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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918, by
+Charles Edward Callwell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918
+
+Author: Charles Edward Callwell
+
+Release Date: June 14, 2007 [EBook #21833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIENCES OF A DUG-OUT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Christine P. Travers and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
+other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has
+been maintained.
+
+Pages anchors have been added for the pages to which the author refers
+under the format [p.xx].]
+
+
+
+
+                         EXPERIENCES
+
+                         OF A DUG-OUT
+
+                          1914-1918
+
+
+
+
+                     _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
+
+
+                THE LIFE OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL
+                       SIR STANLEY MAUDE
+                    K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
+                    Illustrations and Maps.
+
+                        THE DARDANELLES
+                              Maps.
+
+                           TIRAH 1897
+                              Maps.
+
+     The last two of these volumes belong to Constable's "Campaigns
+     and their Lessons" Series, of which Major-General Sir C. E.
+     Callwell is Editor.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AT THE "CROW'S NEST" (page 273)
+  1. Colonel Maslianikov
+  2. Major-General Callwell
+  3. Captain Wigram
+  4. Major-General Savitzky
+  5. Baron Meyendorff]
+
+
+
+
+                         EXPERIENCES
+
+                         OF A DUG-OUT
+
+                          1914-1918
+
+
+                     BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR
+                    C. E. CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+
+                      WITH A FRONTISPIECE
+
+
+
+
+                       LONDON: CONSTABLE
+                     & COMPANY LIMITED 1920
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+Some passages in this Volume have already appeared in _Blackwood's
+Magazine_. The Author has to express his acknowledgements to the
+Editor for permission to reproduce them.
+
+Had Lord Fisher's death occurred before the proofs were finally passed
+for press, certain references to that great servant of the State would
+have been somewhat modified.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I                                                    Page
+
+     THE OUTBREAK OF WAR....................................... 1
+
+     Unfair disparagement of the War Office during the war --
+     Difficulties under which it suffered owing to pre-war misconduct
+     of the Government -- The army prepared, the Government and the
+     country unprepared -- My visit to German districts on the Belgian
+     and Luxemburg frontiers in June 1914 -- The German railway
+     preparations -- The plan of the Great General Staff indicated by
+     these -- The Aldershot Command at exercise -- I am summoned to
+     London by General H. Wilson -- Informed of contemplated
+     appointment to be D.M.O. -- The unsatisfactory organization of
+     the Military Operations Directorate -- An illustration of this
+     from pre-war days -- G.H.Q. rather a nuisance till they proceeded
+     to France -- The scare about a hostile maritime descent --
+     Conference at the Admiralty -- The depletion of my Directorate to
+     build up G.H.Q. -- Inconvenience of this in the case of the
+     section dealing with special Intelligence services -- An example
+     of the trouble that arose at the very start -- This points to a
+     misunderstanding of the relative importance of the War Office and
+     of G.H.Q. -- Sir J. French's responsibility for this, Sir C.
+     Douglas not really responsible -- Colonel Dallas enumerates the
+     great numerical resources of Germany -- Lord Kitchener's
+     immediate recognition of the realities of the situation -- Sir J.
+     French's suggestion that Lord Kitchener should be
+     commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Force indicated
+     misconception of the position of affairs.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+     EARLY DAYS AT THE WAR OFFICE............................. 18
+
+     Plan of issuing _communiques_ given up owing to the disposition
+     to conceal reverses that manifested itself -- Direct telephonic
+     communication with the battlefield in Belgium -- A strange
+     attempt to withhold news as to the fall of Brussels -- Anxiety
+     during the retreat from Mons -- The work of the Topographical
+     Section at that time -- Arrival of refugee officers and other
+     ranks at the War Office -- One of the Royal Irish affords
+     valuable information -- Candidates for the appointment of
+     "Intelligence Officer" -- How one dealt with recommendations in
+     regard to jobs -- Linguists -- The discoverer of interpreters,
+     fifty produced as if by magic -- The Boy Scouts in the War Office
+     -- An Admirable Crichton -- The scouts' effective method of
+     handling troublesome visitors -- Army chaplains in embryo -- A
+     famous cricketer doing his bit -- A beauty competition outside my
+     door -- The Eminent K.C. -- An impressive personality -- How he
+     benefits the community -- The Self-Appointed Spy-Catcher -- Gun
+     platforms concealed everywhere -- The hidden dangers in disused
+     coal mines in Kent -- Procuring officers for the New Armies --
+     "Bill" Elliot's unorthodox methods -- The Military Secretary's
+     branch meets with a set-back -- Visits from Lord Roberts -- His
+     suggestion as to the commander-in-chiefship in China -- His last
+     visit -- The Antwerp business -- The strategical situation with
+     regard to the Belgian field army -- The project of our Government
+     -- The despatch of the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry
+     Division to Belgian Flanders -- Organization of base and line of
+     communications overlooked -- A couple of transports "on their
+     own" come to a halt on the Goodwins -- Difficulty of the
+     strategical situation -- Death of Sir C. Douglas.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+     LORD KITCHENER'S START................................... 42
+
+     A first meeting with Lord Kitchener -- Sent up to see him in
+     Pretoria by his brother under unpromising conditions -- The
+     interview -- The Chief's pleasant reception -- A story of Lord K.
+     from the Sudan -- An unpleasant interview with him in August 1914
+     -- Rare meetings with him during the first two or three months --
+     His ignorance of War Office organization -- His lack of
+     acquaintance with many matters in connection with the existing
+     organization of the army -- His indisposition to listen to advice
+     on such subjects -- Lord K. shy of strangers -- His treatment of
+     the Territorial Forces -- Their weak point at the outset of
+     hostilities, not having the necessary strength to mobilize at war
+     establishment -- Effect of this on the general plans -- The way
+     the Territorials dwindled after taking the field -- Lord K.
+     inclined at first to pile up divisions without providing them
+     with the requisite reservoirs of reserves -- His feat in
+     organizing five regular divisions in addition to those in the
+     Expeditionary Force -- His immediate recognition of the
+     magnitude of the contest -- He makes things hum in the War Office
+     -- His differences of opinion with G.H.Q. -- The inability of
+     G.H.Q. to realize that a vast expansion of the military forces
+     was the matter of primary importance -- Lord K.'s relations with
+     Sir J. French -- The despatch of Sir H. Smith-Dorrien to command
+     the Second Corps -- Sir J. French not well treated at the time of
+     the Antwerp affair -- The relegation of the General Staff at the
+     War Office to the background in the early days -- Question
+     whether this was entirely due to its having suffered in
+     efficiency by the withdrawals which took place on mobilization --
+     The General Staff only eliminated in respect to operations.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+     LORD KITCHENER'S LATER RECORD............................ 60
+
+     The munitions question and the Dardanelles to be dealt with later
+     -- The Alexandretta project of the winter of 1914-15 -- Such an
+     operation presented little difficulty then -- H.M.S. _Doris'_
+     doings -- The scheme abandoned -- I am sent to Paris about the
+     Italian conventions just after the Dardanelles landings --
+     Concern at the situation after the troops had got ashore at
+     Helles and Anzac -- A talk with Lord K. and Sir E. Grey -- Its
+     consequences -- Lord K. seemed to have lost some of his
+     confidence in his own judgement with regard to operations
+     questions -- The question of the withdrawal of the _Queen
+     Elizabeth_ from the Aegean -- The discussion about it at the
+     Admiralty -- Lord K.'s inability to take some of his colleagues
+     at their own valuation -- Does not know some of their names --
+     Another officer of distinction gets them mixed up in his mind --
+     Lord K.'s disappointment at the early failures of the New Army
+     divisions -- His impatience when he wanted anything in a hurry --
+     My own experiences -- Typists' idiosyncrasies aggravate the
+     trouble -- Lord K. in an unreasonable mood -- His knowledge of
+     French -- His skilful handling of a Portuguese mission -- His
+     readiness to see foreign officers when asked to do so -- How he
+     handled them -- The Serbian Military Attache asks for approval of
+     an attack by his country upon Bulgaria at the time of Bulgarian
+     mobilization -- A dramatic interview with Lord K. -- Confidence
+     placed in him with regard to munitions by the Russians -- His
+     speeches in the House of Lords -- The heat of his room -- His
+     preoccupation about the safety of Egypt -- He disapproves of the
+     General Staff plan with regard to its defence -- His attitude
+     with regard to national service -- His difficulties in this
+     matter -- His anxiety to have a reserve in hand for delivering
+     the decisive blow in the war -- My last meeting with him -- His
+     pleasure in going to Russia -- His failure to accomplish his
+     mission, a great disaster to the Entente cause -- A final word
+     about him -- He did more than any man on the side of the Allies
+     to win the war -- Fitz.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+     THE DARDANELLES.......................................... 86
+
+     The Tabah incident -- The Dardanelles memorandum of 1906 --
+     Special steps taken with regard to it by Sir H.
+     Campbell-Bannerman -- Mr. Churchill first raises the question --
+     My conference with him in October 1914 -- The naval project
+     against the Straits -- Its fundamental errors -- Would never have
+     been carried into effect had there been a conference between the
+     Naval War Staff and the General Staff -- The bad start -- The
+     causes of the final failure on the 18th of March -- Lord K.'s
+     instructions to Sir I. Hamilton -- The question of the packing of
+     the transports -- Sir I. Hamilton's complaint as to there being
+     no plan prepared -- The 1906 memorandum -- Sir Ian's complaint
+     about insufficient information -- How the 1906 memorandum
+     affected this question -- Misunderstanding as to the difficulty
+     of obtaining information -- The information not in reality so
+     defective -- My anxiety at the time of the first landing -- The
+     plan, a failure by early in May -- Impossibility of sending
+     reinforcements then -- Question whether the delay in sending out
+     reinforcements greatly affected the result in August 1915 -- The
+     Dardanelles Committee -- Its anxiety -- Sir E. Carson and Mr.
+     Churchill, allies -- The question of clearing out -- My
+     disinclination to accept the principle before September -- Sir C.
+     Monro sent out -- The delay of the Government in deciding -- Lord
+     K. proceeds to the Aegean -- My own experiences -- A trip to
+     Paris with a special message to the French Government -- Sent on
+     a fool's errand, thanks to the Cabinet -- A notable State paper
+     on the subject -- Mr. Lloyd George and the "sanhedrin" --
+     Decision to evacuate only Anzac and Suvla -- Sir W. Robertson
+     arrives and orders sent to evacuate Helles -- I give up the
+     appointment of D.M.O.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+     SOME EXPERIENCES IN THE WAR OFFICE...................... 107
+
+     A reversion to earlier dates -- The statisticians in the winter
+     of 1914-15 -- The efforts to prove that German man-power would
+     shortly give out -- Lack of the necessary premises upon which to
+     found such calculations -- Views on the maritime blockade -- The
+     projects for operations against the Belgian coast district in
+     the winter of 1914-15 -- Nature of my staff -- The "dug-outs" --
+     The services of one of them, "Z" -- His care of me in foreign
+     parts -- His activities in other Departments of State -- An
+     alarming discovery -- How "Z" grappled with a threatening
+     situation -- He hears about the Admiralty working on the Tanks --
+     The cold-shouldering of Colonel Swinton when he raised this
+     question at the War Office in January 1915 -- Lord Fisher
+     proposes to construct large numbers of motor-lighters, and I am
+     told off to go into the matter with him -- The Baltic project --
+     The way it was approached -- Meetings with Lord Fisher -- The
+     "beetles" -- Visits from the First Sea Lord -- The question of
+     secrecy in connection with war operations -- A parable -- The
+     land service behind the sea service in this matter -- Interviews
+     with Mr. Asquith -- His ways on such occasions.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+     FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN THE WAR OFFICE................... 127
+
+     Varied nature of my responsibilities -- Inconvenience caused by a
+     Heath-Caldwell being a brother-Director on the General Staff --
+     An interview with Lord Methuen -- The Man of Business -- His
+     methods when in charge of a Government Department -- War Office
+     branches under Men of Business -- The art of advertisement --
+     This not understood by War Office officials -- The paltry staff
+     and accommodation at the disposal of the Director of Supplies and
+     Transport, and what was accomplished -- Good work of the
+     Committee of Imperial Defence in providing certain organizations
+     for special purposes before the war -- The contre-espionage
+     branch -- The Government's singular conduct on the occasion of
+     the first enemy spy being executed at the Tower -- The cable
+     censorship -- The post office censorship -- A visit from Admiral
+     Bacon -- His plan of landing troops by night at Ostend -- Some
+     observations on the subject -- Sir J. Wolfe-Murray leaves the War
+     Office -- An appreciation of his work -- The Dardanelles papers
+     to be presented to Parliament referred to me -- My action in the
+     matter and the appointment of the Dardanelles Committee in
+     consequence -- Mr. Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War --
+     His activities -- I act as D.C.I.G.S. for a month -- Sound
+     organization introduced by Sir W. Robertson -- Normal
+     trench-warfare casualties and battle casualties -- I learn the
+     facts about the strengths of the different armies in the field --
+     Troubles with the Cabinet over man-power -- Question of
+     resignation of the Army Council -- The Tank Corps and Tanks --
+     The War Office helps in the reorganization of the Admiralty --
+     Some of the War Cabinet want to divert troops to the Isonzo --
+     The folly of such a plan -- Objections to it indicated --
+     Arrival of General Pershing in London -- I form one of the party
+     that proceeds to Devonport to meet Colonel House and the United
+     States Commissioners -- Its adventures -- Admirals adrift -- Mr.
