1 Mesopotamia 30 Oct. 1918 Dear Reverend Father Provincial, P.C. I said 20 Masses for
Fr Farley during October. .Everything is still going well. The weather is
quite pleasant. We had rain a few days ago, but
the regular rains again next month. Things are
made brighter, too, by the attitude of Austria,
who, it seems, wants immediate peace at
any price. The Turk walas also are not
in a very favourable position for keeping on.
Let us hope that it will be Right that will
win after all. (Emphasis on the first 'will') I told you how Dr Dillon-Kelly had been
posted to my hospital, and was shifted to my sorrow
a day or two afterwards. He had hardly gone
when his brother Cecil took his place. Cecil
is still with us. I hope your Reverence will approve of my
having given £10 to buy cassocks for a
number of Chaldean Priests who are among the
refugees from the north. They are now clothed
and supplied with Mass outfits. The protestant
plague is at work I believe out here. Not
to make Protestants (the people aren't such fools) 2 but to hinder re-union of schismatics with
Rome. I have been told that one of the men
working in the refugee-camp as an
Intelligence Officer, was or is secretary, to
the pseudo-archbishop of Canterbury's foreign
mission fake. The Syrian Archbishop
who lives in Baghdad says most of these
schismatics are really Catholics but owing to
fitting their own definitions to terms which
we define differently they seem to be heretics.
At present the call themselves Gregorian Christians.
They are Armenians mostly. The Chaldeans are
Catholics. In case the wily U-boat has interfered,
I respect my request for a 1919 Ordo, and
a new Catalogue. The list of changes reached
me all night. I was surprised to see that
Fr Albert Power had gone to Australia. The time passes wonderfully quickly here.
Sundays seem to come about twice a week,
and each month to drop seven or eight
days, so that the Ordo notice 'hoc anno
hebdomada so-and-so omittitur' has more
meanings than would appear on the surface. I recommend myself to your Reverence's Masses
and prayers, and to the prayers of all. Yours in Christ, Francis M Shaw S.J.