this reaches you eventually, and with It goes my fondest love to' you all out there."
"Well, I last wrote and cabled to you from Durban, and that is @ long time ago now, Since then, we have travelled right up the Red Sea, land-fed in the desert, boon messed about by she powers that control movement of troops in the Army, and here. fre ona small B.L. (British India) ship on our way down the Red Sea gain, and will tand ata port further down, "Adtor a few hundred miles of train travelling we shall then arrive our destination "and wil, after Nearly' three months" holiday, fort doing our work. T wish 1 could des-ribe the various places we've been {o'as many of them will be familiar you. H's. all certainly brought Dock to me the old days of the trips hhome'in Wat and 1922, For instance, he "gully-gully" man stilt pulling fullalze eggs out of baby chickens "lean your shoes, mister officer very nice stick, mister captain, on 10-piastres anid all the rest of the Dadgering and beggary. think T may mention that 1 managed to get into Cairo for a couple of days" leave, after landing and' going' (o-a transit camp. "Four of ul got away together, and spent two very expensive days in that dirty town. Our visit to the Pyramids was quite fun, and although the dirty old rage men and camelman rooked us Toft'and right, think It was worth It We were shown round the Temple of the "Sphynse and taken inside the King and Queen's chambers of the King's" Pyramid. Twas all rather impressive, anda nice change ater six weeks' of sea,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.