+     Balfour meets the Commissioners at Paddington.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+     THE NEAR EAST........................................... 152
+
+     The first talk about Salonika -- The railway and the port -- The
+     question of operations based on Macedonia at the end of 1914 --
+     Failure of "easterners" to realize that the Western Front was
+     Germany's weakest front -- Question whether it might not have
+     been better to go to Salonika than to the Dardanelles --
+     Objections to this plan -- The problem of Bulgaria --
+     Consequences of the Russian _debacle_ -- Difficulty of the Near
+     Eastern problem in the early summer -- An example of how the
+     Dardanelles Committee approached it -- Awkwardness of the problem
+     after the failure of Sir I. Hamilton's August offensive -- The
+     Bulgarian attitude -- Entente's objection to Serbia attacking
+     Bulgaria -- I am ordered to Salonika, but order countermanded --
+     The disaster to Serbia -- Hard to say what ought to have been
+     done -- Real mistake, the failure to abandon the Dardanelles
+     enterprise in May -- The French attitude about Salonika --
+     General Sarrail -- French General Staff impressed with War Office
+     information concerning Macedonia -- Unsatisfactory situation at
+     the end of 1915 -- The Salonika business a blunder all through --
+     Eventual success does not alter this.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+     OTHER SIDE-SHOWS........................................ 170
+
+     Three categories of side-shows -- The Jackson Committee -- The
+     Admiralty's attitude -- The Pacific, Duala, Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam,
+     Oceania, the Wireless Stations -- Kiao Chao -- The Shatt-el-Arab
+     -- Egypt -- Question whether the Australasian forces ought to
+     have been kept for the East -- The East African operations -- Our
+     lack of preparation for a campaign in this quarter -- Something
+     wrong -- My own visit to Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam in 1908 -- The
+     bad start of the campaign -- Question of utilizing South African
+     troops to restore the situation -- How this was managed --
+     Reasons why this was a justifiable side-show -- Mesopotamia --
+     The War Office ought to have interfered -- The question of an
+     advance on Baghdad by General Townshend suddenly referred to the
+     General Staff -- Our mistake -- The question of Egyptian defence
+     in the latter part of 1915 -- The Alexandretta project -- A later
+     Alexandretta project propounded by the War Cabinet in 1917 -- Its
+     absurdity -- The amateur strategist on the war-path -- The
+     Palestine campaign of 1918 carried out almost entirely by troops
+     not required on the Western Front, and therefore a legitimate
+     side-show -- The same principle to some extent holds good with
+     regard to the conquest of Mesopotamia -- The Downing Street
+     project to substitute Sir W. Robertson for Sir C. Monro, a
+     miss-fire.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+     THE MUNITIONS QUESTION.................................. 190
+
+     Mr. Asquith's Newcastle speech -- The mischief that it did -- The
+     time that must elapse before any great expansion in output of
+     munitions can begin to materialize -- The situation analogous to
+     that of a building -- The Ministry of Munitions was given and
+     took the credit for the expansion in output for the year
+     subsequent to its creation, which was in reality the work of the
+     War Office -- The Northcliffe Press stunt about shell shortage --
+     Its misleading character -- Sir H. Dalziel's attack upon General
+     von Donop in the House -- Mr. Lloyd George's reply -- A
+     discreditable episode -- Misapprehension on the subject of the
+     army's preparedness for war in respect to material --
+     Misunderstanding as to the machine-gun position -- Lord French's
+     attack upon the War Office with regard to Munitions -- His
+     responsibility for the lack of heavy artillery -- The matter
+     taken up at the War Office before he ever raised it from G.H.Q.
+     -- His responsibility for the absence of high-explosive shell for
+     our field artillery -- A misconception as to the role of the
+     General Staff -- The serious difficulty that arose with regard to
+     this ammunition owing to prematures -- The misstatements in
+     "_1914_" as to the amount of artillery ammunition which was sent
+     across France to the Dardanelles -- Exaggerated estimates by
+     factories as to what they would be able to turn out -- Their
+     estimates discounted as a result of later experiences -- The
+     Munitions Ministry not confined to its proper job -- The incident
+     of 400 Tanks -- Conclusion.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+     COUNCILS, COMMITTEES, AND CABINETS...................... 208
+
+     The responsibilities of experts at War Councils -- The Rt. Hon.
+     A. Fisher's views -- Discussion as to whether these meet the case
+     -- Under the War Cabinet system, the question does not arise --
+     The Committee of Imperial Defence merged in the War Council early
+     in the conflict -- The Dardanelles Committee -- Finding a formula
+     -- Mr. Churchill backs up Sir I. Hamilton -- The spirit of
+     compromise -- The Cabinet carrying on _pari passu_ with the
+     Dardanelles Committee -- Personal experiences with the Cabinet --
+     The War Council which succeeded the Dardanelles Committee -- An
+     illustration of the value of the War Cabinet system -- Some of
+     its inconveniences -- Ministers -- Mr. Henderson -- Sir E. Carson
+     -- Mr. Bonar Law -- The question of resignation of individuals --
+     Lord Curzon -- Mr. Churchill -- Mr. Lloyd George.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+     SOME INTER-ALLIES CONFERENCES........................... 222
+
+     The Conference with the Italians in Paris in April-May 1915 --
+     Its constitution -- Italians anxious that Allies should deliver
+     big offensive simultaneously with advance of Italian army --
+     Impossibility of giving a guarantee -- Difficulties over the
+     naval proposals -- Banquet given by M. Millerand at the War
+     Office -- A visit to the front -- Impressions -- Mr. Churchill
+     turns up unexpectedly -- A conference with General Joffre at
+     Chantilly on Salonika -- Its unsatisfactory character -- Admiral
+     Gamble races "Grandpere" and suffers discomfiture -- A
+     distinguished party proceed to Paris -- A formal conference with
+     the French Government -- Messrs. Asquith, Grey and Lloyd George
+     as linguists -- The French attitude over Salonika -- Sir W.
+     Robertson gives his views -- The decision -- Dinner at the Elysee
+     -- Return to London -- Mr. Lloyd George and the soldiers on the
+     Boulogne jetty -- Points of the destroyer as a yacht -- Mr.
+     Balfour and Sir W. Robertson afloat -- A chatty dinner on our
+     side of the Channel -- Difficulty over Russian munitions owing to
+     a Chantilly conference -- A conference at the War Office -- Mr.
+     Lloyd George as chairman -- M. Mantoux.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+     A FIRST MISSION TO RUSSIA............................... 237
+
+     Reasons for Mission -- An effectual staff officer -- Our
+     distinguished representatives in Scandinavia -- The journey --
+     Stockholm -- Lapps -- Crossing the frontier at Haparanda --
+     Arrival at Petrograd -- Sir G. Buchanan -- Interviews with
+     General Polivanoff, Admiral Grigorovitch and M. Sazonoff --
+     Imperial vehicles -- Petrograd -- We proceed to the Stavka --
+     Improper use of the title "Tsar" -- The Imperial headquarters --
+     Meeting with the Emperor -- Two disconcerting incidents --
+     Nicholas II. -- His charm -- His admiration for Lord Kitchener's
+     work -- Conference with General Alexeieff -- Mohileff -- Service
+     in the church in honour of the Grand Duchess Tatiana's birthday
+     -- Return to Petrograd -- A rencontre with an archbishop -- The
+     nuisance of swords -- Return home.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+     A SECOND MISSION TO RUSSIA.............................. 253
+
+     Object of this second mission -- The general military situation
+     -- Verdun and Kut -- Baron Meyendorff -- We partially adopt
+     Russian uniform -- Stay in Petrograd -- Sir Mark Sykes --
+     Presentation of decorations at the Admiralty -- Mohileff --
+     Conference with General Alexeieff -- He raises the question of an
+     expedition to Alexandretta -- Asks for heavy artillery -- The
+     Emperor -- A conversation with him -- The dismissal of Polivanoff
+     -- Disquieting political conditions in Russia -- Nicholas II.'s
+     attitude -- The journey to Tiflis -- We emerge from the snow near
+     the Sea of Azov -- Caucasia -- Tiflis -- General Yanushkhevitch
+     -- Conference with the Grand Duke Nicholas -- Proposes that we
+     should smash Turkey -- Constantinople? -- Major Marsh -- The
+     Grand Duke -- Presenting the G.C.M.G. to General Yudenitch -- Our
+     stay at Tiflis -- Proceed to Batoum -- A day at Batoum -- Visit
+     to the hospital ship _Portugal_ -- Proceed by destroyer to Off --
+     Sinking of the _Portugal_ -- Off -- General Liakoff -- A ride to
+     the scene of a very recent fight -- A fine view -- The field
+     force dependent upon maritime communications -- Landing
+     difficulties -- Return to Tiflis -- A gala dinner at the palace
+     -- Journey to Sarikamish -- Russian pronunciation of names --
+     Kars -- Greeting the troops -- One of the forts -- Welcome at
+     Sarikamish -- General Savitzky -- Russian hospitality -- The myth
+     about Russians being good linguists -- A drive in a blizzard --
+     Colonel Maslianikoff describes his victory over the Turks in
+     December 1914, on the site of his command post -- Our visit to
+     this part of the world much appreciated -- A final interview with
+     the Grand Duke -- Proceed to Moscow -- The Kremlin -- View of
+     Moscow from the Sparrow Hills -- Visit to a hospital --
+     Observations on such visits -- A talk with our acting
+     Consul-General -- Back to Petrograd -- Conclusions drawn from
+     this journey through Russia -- Visit to Lady Sybil Grey's
+     hospital -- A youthful swashbuckler -- Return home -- We
+     encounter a battle-cruiser squadron on the move.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+     THE RUSSIAN BUNGLE...................................... 280
+
+     The Russian Revolution the worst disaster which befell the
+     Entente during the Great War -- The political situation in Russia
+     before that event much less difficult to deal with than had been
+     the political situation in the Near East in 1915 -- The Allies'
+     over-estimate of Russian strength in the early months of the war
+     -- We hear about the ammunition shortage first from Japan --
+     Presumable cause of the breakdown -- The Grand Duke Nicholas'
+     difficulties in the early months -- Great improvement effected in
+     respect to munitions subsequent to the summer of 1915 -- Figures
+     -- Satisfactory outlook for the campaign of 1917 -- Political
+     situation goes from bad to worse -- Russian mission to London; no
+     steps taken by our Government -- Our representatives in Russia --
+     Situation at the end of 1916 -- A private letter to Mr. Lloyd
+     George -- The Milner Mission to Russia -- Its failure to
+     interpret the portents -- Had Lord Kitchener got out it might
+     have made all the difference -- Some excuse for our blundering
+     subsequent to the Revolution -- The delay in respect to action in
+     Siberia and at Vladivostok.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+     CATERING FOR THE ALLIES................................. 293
+
+     The appointment of Colonel Ellershaw to look after Russian
+     munition supplies -- His remarkable success -- I take over his
+     branch after his death -- Gradual alteration of its functions --
+     The Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement -- Its efficiency
+     -- The despatch of goods to Russia -- Russian technical abilities
+     in advance of their organizing power -- The flame projector and
+     the Stokes mortar -- Drawings and specifications of Tanks -- An
+     early contretemps in dealing with a Russian military delegate --
+     Misadventure in connection with a 9.2-inch howitzer --
+     Difficulties at the northern Russian ports -- The American
+     contracts -- The Russian Revolution -- This transforms the whole
+     position as to supplies -- Roumania -- Statesmen in conflict --
+     Dealings with the Allies' delegates in general -- Occasional
+     difficulties -- Helpfulness of the United States representatives
+     -- The Greek muddle -- Getting it disentangled -- Great delays in
