T. E. Lawrence to

Arab Bureau
Savoy Hotel
Cairo

18.11.16

This is only a scrawl to inform you what I wired:- namely that I
have got back to Cairo. I left on October 13 from Cairo, reached Jidda on October 16, left there on October 19, for Rabegh. Left Rabegh on October 21, by camel; went up to Sherif Feisul's H.Q. at a place called Bir Abbas, half-way between Medina and the sea, about 100 miles North of Rabegh. After a few days there returned by road to Yenbo, and embarked on Nov. 1 for Jidda. On November 4 changed ships there, and went across to Port Sudan with Admiral Wemyss. Reached Khartoum on November 7 and stayed with the Sirdar till November 11, when I took train down to the Nile to Halfa, then steamer to Asswan, and then by rail to Cairo. At Asswan Hugh Whitelocke got into my carriage, and we were together as far as Luxor where he intended to stay a day to sightsee. Since my return I have been extravagantly busy:- so much so that I cannot possibly write to you probably for two or three days yet. The day is one long series of interruptions.

I have now left G.H.Q. and joined the Arab Bureau, which is under the Residency here. That is, the Sirdar is in charge of it, or will be very shortly. The atmosphere of being one's own master - or at any rate of being with people whose voices are not drowned by their grinding of axes - is pleasant. All very well.

N.