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T. E. Lawrence to his family
Military Intelligence
Office
Cairo
23.6.15
I got a letter
yesterday asking for more details of what I am doing. Well, drawing, and
overseeing the drawing of maps: overseeing printing and packing of same:
sitting in an office coding and decoding telegrams, interviewing
prisoners, writing reports, and giving information from 9a.m. till 7p.m.
After that feed and read, and then go to bed. I'm sick of pens, ink and
paper: and have no wish ever to send off another telegram. We do daily
wires to Athens, Gallipoli, and Petrograd: and receive five times what
we send, all in cypher, which is slow work, though we have a good staff
dealing with them. Newcombe, one Macdonnell and myself are Intelligence,
Captain Cosens, Lord Anglesey, Lord Hartington and Prince Alexander of
Battenburg do the ciphering and deciphering with us: that's all we are:-
with a Colonel Clayton who does Egyptian Foreign Politics in command of
us.
We do no internal
work: have nothing to do with Egyptians, or police or anything of that
sort. That's all done by the Ministry of the Interior. We have only war
work:- European Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Sinai,
and Tripoli:- we all dabble in them all. One learns a lot of geography,
some people's names, and little else.
The Dardanelles show
is looking up a little. If they please it will not take much longer now.
But it's a great question what their intentions are. I'm dreading the
end of it, as no one can guess what will happen afterwards. No news from
Syria: the country is quite at peace.
N.
Hope Bob gets through.
N.
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