+     this country and in France in fitting out the Greeks, and their
+     consequences -- Serbian supplies -- The command in Macedonia
+     ought on administrative grounds to have been in British hands.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+     THE PRESS............................................... 310
+
+     The constant newspaper attacks upon the War Office -- Often arise
+     from misunderstandings or sheer ignorance -- The mistake made
+     with regard to war correspondents at the start -- The pre-war
+     intentions of the General Staff -- How they were set on one side
+     -- Inconvenience of this from the War Office point of view -- A
+     breach of faith -- The mischievous optimism of newspapers in the
+     early days -- Tendency of the military authorities to conceal bad
+     news -- Experts at fault in the Press -- Tendency to take the
+     Press too seriously in this country -- Some of its blunders
+     during the war -- A proposal to put German officer prisoners on
+     board transports as a protection -- A silly mistake over the
+     promotion of general-officers -- Why were Tanks not adopted
+     before the war! -- A paean about Sukhomlinoff -- A gross
+     misstatement -- Temporary officers and high positions in the
+     field -- A suggestion that the Press should censor itself in time
+     of war; its absurdity -- The Press Bureau -- Some of its mistakes
+     -- Information allowed to appear which should have been censored
+     -- Difficulties of the censors -- The case of the shell shortage
+     -- Difficulty of laying down rules for the guidance of censors --
+     The Press and air-raids -- A newspaper proprietor placed at the
+     head of the Air Service -- The result -- The question of
+     announcing the names of units that have distinguished themselves
+     -- Conclusion.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+     SOME CRITICISMS, SUGGESTIONS, AND GENERALITIES.......... 328
+
+     Post-war extravagance -- The Office of Works lavish all through
+     -- The Treasury -- Its unpopularity in the spending departments
+     -- The Finance Branch of the War Office -- Suggestions -- The
+     change with regard to saluting -- Red tabs and red cap-bands -- A
+     Staff dandy in the West -- The age of general-officers --
+     Position of the General Staff in the War Office -- The project of
+     a Defence Ministry -- No excuse for it except with regard to the
+     air services, and that not a sufficient excuse -- Confusion
+     between the question of a Defence Ministry and that of the
+     Imperial General Staff -- The time which must elapse before newly
+     constituted units can be fully depended upon, one of the most
+     important lessons for the public to realize -- This proved to be
+     the case in almost every theatre and in the military forces of
+     almost every belligerent -- Misapprehensions about South Africa
+     -- Improvised units could not have done what the "Old
+     Contemptibles" did -- Conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
+
+     Unfair disparagement of the War Office during the war --
+     Difficulties under which it suffered owing to pre-war misconduct
+     of the Government -- The army prepared, the Government and the
+     country unprepared -- My visit to German districts on the Belgian
+     and Luxemburg frontiers in June 1914 -- The German railway
+     preparations -- The plan of the Great General Staff indicated by
+     these -- The Aldershot Command at exercise -- I am summoned to
+     London by General H. Wilson -- Informed of contemplated
+     appointment to be D.M.O. -- The unsatisfactory organization of
+     the Military Operations Directorate -- An illustration of this
+     from pre-war days -- G.H.Q. rather a nuisance until they
+     proceeded to France -- The scare about a hostile maritime descent
+     -- Conference at the Admiralty -- The depletion of my Directorate
+     to build up G.H.Q. -- Inconvenience of this in the case of the
+     section dealing with special Intelligence services -- An example
+     of the trouble that arose at the very start -- This points to a
+     misunderstanding of the relative importance of the War Office and
+     of G.H.Q. -- Sir J. French's responsibility for this, Sir C.
+     Douglas not really responsible -- Colonel Dallas enumerates the
+     great numerical resources of Germany -- Lord Kitchener's
+     immediate recognition of the realities of the situation -- Sir J.
+     French's suggestion that Lord Kitchener should be
+     Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force indicated
+     misconception of the position of affairs.
+
+
+In a record of experiences during the Great War that were for the most
+part undergone within the War Office itself, it is impossible to
+overcome the temptation to draw attention at the start to the
+unreasonably disparaging attitude towards that institution which has
+been adopted so generally throughout the country. Nobody will contend
+that hideous blunders were not committed by some departments of the
+central administration of the Army in Whitehall during the progress of
+the struggle. It has to be admitted that considerable sums of money
+were from time to time wasted--it could hardly be otherwise in such
+strenuous times. A regrettable lack of foresight was undoubtedly
+displayed in some particulars. But tremendous difficulties,
+difficulties for the existence of which the military authorities were
+nowise to blame, had on the other hand to be overcome--and they were
+overcome. Nor can the War Office be robbed of its claim to have borne
+the chief share in performing what was the greatest miracle of all the
+miracles performed during the course of the contest. Within the space
+of less than two years the United Kingdom was, mainly by the exertions
+of the War Office, transformed into a Great Military Power. That
+achievement covers up many transgressions.
+
+It has to be remembered that in this matter the detractors had it all
+their own way during the struggle. Anybody harbouring a grievance,
+real or imaginary, was at liberty to air his wrongs, whereas the
+mouths of soldiers in a position to reply had perforce to remain
+closed and have to a great extent still to remain closed. The
+disgruntled had the field pretty well to themselves. Ridiculous
+stories for which there was not one atom of foundation have gained
+currency, either because those who knew the truth were precluded by
+their official status from revealing the facts or because no one took
+the trouble to contradict the absurdities. Some of these yarns saw the
+light in the newspapers, and the credulity of the public in accepting
+everything that happens to appear in the Press is one of the
+curiosities of the age. Not, however, that many of the criticisms of
+which the War Office was the subject during the protracted broil were
+not fully warranted. Some of them were indeed most helpful. But others
+were based on a positively grovelling ignorance of the circumstances
+governing the subject at issue. Surely it is an odd thing that,
+whereas your layman will shy at committing himself in regard to legal
+problems, will not dream of debating medical questions, will shrink
+from expressing opinions on matters involving acquaintance with
+technical science, will even be somewhat guarded in his utterances
+concerning the organization and handling of fleets, everybody is eager
+to lay the law down respecting the conduct of war on land.
+
+A reference has been made above to the extraordinary difficulties
+under which the War Office laboured during the war. The greatest of
+these, at all events during the early days, was the total
+misconception of the international situation of which H.M. Government
+had been guilty--or had apparently been guilty--during the years
+immediately preceding the outbreak of hostilities. No intelligible and
+satisfactory explanation of this has ever been put forward. Their
+conduct in this connection had been the conduct of fools, or of
+knaves, or of liars. They had been acting as fools if they had failed
+to interpret auguries which presented no difficulty whatever to people
+of ordinary intelligence who took the trouble to watch events. They
+had been acting as knaves if they had been drawing their salaries and
+had not earned them by making themselves acquainted with facts which
+it was their bounden duty to know. They had been acting as liars if,
+when fully aware of the German preparations for aggressive war and of
+what these portended, they had deliberately deceived and hoodwinked
+the countrymen who trusted them. (Personally, I should be disposed to
+acquit them of having been fools or knaves--but I may be wrong.)
+Several Ministers had indeed deliberately stated in their places in
+Parliament that the nation's military arrangements were not framed to
+meet anything beyond the despatch to an oversea theatre of war of four
+out of the six divisions of our Expeditionary Force! One of the gang
+had even been unable "to conceive circumstances in which continental
+operations by our troops would not be a crime against the people of
+this country."
+
+Much has been said and written since 1914 concerning the unpreparedness
+of the army for war. But the truth is that the army was not
+unprepared for that limited-liability, pill-to-stop-an-earthquake
+theory of making war which represented the programme of Mr. Asquith
+and his colleagues before the blow fell. Take it all round, the
+Expeditionary Force was as efficient as any allied or hostile army
+which took the field. It was almost as well prepared for the supreme
+test in respect to equipment as it was in respect to leadership and
+training. The country and the Government, not the army, were
+unprepared. There was little wrong with the military forces except
+that they represented merely a drop in the ocean, that they
+constituted no more than an advanced guard to legions which did not
+exist. Still one must acknowledge that (as will be pointed out further
+on) even some of our highest military authorities did not realize what
+an insignificant asset our splendid little Expeditionary Force would
+stand for in a great European war, nor to have grasped when the crash
+came that the matter of paramount importance in connection with the
+conduct of the struggle on land was the creation of a host of fighting
+men reaching such dimensions as to render it competent to play a
+really vital role in achieving victory for the Entente.
+
+As it happened, I had proceeded as a private individual in the month
+of June 1914 to inspect the German railway developments directed
+towards the frontiers of Belgium and of Luxemburg. This was an
+illuminating, indeed an ominous, experience. Entering the Kaiser's
+dominions by the route from the town of Luxemburg to Treves, one came
+of a sudden upon a colossal detraining station that was not quite
+completed, fulfilling no conceivable peaceful object and dumped down
+on the very frontier--anything more barefaced it would be difficult to
+conceive. Treves itself, three or four miles on, constituted a vast
+railway centre, and three miles or so yet farther along there was its
+counterpart in another great railway centre where there was no town at
+all. You got Euston, Liverpool Street, and Waterloo--only the lines
+and sidings, of course--grown up like mushrooms in a non-populous and
+non-industrial region, and at the very gates of a little State of
+which Germany had guaranteed the neutrality.
+
+Traversing the region to the north of the Moselle along the western
+German border-line, this proved to be a somewhat barren, partly
+woodland, partly moorland, tract, sparsely inhabited as Radnor and
+Strathspey; and yet this unproductive district had become a network of
+railway communications. Elaborate detraining stations were passed
+every few miles. One constantly came upon those costly overhead
+cross-over places, where one set of lines is carried right over the
+top of another set at a junction, so that continuous traffic going one
+way shall not be checked by traffic coming in from the side and
+proceeding in the opposite direction--a plan seldom adopted at our
+most important railway centres. On one stretch of perhaps half-a-dozen
+miles connecting two insignificant townships were to be seen eight
+lines running parallel to each other. Twopenny-halfpenny little trains
+doddered along, occasionally taking up or putting down a single
+passenger at some halting-place that was large enough to serve a
+Coventry or a Croydon. The slopes of the cuttings and sidings were
+destitute of herbage; the bricks of the culverts and bridges showed
+them by the colour to be brand-new; all this construction had taken
+place within the previous half-dozen years. Everything seemed to be
+absolutely ready except that one place on the Luxemburg frontier
+mentioned above, and that obviously could be completed in a few hours
+of smart work, if required.
