Snt,—As Strix says, the story of Major Meinertzhagen's haversack has
been told in the popular weeklies (with varying inaccuracy) over the last thirty-five years—besides being recorded in Lord Wavell's history. But I wonder if Strix knows that Meinertzhagen's was one of two such bags of misleading infor- mation which were passed to the Turks, in what may seem suspiciously similar circum- stances, before the attack on Beersheba on October 31, 1917? The other bag contained a summons to the owner to a C.-in-C.'s con- ference, minutes of the conference with a map showing movements to the coastal area, a memorandum from Captain Lloyd, MP (later Lord Lloyd), reporting that the country around Beersheba was unsuitable for mounted troops, and a chatty letter from a naval friend who had seen the Turkish right flank from his ship and wished the Army luck in their attack on it. Lastly some personal correspondence, in- cluding a letter from the wife in England com- plaining of the air-raids on London.
It was dropped in no-man's-land, was picked up by a Turkish patrol, who received a reward. and passed to the German intelligence officer at Beersheba, one Leutnant Schilling, who thought it was too good to be true; but the Turkish Commander believed it.
How much these two tricks contributed to the final result is anyone's guess, but when the attack was launched at daybreak on October 31 the garrison of the little doll's-house town among the sandhills was taken completely by surprise. I can vouch for the above facts, for the bag in question was dropped on September 12, 1917, by—Yours faithfully,
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