+
+One had heard a good deal about the Belgians having filled in a gap on
+their side of the frontier so as to join up Malmedy with their internal
+railway system, and thus to establish a fresh through-connection
+between the Rhineland and the Meuse, so I travelled along this on my
+way back. But it was unimpressive. The drop from the rolling uplands
+about the camp of Elsenborn down to Malmedy gave rise to very steep
+gradients on the German side, and the single line of rail was so
+dilapidated and was so badly laid that, as we ran down with steam off,
+it hardly seemed safe for a short train of about half-a-dozen coaches.
+That the Great General Staff had no intention of making this a main
+line of advance appeared to be pretty clear. They meant the hosts that
+they would dispose of when the moment came, to sweep round by
+communications lying farther to the north, starting from about
+Aix-la-Chapelle and heading for the gap south of the Dutch enclave
+about Maestricht. The impression acquired during this flying visit was
+that for all practical purposes the Germans had everything ready for
+an immediate invasion of Belgium and Luxemburg when the crisis
+arrived, that they were simply awaiting the fall of the flag, that
+when war came they meant to make their main advance through Belgium,
+going wide, and that _pickelhaubes_ would be as the sands of the sea
+for number well beyond Liege within a very few days of the outbreak of
+hostilities. On getting home I compared notes with the Intelligence
+Section of the General Staff which was especially interested in these
+territories, but found little to tell them that they did not know
+already except with regard to a few very recently completed railway
+constructions. The General Staff hugged no illusions. They were not so
+silly as to suppose that the Teuton proposed to respect treaties in
+the event of the upheaval that was sure to come ere long.
+
+Having a house at Fleet that summer, I cycled over to beyond Camberley
+one day, just at the stage when coming events were beginning to cast
+their shadows before after the Serajevo assassinations, to watch the
+Aldershot Command at work, and talked long with many members of the
+Command and with some of the Staff College personnel who had turned
+out to see the show. Some of them--_e.g._ Lieut.-Colonels W. Thwaites
+and J. T. Burnett-Stuart and Major (or was it Captain?) W. E.
+Ironside--were to go far within the next five years. But there were
+also others whom I met that day for the last time--Brigadier-General
+Neil Findlay, commanding the artillery, who had been in the same room
+with me at the "Shop," and Lieut.-Colonel Adrian Grant-Duff of the
+Black Watch, excusing his presence in the firing-line on the plea that
+he "really _must_ see how his lads worked through the woodlands"; both
+had made the supreme sacrifice in France before the leaves were off
+the trees. How many are alive and unmaimed to-day of those fighting
+men of all ranks who buzzed about so cheerily amid the heather and the
+pine trees that afternoon, and who melted away so silently out of
+Aldershot a very few days later?
+
+The clouds thereafter gathered thicker from day to day, and on Friday
+morning, the 31st of July, I received a letter from General Henry
+Wilson, sent on from my town address, asking me to come and breakfast
+with him on the following day. I was going down to Winchester to see
+the Home Counties (Territorial) Division complete a long march from
+the east on their way to Salisbury Plain, and it happened to be
+inconvenient to go up to town that night, so I wired to Wilson to say
+I would call at his house on the Sunday. On getting back, late, to
+Fleet I however found a peremptory summons from him saying I must come
+and see him next day, and I went up in the morning. One could not
+foresee that that breakfast in Draycott Place to which I had been
+bidden was to take rank as a historic meal. Mr. Maxse has told the
+story of it in the pages of the _National Review_, and of how the
+movement was there started by which the Unionist leaders were got
+together from various quarters to bring pressure on the Government not
+to leave France in the lurch, a movement which culminated in Mr. Bonar
+Law's famous letter to Mr. Asquith.
+
+On meeting General Wilson at the War Office about noon he told me that
+I was to take his place as Director of Military Operations in case of
+mobilization, and he asked me to join as soon as possible. He further
+made me acquainted with the political situation, with the very
+unsatisfactory attitude which a proportion of the Cabinet were
+disposed to take up, and with the steps which Messrs. George Lloyd,
+Amery, Maxse, and others were taking to mobilize the Opposition
+leaders and to compel the Government to play the game. In the last
+conversation that I ever had with Lord Roberts, two or three days
+before the great Field-Marshal paid the visit to the Front which was
+so tragically cut short, he spoke enthusiastically of the services of
+Lloyd (now Sir George) on this occasion. In consequence of what I had
+learnt I joined at the War Office for duty on the Monday, although the
+arrangement was irregular and purely provisional for the moment,
+seeing that it had not yet been decided whether mobilization was to be
+ordained or not. But I found Wilson in much more buoyant mood after
+the week-end of anxiety, for he believed that Mr. Bonar Law's letter
+had proved the decisive factor. By this time we moreover knew that
+Germany had already violated the neutrality of Luxemburg and was
+threatening Belgium openly.
+
+I ought to mention here that this appointment to the post of Director
+of Military Operations came as a complete surprise--my not having been
+warned well in advance had been due to an oversight; up to within a
+few months earlier, when I had ceased to belong to the Reserve of
+Officers, having passed the age-limit for colonels, my fate in the
+event of general mobilization was to have been something high up on
+the staff of the Home Defence Army. One could entertain no illusions.
+Heavy responsibilities were involved in taking up such an appointment
+on the eve of war. After five years of civil life it was a large order
+to find myself suddenly thrust into such a job and to be called upon
+to take up charge of a War Office Directorate which I knew was
+overloaded. Ever since 1904, ever since the date when this Directorate
+had been set up by the Esher Committee as one item in the
+reconstitution of the office as a whole and when my section of the old
+Intelligence Division had been absorbed into it, I had insisted that
+this composite branch was an overburdened and improperly constituted
+one.
+
+For the Esher triumvirate had amalgamated "operations" and
+"intelligence," while they had deposited "home defence" in the
+Military Training Directorate. It was an absurd arrangement in
+peace-time, and one that was wholly unadapted to the conditions of a
+great war. Lord Esher and his colleagues would seem, however, to have
+been actuated by a fear lest the importance of home defence should
+overshadow that of preparation for oversea warfare if the two sets of
+duties were in one hand, and, inasmuch as they were making a start
+with the General Staff at Headquarters and bearing in mind former
+tendencies, they may have been right. They, moreover, hardly realized
+perhaps that intelligence must always be the handmaid of operations,
+and that it is in the interest of both that they should be kept quite
+distinct. It was natural that the first Chief of the General Staff to
+be appointed, Sir N. Lyttelton, should have hesitated to overset an
+organization which had been so recently laid down and which had been
+accepted by the Government as it stood, even if he recognized its
+unsuitability; but I have never been able to understand how his
+successors, Sir W. Nicholson and Sir J. French, failed to effect the
+rearrangement of duties which a sound system of administration
+imperatively called for. That my predecessors, Generals "Jimmy"
+Grierson, Spencer Ewart, and Henry Wilson, made no move in the matter
+is rendered the more intelligible to me by the fact that I took no
+steps in the matter myself, even when the need for a reorganization
+was driven home by the conditions brought about in the War Office
+during the early months of the Great War. Somehow one feels no
+irresistible impulse to abridge one's functions and to depreciate
+one's importance by one's own act, to lop off one's own members, so to
+speak. But when Sir W. Robertson turned up at the end of 1915 to
+become C.I.G.S. he straightway split my Directorate in two, and he
+thus put things at last on a proper footing.
+
+The incongruity of the Esher organization had, it may be mentioned,
+been well illustrated by an episode that occurred very shortly after
+the reconstitution of the War Office had been carried into effect in
+the spring of 1904. Under the distribution of duties then laid down,
+my section of the Operations Directorate dealt _inter alia_, with
+questions of coast defence in connection with our stations abroad,
+while a section of the Military Training Directorate dealt _inter
+alia_ with questions of coast defence in connection with our stations
+at home. It came about that the two sections issued instructions
+simultaneously about the same thing, and the instructions issued by
+the two sections were absolutely antagonistic. The consequence was
+that coast defence people at Malta came to be doing the thing one way,
+while those at Portsmouth came to be doing it exactly the opposite
+way, and that the War Office managed to give itself away and to expose
+itself to troublesome questionings. The blunder no doubt could be put
+down to lack of co-ordination; but the primary cause was the existence
+of a faulty organization under which two different branches at
+Headquarters were dealing with the one subject.
+
+The earliest experiences in the War Office in August 1914 amounted, it
+must be confessed, almost to a nightmare. There were huge maps working
+on rollers in my spacious office, and in particular there was one of
+vast dimensions portraying what even then was coming to be called the
+Western Front. During the week or so that elapsed before G.H.Q. of the
+Expeditionary Force proceeded to the theatre of war, its cream thought
+fit to spend the hours of suspense in creeping on tiptoe in and out of
+my apartment, clambering on and off a table which fronted this
+portentous map, discussing strategical problems in blood-curdling
+whispers, and every now and then expressing an earnest hope that this
+sort of thing was not a nuisance. It was a most intolerable nuisance,
+but they were persons of light and leading who could not be addressed
+in appropriate terms. As hour to hour passed, and H.M. Government
+could not make up its mind to give the word "go" to the Expeditionary
+Force, G.H.Q.'s language grew stronger and stronger until the walls
+resounded with expletives. It was not easy to concentrate one's
+attention upon questions arising in the performance of novel duties in
+a time of grave emergency under such conditions, and it was a genuine
+relief when the party took itself off to France.
+
+One was too busy to keep notes of what went on in those days and I am
+not sure of exact dates, but I think that it was on the 6th of August
+that a wire, which seemed on the face of it to be trustworthy, came to
+hand from a German port, to the effect that transports and troops were
+being collected there to convey a military force somewhither. This
+message caused the Government considerable concern and very nearly
+delayed the despatch of the Expeditionary Force across the Channel.
+One was too new to the business to take the proper steps to trace the
+source of that message, which, as far as I remember, purported to
+emanate from one of our consuls; but I have a strong suspicion that
+the message was faked--was really sent off by the Germans. Lord
+Kitchener had taken up the appointment of Secretary of State that
+morning, and in the afternoon he walked across Whitehall, accompanied
+by my immediate chief, Sir C. Douglas the C.I.G.S., General Kiggell,
+and myself, to discuss the position with Mr. Churchill and the chiefs
+of the Admiralty in the First Lord's room. Whitehall was rendered
+almost impassable by a mass of excited citizens, and Lord Kitchener on
+being recognized was wildly cheered. Nothing could have been clearer
+and more reassuring than Mr. Churchill's exposition of the naval
+arrangements to meet any attempt at a landing on our shores, and any
+one of the War Office quartette who may have been troubled with
+qualms--I had felt none myself--must have had his anxiety allayed.
+
+It will not be out of place to refer here to one aspect of the virtual
+emasculation of the General Staff at the War Office on mobilization
+that has not perhaps quite received the attention that it deserves.
+That, in spite of his being Director of Military Operations in
+Whitehall, General Wilson very properly accompanied the Expeditionary
+Force will hardly be disputed. He had established close and cordial
+relations with the French higher military authorities, he could talk
+French like a Parisian, he had worked out the details of the
+concentration of our troops on the farther side of the Channel months
+before, and he probably knew more about the theatre where our
+contingent was expected to operate than any man in the army. But he
+was not the only member of the Military Operations Directorate staff
+who disappeared; he took his right-hand man and his left-hand man in
+respect to actual operations with him. Nevertheless, as I was pretty
+familiar with the working of the War Office, and as the planting down
+of the Expeditionary Force beyond Le Cateau was effected, practically
+automatically, by the Movements branch under the Quartermaster-General,
+operations question in respect to the war in the West gave no great
+trouble until my Directorate had had time to settle down after a
+fashion in its new conditions.
+
+But the Intelligence side of General Wilson's Directorate included a
+branch which dealt with a number of matters with which no Director
+brought in from outside was likely to be well acquainted, and about
+which I knew nothing at all. Very few officers in the regular army are
+conversant with international law. Nor used they, in the days before
+1914, to interest themselves in the status of aliens when the country
+is engaged in hostilities, nor with problems of censorship of the post
+and telegraph services, nor with the relations between the military
+and the Press, nor yet with the organization, the maintenance, and the
+duties of a secret service. Before mobilization, all this was in the
+hands of a section under the D.M.O. which was in charge of Colonel
+(now Lieut.-General Sir G.) Macdonogh, who had made a special study
+of these matters, and who had devised a machinery for performing a
+number of duties in this country which on the outbreak of war
+necessarily assumed a cardinal importance and called for efficient
+administration at the hands of a large personnel, only to be got
+together when the emergency arose. But Colonel Macdonogh on
+mobilization took up an important appointment with the Expeditionary
+Force, and went off to France, carrying off his assistants with him.
+As far as personnel was concerned, this cupboard was left as bare as a
+fashionable lady's back when _en grande tenue_ in "Victory Year."
+Charge of it was assumed by an extremely capable and energetic
+substitute brought in from outside (Colonel D. L. MacEwen), who,
+however, suffered under the disability of knowing practically nothing
+about the peculiar class of work which he was suddenly called upon to
+take up.
+
+As an example of the extreme inconvenience which this caused, the
+following somewhat comical incident may be related. Three or four days
+after the declaration of war a brace of very distinguished civil
+servants, one representing the Foreign Office and the other the Home
+Office, came across Whitehall by appointment and with long faces, and
+the four of us sat solemnly round a table--they, Colonel MacEwen, and
+I. It appeared that we had been guilty of terrifying violations of
+international law. We had seized numbers of German reservists and
+German males of military age on board ships in British ports, and had
+consigned some of them to quarters designed for the accommodation of
+malefactors. This sort of thing would never do. Such steps had not
+been taken by belligerents in 1870, nor at the time of the American
+War of Secession, and I am not sure that Messrs. Mason and Slidell
+were not trotted out. The Foreign and Home Secretaries, the very
+distinguished civil servants declared, would not unlikely be agitated
+when they heard of the shocking affair. Soldiers, no doubt, were by
+nature abrupt and unconventional in their actions, and the Foreign and
+Home Offices would make every allowance, realizing that we had acted
+in good faith. But, hang it all--and they gazed at us in compassionate
+displeasure.
+
+Will it be believed? My assistant and I knew so little about our
+business that we did not fall upon that pair of pantaloons and rend
+them. We took them and their protestation quite seriously. We accepted
+their courteous, but uncompromising, rebuke like small boys caught
+stealing apples, whose better feelings have been appealed to. For the
+space of two or three hours, and until we had pulled ourselves
+together, we remained content, on the strength of doctrines enunciated
+by a couple of officials fossilized by having dwelt in a groove for
+years, to accept it as a principle that this tremendous conflict into
+which the Empire had been plunged at a moment's notice was to be a
+kid-glove transaction. Within three weeks the Foreign Office and the
+Home Office were, however, praying us in the War Office for goodness'
+sake to take all questions in connection with the internment and so
+forth of aliens entirely off their hands because they could make
+nothing of the business.
+
+The above reference to my having been virtually left in the lurch with
+regard to these, to me, occult matters is not made by way of
+complaint. It is made because it illustrates with signal force how
+completely the relative importance of the Expeditionary Force as
+compared to the task which the War Office had to face had been
+misunderstood when framing plans in advance for the anticipated
+emergency. Colonel Macdonogh became head of Sir J. French's
+Intelligence Department in the field. That was a very important
+appointment and one for which he was admirably fitted, but it was one
+which many other experienced officers in the army could have
+effectually filled. The appointment at the War Office which he gave up
+was one which no officer in the army was so well qualified--nor nearly
+so well qualified--to hold as he was, and it was at the outbreak of
+war incomparably the more important appointment of the two. The
+arrangement arrived at in respect to this matter indicated, in fact, a
+strange lack of sense of proportion. It argued a fundamental
+misconception of the military problem with which the country was
+confronted.
+
+In his book, "_1914_," in which he finds so much to say in
+disparagement of Lord Kitchener, Lord French has very frankly admitted
+his inability to foresee certain tactical developments in connection
+with heavy artillery and so forth, which actual experience in the
+field brought home to him within a few weeks of the opening of
+hostilities. Most of the superior French and German military
+authorities who held sway in the early days of the struggle would
+probably similarly plead guilty, for nobody in high places anticipated
+these developments. The Field-Marshal, on the other hand, makes no
+reference to any failure on his part to realize in advance the
+relatively insignificant part which our original Expeditionary Force
+would be able to play in the great contest. He makes no admission as
+to a misconception with regard to the paramount problem which faced
+the British military authorities as a whole after mobilization was
+decreed. He would not seem to have been aware, when a conflict of
+first-rate magnitude came upon us, that the creation of a great
+national army was of far greater consequence than the operations of
+the small body of troops which he took with him into the field. The
+action taken in connection with the personnel of the General Staff in
+Whitehall is significant evidence of the extent to which the whole
+situation had been misinterpreted.
+
+It may be urged that Sir J. French (as he then was) was not
+responsible. He had--under circumstances which will not have been
+forgotten--ceased to be Chief of the Imperial General Staff some four
+months before war broke out. But Sir Charles Douglas, who had then
+taken his place, although a resolute, experienced soldier, equipped
+with an almost unique knowledge of the army, was a deliberate,
+cautious Scot; he was the very last man to shirk responsibility and to
+shelter himself behind somebody else, but, on the other hand, he was
+not an impatient thruster who would be panting to be--in gunner's
+parlance--"re-teaming the battery before the old major was out of the
+gate." He accepted, and he was indeed bound to accept, the ideas of a
+predecessor of the highest standing in the Service, who had made a
+special study of campaigning possibilities under the conditions which
+actually arose in August 1914, and under whose aegis definite plans
+and administrative arrangements to meet the case had been elaborated
+beforehand with meticulous care. Enjoying all the advantages arising
+from having made a close study of the subject and from having an
+Intelligence Department brimming over with detailed information at his
+beck and call, Sir J. French entirely failed to grasp the extent and
+nature of the war in its early days. Lord Kitchener did. Suddenly
+summoned to take supreme military charge, a stranger to the War Office
+and enjoying none of Sir J. French's advantages, the new Secretary of
+State mastered the realities of the position at once by some sort of
+instinct, perceived what a stupendous effort would have to be made,
+took the long view from the start, and foretold that the struggle
+would last some years.
+
+It must have been about the 11th of August, three days before G.H.Q.
+crossed the Channel, that I went in with Sir John to see Colonel
+Dallas, the head of my Intelligence section dealing with Germany. One
+had been too busy during the previous few days to bother much about
+the German army, and at the time I knew little more about that
+formidable fighting machine than what was told in books of reference
+like the _Statesman's Year-book_, which gave full particulars about
+First Line Troops, but said uncommonly little about Reserve
+Formations. Information with regard to these could only be obtained
+from secret sources. What we were told by Dallas was a revelation to
+me. There seemed to be no end to the enemy's fighting resources. He
+kept on producing fresh batches of Reserve Divisions and Extra-Reserve
+Divisions, like a conjurer who produces huge glass bowls full of
+goldfish out of his waistcoat pocket. He seemed to be doing it on
+purpose--one felt quite angry with the man. But it was made plain to
+me that we were up against a tougher proposition than I had imagined.
+The Field-Marshal must have been, or at all events ought to have been,
+perfectly well aware of all this, seeing that he had been C.I.G.S. up
+till very recently, and had devoted special attention to the problems
+involved in a war with Germany.
+
+In a foot-note near the end of "_1914_," Lord French mentions having,
+on some occasion during the few days when war was still trembling in
+the balance, suggested to Lord Kitchener that they should repair
+together to the Prime Minister and propose that Lord Kitchener should
+be commander-in-chief of the field army, with him (French) as Chief of
+Staff. That was a self-sacrificing suggestion; but it surely indicates
+an absence of what Lord Haldane calls "clear thinking." Sir J. French
+had been organizing and training the Expeditionary Force for some
+years previously, knew all about it, was acquainted with its generals
+and staffs, was up-to-date in connection with progress in tactical
+details, and had studied the strategical situation in Belgium and
+France. Lord Kitchener had, on the other hand, been in civil
+employment and out of touch with most military questions for some
+considerable time previously. Lord Kitchener would have been thrown
+away commanding the Expeditionary Force. He was needed for the much
+more important position which he actually took up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+EARLY DAYS AT THE WAR OFFICE
+
+     Plan of issuing _communiques_ given up owing to the disposition
+     to conceal reverses that manifested itself -- Direct telephonic
+     communication with the battlefield in Belgium -- A strange
+     attempt to withhold news as to the fall of Brussels -- Anxiety
+     during the retreat from Mons -- The work of the Topographical
+     Section at that time -- Arrival of refugee officers and other
+     ranks at the War Office -- One of the Royal Irish affords
+     valuable information -- Candidates for the appointment of
+     "Intelligence Officer" -- How one dealt with recommendations in
+     regard to jobs -- Linguists -- The discoverer of interpreters,
+     fifty produced as if by magic -- The Boy Scouts in the War Office
+     -- An Admirable Crichton -- The scouts' effective method of
+     handling troublesome visitors -- Army chaplains in embryo -- A
+     famous cricketer doing his bit -- A beauty competition outside my
+     door -- The Eminent K.C. -- An impressive personality -- How he
+     benefits the community -- The Self-Appointed Spy-Catcher -- Gun
+     platforms concealed everywhere -- The hidden dangers in disused
+     coal mines in Kent -- Procuring officers for the New Armies --
+     "Bill" Elliot's unorthodox methods -- The Military Secretary's
+     branch meets with a set-back -- Visits from Lord Roberts -- His
+     suggestion as to the commander-in-chiefship in China -- His last
+     visit -- The Antwerp business -- The strategical situation with
+     regard to the Belgian field army -- The project of our Government
+     -- The despatch of the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry
+     Division to Belgian Flanders -- Organization of base and line of
+     communications overlooked -- A couple of transports "on their
+     own" come to a halt on the Goodwins -- Difficulty of the
+     strategical situation -- Death of Sir C. Douglas.
+
+
+It will be remembered that although our troops were not engaged during
+the first fortnight of the war, and were indeed never likely to be
+engaged so early, events moved quickly on the Western Front, and that
+the set-back encountered by the Germans when they tried to smother
+Liege without bringing up heavy artillery aroused a certain enthusiasm
+in this country. On taking stock of my duties, it had appeared to me
+that one of these would be the issue of reasoned _communiques_ to the
+Press from time to time, and I actually drafted one, designed to
+convey a warning as to excessive jubilation over incidents such as the
+momentary success of the defending side in the struggle for the
+stronghold on the Meuse, which appeared in all the newspapers. The
+following passage occurred in it: "The exaggeration into important
+triumphs of minor episodes in which the Allies are alleged to have
+gained the upper hand is misleading." But it speedily became apparent
+that the powers that be did not mean to be expansive in connection
+with incidents where our side was getting the worst of it, so the plan
+of issuing _communiques_ was abandoned almost at once.
+
+One soon learnt that Belgian resistance was being brushed aside by the
+enemy with comparative ease, and that such delay as the invaders had
+suffered before Liege did not very appreciably interfere with the
+plans of the German Great General Staff. Going one afternoon into the
+room occupied by the head of my Intelligence section which was charged
+with French and Belgian affairs, I found him on his telephone and
+holding up his hand to enjoin silence. He was speaking with the late
+General "Sandy" Du Cane, our representative with King Albert's forces
+in the field, who was at the moment actually on the battlefield and
+under fire. While I was in the room, Du Cane wound up the conversation
+with; "They're giving way all along the line. I'm off." A day or two
+after this the Boches were in Brussels, and one realized that our
+Expeditionary Force must very soon be in the thick of it.
+
+For some reason or other those in the highest places at the War Office
+hesitated to allow the news that Brussels had fallen to leak out to
+the public--an attitude at which the newspaper editors were not
+unnaturally incensed--and Mr. F. E. Smith, now Lord Birkenhead, who
+was head of the Press Bureau, came to see me that evening, and was
+outspoken as to the absurdity of this sort of thing. The matter did
+not, however, rest in my hands. The secretiveness in connection with
+reverses and contretemps which prevailed at that time, and which
+continued to prevail during the first year and a half of the
+war--during the very period when I had certain responsibilities in
+connection with such matters myself--seemed to me then, and seems to
+me now, to have been a mistake. It did our cause considerable harm, it
+delayed the putting forth of the full fighting strength of the British
+nation, it created irritation in the country when it came to be
+detected, and it even at times caused official reports which were
+perfectly in accordance with the facts to be regarded with suspicion.
+The point will be touched upon again in later chapters.
+
+Then came those grey days when we knew that the Entente plan of
+campaign had broken down, that the forces on our side were not
+satisfactorily disposed for staying the hostile rush, that the French
+were unable to hold their ground, and that our little army were sore
+beset and in full retreat before superior hosts. King's Messengers,
+the Duke of Marlborough and Major Hankey, came to see me, and told me
+of the atmosphere of grave anxiety prevalent at G.H.Q. A message from
+General Henry Wilson, written in pencil late at night on a leaf of a
+notebook, reached me, of so ominous a character (seeing that he
+assuredly was not one to quail) that I never showed it to anybody--not
+even to my chief, Sir C. Douglas. And yet, one felt somehow that we
+should pull through in spite of all, and even though the demands
+coming to hand for maps of regions in the very heart of France
+certainly conveyed no encouragement. One regretted that the country
+was being kept so much in the dark--the best is never got out of the
+Anglo-Saxon race until it is in a tight place. A special edition of
+the _Times_, issued on Sunday morning the 30th of August, which
+contained a somewhat lurid account of the retreat by some hysterical
+journalist, and which, it turned out, had been doctored by the head of
+the Press Bureau, caused great anger in some quarters. But for my
+part I rather welcomed it. Anything that would help to bring home to
+the public what they were up against was to the good. Whoever first
+made use of that pestilent phrase "business as usual," whether it was
+a Cabinet Minister, or a Fleet Street scribe, or some gag-merchant on
+the music-hall stage, had much to answer for.
+
+The Topographical Section under Colonel Hedley did fine work during
+those troubled days before the Battle of the Marne. It was in the
+highest degree gratifying to find a branch, for which one found
+oneself suddenly after a fashion responsible, to be capable of so
+promptly and effectually meeting emergencies. The Expeditionary Force
+had taken with it generous supplies of maps portraying the regions
+adjacent to the Franco-Belgian frontier, where it proposed to operate;
+a somewhat hasty retreat to a point right away back, south-east of
+Paris, had formed no part of its programme. A day or two after the
+first clash of arms near Mons, a wire arrived demanding the instant
+despatch of maps of the country as far to the rear as the Seine and
+the Marne. Now, as all units had to be supplied on a liberal scale,
+this meant hundreds of copies of each of a considerable number of
+different large-scale sheets, besides hundreds of copies of two or
+three more general small-scale sheets; nevertheless, the consignment
+was on its way before midnight. A day or two later G.H.Q. wired for
+maps as far back as Orleans, a day or two later, again, for maps as
+far as the mouth of the Loire, and yet a day or two later, for maps
+down to Bordeaux--this last request representing thousands of sheets.
+But on each occasion the demand was met within a few hours and without
+the slightest hitch. It was a remarkable achievement--an achievement
+attributable in part to military foresight dating back to the days
+when Messrs. Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill and Co., either
+deliberately or else as a result of sheer ignorance and ineptitude,
+were deceiving their countrymen as to the gravity of the German
+menace, an achievement attributable also in part to military
+administrative efficiency of a high order in a time of crisis. The
+Topographical Section, it should be added, was able to afford highly
+appreciated assistance to our French and Belgian allies in the matter
+of supplying them with maps of their own countries.
+
+During the first two or three weeks after fighting started, waifs and
+strays who had been run over by the Boches, but who had picked
+themselves up somehow and had fetched up at the coast, used to turn up
+at the War Office and to find their way to my department. For some
+reason or other they always presented themselves after dinner--like
+the coffee. The first arrival was a young cavalry officer, knocked
+off his horse in the preliminary encounters by what had evidently
+been the detonation of a well-pitched-up high-explosive, and who was
+still suffering from a touch of what we now know as shell-shock. He
+proved to be the very embodiment of effective military training,
+because, although he was to the last degree vague as to how he had got
+back across the Channel and only seemed to know that he had had a bath
+at the Cavalry Club, he was able to give most useful and detailed
+information as to what he had noted after recovering consciousness
+while making his way athwart the German trains and troops in reserve
+as they poured along behind Von Kluck's troops in front line. One
+observed the same thing in the case of another cavalry officer who
+arrived some days later, after a prolonged succession of tramps by
+night from the Sambre to Ostend. "You'll sleep well to-night," I
+remarked when thanking him for the valuable information that he had
+been able to impart--and of a sudden he looked ten years older. "I
+couldn't sleep a wink last night at Ostend," he muttered in a
+bewildered sort of way, "and I don't feel as if I'd ever sleep again."
+
+We did not wear uniform in the War Office for the first month or so,
+and one night about this time, on meeting a disreputable and
+suspicious-looking character on the stairs, garbed in the vesture
+affected by the foreign mechanic, I was debating whether to demand of
+the interloper what he was doing within the sacred precincts, when he
+abruptly accosted me with: "I say, d'you happen to know where in this
+infernal rabbit-warren a blighter called the Something of Military
+Operations hangs out?" His address indicated him to be a refugee
+officer looking for my department.
+
+These prodigals had such interesting experiences to recount that, in a
+weak moment, I gave instructions for them to be brought direct to me,
+and about 10 P.M. one night, when there happened to be a lot of
+unfinished stuff to be disposed of before repairing homewards, a
+tarnished-looking but otherwise smart and well-set-up private soldier
+was let loose on me. A colloquy somewhat as follows ensued:
+
+"What regiment?"
+
+"The Rile Irish, sorr." (He said this as if there was no other
+regiment--they always do.)
+
+"Ah! Well, and how have you got along back here?"
+
+"Sorr, it's the truth I'm tellin' ye, sorra ilse. Sure wasn't I
+marchin' and fightin' and hidin' and craalin' for wakes and wakes"
+(the Royal Irish could only have detrained at Le Cateau about ten days
+before) "before I gits to that place as they calls Boulong--a gran'
+place, sorr, wid quays and thruck like it was the North Waal--an' a
+fellah takes me to the Commandant, sorr, where I seen a major-man wid
+red tabs an' an eye like Polly-famous. 'Sorr,' sez I to him, sez I;
+sez I, 'it's gittin' back to the rigimint I'd be afther,' sez I.
+'Ye'll not,' sez he, 'divil a stir,' sez he; 'ye'll go to Lunnon,' sez
+he. 'Will I?' sez I. 'Ye will,' sez he; 'take him down to the boat at
+wanst, sergeant,' sez he, and the sergeant right turns me and marches
+me out. 'Sergeant dear,' sez I, 'sure why can't I be gittin' back to
+the rigimint?' sez I. 'Agh, t'hell out o' that,' sez he; 'sure didn't
+ye hear what the major bin and said?' sez he, an' he gin me over to a
+carpral--one on thim ogly Jocks, sorr--an' down we goes by the quays
+to the boat--a gran' boat, sorr, wid ladies an' childer an' Frinch an'
+Bilgians, an' all sorts, as minded me on the ould _Innisfallen_. D'y'
+iver know the ould _Innisfallen_, sorr, as sails from Carrk to some
+place as I misremember the name on, sorr?"
+
+"Crossed over on her once from Cork to Milford."
+
+"Ye did, yer honour--sorr, I mane? Glory be to God--to think o' that!
+Well, sorr, I'd a sup of tay at one on thim shtahls, sorr, an' the
+Jock gives me me papers an' puts me aboard, sorr. It's mostly onaisy
+in me inside I am, sorr, on the say, but it was beautiful calm
+an'----"
+
+"Yes, yes; but look here--Where was it you left your regiment?"
+
+"Is it me, sorr? Me lave me rigimint, sorr? Me wid three years' sarvis
+an' sorra intry in my shate at all, only two, wan time I was dthronk
+wid a cowld in me nose, sorr. Me lave me rigimint? It was the rigimint
+lift me, sorr. As I tell ye just now, we'd bin marchin' an' fightin'
+for wakes and wakes, an' it was tired I was, sorr, bate I was, an' we
+was havin' a halt, sorr; an' I sez to Mick Shehan from Mallow, as is
+in my platoon, 'Mick,' sez I. 'Tim,' sez he, wid his mouth full of
+shkoff. 'Mick,' sez I, 'it's gwan to have a shlape, I am,' sez I, 'an'
+ye'll wake me, Mick darlint, when the fall-in goes.' 'Begob an' why
+wouldn't I, Tim,' sez he, 'so I ain't shlapin' mysilf?' sez he. 'Ye'll
+no forgit, Mick,' sez I. 'Agh, shut yer mouth, why would I be the wan
+to forgit?' sez he. But whin I wuk up, the divil a rigimint was there
+at all, at all, only me, sorr; an' there was a lot of quare-lookin'
+chaps as I sinsed by the look on thim was Jarmins. I was concealed by
+a ditch,[1] an' settin' down by a bit o' whin, I was, sorr, or they
+seen me for sure. 'Phwat'll I do at all?' sez I to mysilf, sez I,
+an'--"
+
+                   [Footnote 1: _Anglice_, bank.]
+
+"Just stop a minute; where was all this?"
+
+"Where was it? Why, in Fraance, sorr, where ilse would it be? Well,
+sorr, as I was just startin' to tell ye, there was a lot of
+quare-lookin' chaps as I sinsed by the look of thim was Jarmins,
+an'----"
+
+"Yes, but good Lord, man, what was the name of the place in France
+where all this happened?"
+
+"Place is it, sorr? Sure it wasn't any place at all, but one of thim
+kind of places as the name on has shlipped me mimry, a bog,
+sorr--leastways it wasn't a bog as ye'd rightly call a bog in
+Oireland, sorr--no turf nor there wasn't no wather. I mind now, sorr!
+It was what the chaps at the 'Shott calls a 'hathe,' sorr. There was
+trees contagious, an' whins; sure wasn't I tellin' ye just now as I
+was settin' down by a bit of whin, sorr----"
+
+But it had been borne in on me that this had become a young man's job,
+so I succeeded, not without some difficulty, in consigning the gallant
+Royal Irishman--still pouring forth priceless intelligence
+material--into the hands of a messenger to be taken to the officer on
+duty. Manuals of instruction that deal with the subject of eliciting
+military information in time of war impress upon you that the Oriental
+always wants to tell you what he thinks you want him to tell you. But
+the Irishman tells you what he wants to tell you himself, and it isn't
+the least use trying to stop him.
+
+The Intelligence Department being--directly at home and indirectly
+abroad--under my control, I was much sought after in the early days,
+was almost snowed under, indeed, with applications and recommendations
+for the post of "Intelligence Officer." Bigwigs within the War Office
+itself, when they were bothered on paper about people, simply passed
+the note along as it stood with "D.M.O., can you do anything for this
+creature?" or something of that sort, scribbled in blue pencil at the
+top. One was treated as if one was a sort of unemployment bureau.
+Qualifications for this particular class of post turned out to be of
+the most varied kind. One young gentleman, who was declared to be a
+veritable jewel, was described as a pianist, fitted out with
+"technique almost equal to a professional." The leading characteristic
+of another candidate appeared to be his liability to fits. Algy, "a
+dear boy and _so_ good-looking," had spent a couple of months in Paris
+after leaving Eton a year or two back. This sounds terribly like
+petticoat influence; but resisting petticoat influence is, I can assure
+you, child's play compared to resisting Parliamentary influence. For
+good, straightforward, unblushing, shan't-take-no-for-an-answer
+jobbery, give me the M.P. They are sublime in their hardihood.
+
+My experience in these Whitehall purlieus during the war perhaps
+provides some explanation of the theory, so sedulously hugged by the
+community, that interest and influence are all-powerful inside the War
+Office portals. To be invited to take a hand in obtaining jobs for
+people about whom one knew nothing and cared less, in services with
+which one had no connection, was a daily event. The procedure that was
+followed in such cases was automatic and appropriate. A reply would be
+dictated intimating that one would do what one could--a mere form of
+words, needless to say, as one had not the slightest intention of
+doing anything. And yet, as often as not, there would be a
+disconcerting sequel. Profuse outpourings of gratitude in letter form
+would come to hand, two or three weeks later: Jimmy had got his job,
+entirely owing to one's efforts in his behalf: the memory of one's
+services in this sacred cause would be carried to the grave: might
+Jimmy call and express his feeling of obligation in person? One had
+not the faintest recollection of what all the bother was about; but it
+was easy to dictate another letter expressing one's gratification at
+the recognition of Jimmy's merits and one's heartfelt regret that
+owing to stress of work one would be unable to grant him an audience.
+To hint that the appointment had presumably been made by the
+responsible official, on the strength of an application received from
+Jimmy in proper form, that there had been no wheels within wheels, and
+that backstairs had never got beyond the first landing, would have
+been disobliging.
+
+Some applicants for "intelligence work" possessed, or gave out that
+they possessed, the gift of tongues, and the provision of interpreters
+was one of the many duties which had to be performed by the huge
+agglomeration of branches over which I exercised--or was supposed to
+exercise--sway. The subordinate charged with the provision had been
+retrieved from the Reserve of Officers and business pursuits, but
+retained the instincts of the soldier--a man with all his wits about
+him, but who sometimes positively frightened one by his unconventional
+procedure. One hardly likes to say such a thing of a man behind his
+back, but I really would not have been surprised to hear that, because
+he had been unable to concur in the views set out on it by other
+branches, he had put one of those bloated War Office files, on which
+one more or less automatically expresses dissent with the last minute
+without reading the remainder, into the fire. He made up his mind in a
+moment, which was irregular; and he generally made it up right, which
+was unprecedented. Experts in many outlandish vernaculars had to be
+found from the start, and he always managed to produce the article
+required at the shortest notice. As a matter of fact, he had laid
+hands upon a tame professor, whom he kept immured in a fastness
+somewhere in the attics, and who was always prepared to vouch for the
+proficiency of anybody in any language when required to do so.
+
+The first Divisions of the "Old Contemptibles" to proceed to the
+Continent were fitted out with interpreters by the French. But, for
+some reason or other, a Division going out to the front some few weeks
+later had not been prepared for, and so we suddenly found that we had
+to furnish it with its linguists at this end. But the chief of the
+subsection responsible for finding them proved fully equal to the
+occasion. "How many d'you want, sir?" he demanded. I intimated that
+the authorized establishment was about seventy, but that if we could
+find fifty under the circumstances we should have done very well.
+"I'll have them ready early to-morrow, sir," he remarked, as if it
+was the most ordinary thing in the world--and he did. For, next
+morning the passages in the immediate vicinity of the room which he
+graced with his presence were congested with swarms of individuals,
+arrayed in the newest of new uniforms and resplendent in the lightest
+of light brown belts and gaiters, who were bundled off unceremoniously
+to regiments and batteries and staffs on the eve of departure for the
+seat of war. It is quite true that some generals and colonels in this
+Division wrote from France to complain that their interpreters did not
+know French, or if they did know French, did not know English. Still,
+nobody takes that sort of croaking seriously. In a grumbling match the
+British officer can keep his end up against the British soldier any
+day.
+
+An excellent innovation at the War Office synchronizing with
+mobilization was the introduction of a large number of boy scouts
+within its gates. They proved most reliable and useful, and did the
+utmost credit to the fine institution for which we have to thank Sir
+Robert Baden-Powell. A day or two after joining I wanted to make the
+acquaintance of a colonel, who I found was under me in charge of a
+branch--a new hand like myself, but whose apartment nobody in the
+place could indicate. A War Office messenger despatched to find him
+came back empty-handed. Another War Office messenger sent on the same
+errand on the morrow proved no more successful. On the third day I
+summoned a boy scout into my presence--a very small one--and commanded
+him to find that colonel and not to come back without him. In about
+ten minutes' time the door of my room was flung open, and in walked
+the scout, followed by one of the biggest sort of colonels. "I did not
+know what I had done or where I was being taken," remarked the
+colonel, "but the boy made it quite clear that he wasn't going to have
+any nonsense; so I thought it best to come quietly."
+
+At a much later stage, one of these youngsters was especially told off
+to a branch which I then controlled--an extraordinary boy, who
+impressed one all the more owing to his looking considerably younger
+than he really was. I seldom found anything that he did not know, and
+never found anything that he could not do. This Admirable Crichton was
+spangled all over well-earned badges, indicating his accomplishments.
+We really might have gone off, the whole lot of us, masterful staff
+officer, dainty registration clerks, highly efficient stenographer,
+etc., and had a good time; he would have run the show perfectly well
+without us--a Hirst, a Jimmy Wilde, a "Tetrarch," as he was amongst
+scouts.
+
+The plan that the lads adopted for making things uncomfortable for
+troublesome people paid eloquent testimony to that fertility of
+resource which it is one of the objects of the scout movement to
+develop in its members. One of the greatest worries to which War
+Office officials were exposed during these anxious times was a bent on
+the part of individuals, whom they had not the slightest wish to see,
+for demanding--and obtaining--interviews. The scouts tumbled to this
+(if one may use so vulgar an expression) almost from the first day,
+and they acted with rare judgement and determination. They chose
+_lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate_ for their motto, and adopted
+the method of herding the intruders into an unattractive apartment on
+the ground floor, as tube attendants herd subterranean travellers into
+the lifts, and of keeping the intruders there until they verged on a
+condition of mutiny. They then enlarged them in big parties, each of
+which was taken control of by a scout, who led his charges round and
+round and in and out along the corridors, and up and down between
+floors, carefully avoiding the elevators, until the victims were in a
+state of physical and mental collapse. If one of the party quitted the
+ranks while on the trek, to read the name marked up on some door that
+he was passing, the scout called a halt and withered the culprit with
+a scowl--it would never have done to permit that sort of thing,
+because the visitor might conceivably have noticed the name of the
+very official whom he had come to see. Anybody who came again after
+undergoing this experience once, probably had just cause for demanding
+an interview; but one bout of it satisfied most people. It may be
+suggested that the scouts were acting under instructions from Sir
+Reginald Brade, Secretary and Grand Master of the Ceremonies, in this
+matter. But, if asked, he will own up and admit that in the pressure
+of his duties he overlooked the point, and that the entire credit
+belongs to the boys.
+
+Still, perambulation of those furlongs of corridor in the big building
+in Whitehall might have offered points of interest to a visitor not
+too exhausted to take notice. By one window was usually to be seen a
+posse of parsons, of furtive aspect, each nervously twiddling a lissom
+hat, a love-your-neighbour-as-yourself look frozen on their
+countenances, and not by any means conveying for the time being an
+impression of the church militant: they were candidates for the post
+of army chaplain, and were about to be inspected by the genial prelate
+who presided over the department responsible for the spiritual welfare
+of the troops. A day or two later might be seen in the same place some
+of these very candidates, decked out in khaki raiment, hung about with
+contrivances into which combatant comrades introduce implements for
+slaying their fellow-men, erect, martial, terrifying, the very
+embodiment of the church triumphant, having been accepted for the job
+and awaiting orders--and no men have done finer service in the Great
+Adventure.
+
+At another point one encountered a very well-known cricketer, who was
+doling out commissions. How he did it one had no time to ask. But one
+strongly suspected that, if one of the young gentlemen whom he took in
+hand had been in a school eleven or even house eleven (or said he
+had), crooked ways somehow became straight.
+
+Just outside my own door an attractive-looking civilian had devised a
+sort of wigwam within which he took cover--one of those arrangements
+with screens which second lieutenants prepare when there is a
+regimental dance, and which they designate, until called to order, as
+"hugging booths." There he was to be seen at any hour of the day in
+close communion with a fascinating lady, heads close together,
+murmuring confidences, an idyll in a vestibule--or rather a succession
+of idylls, because there was a succession of ladies, all of them
+different except in that all of them were charming. After two or three
+months he disappeared, and only then did it occur to me to ask what
+these intimate transactions were on which he had been engaged. It
+transpired that he was acting vicariously on my behalf, that he was
+selecting a staff for censorship duties or some such dull occupation,
+in my place. If good looks were a qualification for such employment,
+that civilian must have been troubled with an _embarras de richesses_.
+
+Amongst the many privileges and responsibilities which my position in
+the early months of the war thrust upon me was that of finding myself
+in more or less official relations with the Eminent K.C. and with the
+Self-Appointed Spy-Catcher. One may have had the good fortune in
+pre-war times to meet the former, when disguised as a mere human
+being--on the links, say, or at the dinner table. The latter, one came
+into contact with for the first time.
+
+The average soldier seldom finds himself associated with the Eminent
+K.C. on parade, so to speak, in the piping times of peace. When
+performing, and on the war-path as you might say, this successful limb
+of the law is a portentous personage. Persuasive, masterful,
+clean-shaven, he fixes you with his eye as the boa-constrictor
+fascinates the rabbit. Pontifically, compassionately, almost
+affectionately indeed, he makes it plain to you what an ass you in
+reality are, and he looks so wise the while that you are hardly able
+to bear it. He handles his arguments with such petrifying precision,
+he marshals his facts so mercilessly, he becomes so elusive when you
+approach the real point, and he grows so bewildering if he detects the
+slightest symptoms of your having discovered what he is driving at,
+that he will transform an elementary military question, which you in
+your folly have presumed to think that you understand, into a problem
+which a very Moltke would ignominiously fail to elucidate.
+
+Contact with the Eminent K.C. under such conditions makes you realize
+to the full what an inestimable boon lawyers confer upon their
+fellow-citizens when they sink all personal ambition and flock into
+the House of Commons for their country's good. It makes you rejoice in
+that time-honoured arrangement under which the Lord Chancellorship is
+the reward and recognition, not of mastery of the principles and
+practice of jurisprudence, but of parliamentary services to a
+political faction. It convinces you that the importance of judges and
+barristers having holidays of a length to make the public-school-boy's
+mouth water, immeasurably exceeds the importance of litigation being
+conducted with reasonable despatch. It accounts for the dexterity
+invariably displayed by Parliament when new enactments are placed on
+the Statute-Book, for the simplicity of the language in which they are
+couched, and for that minimum of employment to the legal profession to
+which these specimens of masterly legislation subsequently give rise.
+The Eminent K.C. is, by the way, reputed to be a somewhat expensive
+luxury when you avail yourself of his services in your civil capacity,
+but he must be well worth it. A man who can be so mystifying when he
+proposes to be lucid must prove a priceless asset to his client when
+he undertakes the task of bamboozling a dozen unhappy countrymen
+penned in a box. It is hard to picture to yourself this impressive
+figure giggling sycophantically at the pleasantries of a humorous
+judge. But he must have conformed to convention in this matter in the
+past, for how otherwise could he now be an Eminent K.C.?
+
+During many months of acute national emergency, while the war was
+settling into its groove, there was no more zealous, no more
+persevering, and no more ineffectual subject of the King than the
+Self-Appointed Spy-Catcher. You never know what ferocity means until
+you have been approached by a titled lady who has persuaded herself
+that she is on the track of a German spy. We Britons are given to
+boasting of our grit in adversity and of our inability to realize when
+we are beaten. In no class of the community were these national traits
+more conspicuous in the early days of the war than in the ranks of the
+amateur spy-catching fraternity and sisterhood--for the amateur
+spy-catcher never caught a spy. Only after months of disappointment
+and failure did these self-appointed protectors of their country begin
+to abandon a task which they had taken up with enthusiastic fervour,
+and which they had prosecuted with unfaltering resolution. Although it
+was at the hands of the despised professional that enemy agents were
+again and again brought to face the firing party in the Tower ditch,
+the amateurs entertained, and perhaps still entertain, a profound
+contempt for the official method. One fair member of the body, indeed,
+so far forgot herself as to write in a fit of exasperation to say that
+we must--the whole boiling of us--be in league with the enemy, and
+that we ought to be "intered."
+
+They were in their element when, after the fall of Maubeuge, it
+transpired that the Germans had gun-platforms in certain factories
+situated within range of the forts, that they had established ready
+prepared for action should they be required. Anybody with an asphalt
+lawn-tennis court then became suspect. A very bad case was reported
+from the Chilterns, just the very sort of locality where Boches
+contemplating invasion of the United Kingdom would naturally propose
+to set up guns of big calibre. A building with a concrete base--many
+buildings do have concrete bases nowadays--near Hampstead was the
+cause of much excitement. When the unemotional official, sent to view
+the place, suggested that the extremely solid structure overhead would
+be rather in the way supposing that one proposed to emplace a gun, or
+guns, on the concrete base, it was urged that there was a flat roof
+and that ordnance mounted on it would dominate the metropolis. There
+was a flat roof all right, but it turned out to be of glass.
+
+A number of most worthy people were much concerned over the subject of
+certain disused coal-mines in Kent, where, they had persuaded
+themselves, the enemy had stored quantities of war material. What
+precisely was the nature of the war material they did not
+know--aircraft as like as not, the aviator finds the bottom of a
+mine-shaft an ideal place to keep his machine. These catacombs were
+duly inspected by an expert, but he could find nothing. The worthy
+people thereupon declared that the penetralia had not been properly
+examined and desired permission to carry out a searching inspection
+themselves. They were, if I remember aright, told they might go down
+the mines or might go to the devil (or words to that effect) for all
+we cared. Had one not been so busy one could have got a good deal of
+fun out of the Self-Appointed Spy-Catcher.
+
+The Military Operations Directorate had nothing to do with the
+formation and organization of the New Armies, but one heard a good
+deal about their birth and infancy. Apart from the question of their
+personal equipment, in regard to which the Quartermaster-General's
+Department (with Lord Kitchener at its back and urging it forward)
+performed such wonders, the most troublesome question in connection
+with their creation in the early stages was the provision of officers;
+the men were procured almost too fast. This became the business of the
+Military Secretary's Department. The M.S. Department holds tenaciously
+to the dogma that maladministration is the child of precipitancy and
+that deliberation stamps official procedure with the hall-mark of
+respectability. In later stages of the war one never was gazetted to
+an appointment until after one had passed on to the next one. But a
+gunner "dug-out," Colonel "Bill" Elliot, had been roped into the
+Department on mobilization, having been similarly roped in during the
+South African War, and by good luck the question of officers for the
+New Armies was turned over to him.
+
+A believer in the theory that the King's service has to be carried on
+even in spite of regulations, he worked on lines of his own, and he
+altered those lines when the occasion called for it. He was a
+"mandarin," of course--everybody in a Government office is. He was to
+some extent enmeshed in "red tape"--every step taken in a Government
+office, from sending a note in acknowledgement of a written
+communication, to losing a State paper at a moment when the safety of
+the country depends upon its being available for reference, comes
+within the category of "red tape." But he did get things done somehow,
+thanks to some extent to his pronounced and never-failing sense of
+humour. When one felt worried, weary, worn out, one only had to sit
+opposite to him at lunch at the club and to listen to some of his
+tales of manufacturing New Army officers, to be oneself again; it was
+like a trip to Margate. Fortunately he either was given, or gave
+himself, a free hand, and his quota was not the least considerable of
+the many quotas from various quarters that contributed towards winning
+the war.
+
+As keeper of the Secretary of State's conscience when he has one, the
+Military Secretary is bound to take himself very seriously indeed.
+There is always something dignified and impressive about slow motion,
+and his branch during the Great War was compelled to take up a firm
+attitude in exacting the respect that was its due; "Bill," with his
+eminently successful, but none the less abnormal and even lawless,
+methods at times hardly seemed in the picture. It may be mentioned
+that in spite of precautions the branch on at least one occasion met
+with a deplorable affront. An officer, who had been secured by
+tumultuary process during the early efforts to expand the land forces,
+proved to be a disappointment and had to be invited to convert his
+sword into a ploughshare. His reply is understood to have read
+somewhat as follows:
+
+     Sir--I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of ----
+     directing me to resign my commission. I will see you damned
+     first.--Yours,
+                                        ----.
+
+New Army officers were so unconventional.
+
+Lord Roberts often came to see me in those anxious early days at the
+War Office, ever sympathetic, ever encouraging, ever confident. It had
+not been my privilege while on the active list to be brought into
+contact with him, except once, many years ago, when a young subaltern
+at Kabul. But one day, it must have been in 1911, he sent me a message
+asking me to call and see him at the Athenaeum. On my presenting
+myself, and on our repairing to the little room by the door where
+members of that exclusive establishment interviewed outsiders, he made
+a somewhat unexpected proposal. A gentleman of progressive views
+hailing from the Far East, called Sun Yat-sen,--one had seen his name
+in the newspapers and had got the impression that he was a
+revolutionary, out for trouble--was in England in search of arms, and
+he required a commander-in-chief for the forces which he proposed to
+raise for the purpose of bringing the Celestial Empire up to date.[2]
+The Field-Marshal wanted me to take on the job. But the project
+somehow did not appeal to me--people do say that the Chinese have
+old-fashioned ways when they come to deal with persons whose conduct
+they are unable to approve--and I no doubt cut but a poor figure when
+manifesting no disposition to jump at the chance. "If I were only
+forty years younger," exclaimed Lord Roberts, "I would go myself! Why,
+you might be Emperor of China before you knew where you were!" But
+even the prospect of a seat on the Peacock Throne failed to charm,
+although I had an interview with Sun Yat-sen (who looked as if butter
+would not melt in his mouth) at the Savoy Hotel; benefactors of the
+human race coming from foreign parts always put up at that hostelry,
+comfortable quarters are understood to be procurable. One could not,
+however, but be impressed with the amazing vitality of the aged
+Field-Marshal then, as also a year or two later when he used to come
+to make enquiries concerning the progress of events in France.
+
+                   [Footnote 2: He brought his revolution off all
+                   right and was for a time President of the Southern
+                   China Republic.]
+
+He followed the movements of the contending armies closely, and he
+always carried the details of the map and of the British order of
+battle in his head, just as if he were a smart young staff-captain. At
+critical junctures he used to call me up, between 9 P.M. and 10 P.M.,
+from his house at Ascot on the telephone, eager for news. The last
+time that I saw him was when he came to ask me to tell off some one
+from my staff to accompany him to the front on the occasion of the
+visit which in some respects ended so tragically, but which enabled
+the great soldier to go to his rest within sound of the guns and
+surrounded by the troops whom he had loved so well.
+
+It was mentioned in the preceding chapter that the Military Operations
+Directorate found little to do in connection with "operations"
+question concerning the Western Front just at first, because the
+concentration of the Expeditionary Force in the war zone was carried
+out automatically and in accordance with plans worked out in advance.
+Indeed almost the first time that such a question arose in at all
+aggravated form was when the Antwerp affair got going. That was a
+queer business altogether, and it seems necessary briefly to deal with
+what most military men regard as an unfortunate transaction.
+
+In so far as the Belgian forces as part of the Entente hosts in this
+theatre of war were concerned, the strategical situation after the
+great retreat appeared to demand imperatively that these must above
+all things avoid, firstly, any risk of becoming cut off from their
+French and British allies, and, secondly, the danger of finding
+themselves trapped in the entrenched camp of Antwerp or of being
+hustled up against the Dutch frontier on their way out of the
+entrenched camp. The Belgian military authorities, as far as one could
+make out at the time, appreciated the situation quite correctly--they
+wished to abandon Antwerp, at all events with their field troops.
+Problems such as those responsible on the Entente side were at this
+time faced with, undoubtedly admit of difference of opinion; but most
+soldiers will surely agree that the Belgian leaders deserve great
+credit for not allowing themselves to be hypnotized by that huge place
+of arms which General Brialmont had designed some forty years before,
+and upon which vast sums of money had been laid out then and since. It
+has to be remembered in this connection that the famous engineer had
+always contemplated the retirement of his country's armies into the
+stronghold, more or less as a matter of course, in case of invasion,
+and that this had virtually been the military policy of Belgium up
+till quite recently. Lord French has referred in "_1914_" to the
+"terrible temptation" which Maubeuge offered to him at the time of the
+retreat from Mons. If Maubeuge suggested itself as an asylum for the
+hard-pressed Expeditionary Force, Antwerp would assuredly suggest
+itself still more strongly as an asylum for King Albert's field army,
+confronted as it was by an overwhelming hostile array and not in
+direct contact with the troops under Joffre and Sir J. French.
+
+It was then that those who were directing the British operations as a
+whole suddenly intervened and induced the Belgians to alter their
+plan. The very recently improvised Naval Division was set in motion
+for Antwerp. Mr. Churchill, a bolt from the blue, appeared in the
+city. And, instead of King Albert's forces getting clear in good time
+and moving off, practically unmolested, to join the Anglo-French host
+in Western Flanders, they only escaped by the skin of their teeth
+after being roughly handled, and the all-important junction was
+delayed so long that a most critical situation arose. Moreover, the
+Seventh Division and a Cavalry Division were packed off in a hurry
+from this country to help the Belgians out of a mess which they would
+not have got into had they been left alone, instead of being sent to
+join the Expeditionary Force where they were badly wanted. That is how
+I read the proceedings at the time, and how I read them still.
+
+War Office procedure did not at that stage conform to the methods
+which had held good previous to mobilization, and which had been
+devised to hold good in time of war; something further will be said on
+the subject in a later chapter. The Director of Military Operations
+did not on this particular occasion hear about the Seventh Division
+and the cavalry being diverted to the Belgian coast until after
+instructions for the move had been issued and the troops were
+preparing to proceed to the port of embarkation. How far my chief, Sir
+C. Douglas, concurred in this disposition of our limited available
+fighting forces, how far he was consulted and what part he performed
+in giving the orders, I do not know. I have no recollection of ever
+discussing the matter with him. But there was a circumstance in
+connection with the transaction which does suggest that the C.I.G.S.
+did not play a very prominent role in the business.
+
+Some time after I had learnt what was going forward--it was next day,
+I think--the idea occurred to me to find out what steps had been, or
+were being, taken to provide the necessary organization for a base and
+line of communications for this force which was about to be projected
+suddenly across the narrow seas. Enquiries elicited the startling
+information that nothing whatever had been done in the matter; some of
+those most concerned in such questions in Whitehall had not even heard
+that the force was preparing to start. The problem, such as it was,
+was promptly solved as soon as it was grappled with. The Directors
+dealing with such subjects met in my room, and in a few minutes the
+requisite staff had been selected, arrangements had been decided upon,
+and orders had been despatched--it was as easy as falling downstairs
+once machinery had been set in motion. But how came it that this had
+not been thought of before? Now, I can quite understand Sir C. Douglas
+holding that this particular phase of the Antwerp project, sending
+Generals Capper and Byng with their divisions to sustain the Belgians
+and the Naval Division by a landing at Zeebrugge, was a sound one from
+the strategical point of view--such questions are necessarily
+questions of opinion. But I cannot understand a master of military
+administration such as he was, a soldier equipped with exceptional
+knowledge of organization and with wide experience of the requirements
+of a British army in the field, sending a considerable body of troops
+off oversea to a theatre of operations, where fighting might be
+expected almost as soon as they landed, without making provision for
+their base and communications.
+
+Actually, what turned out to be a tragic episode was not without some
+little comic relief. There was consternation in Whitehall one evening,
+just before the dinner-hour, when tidings arrived that a couple of the
+transports conveying this force to its destination had passed the
+rendezvous where the convoy was mustering, and were at large, heading
+without escort or orders for a water-area known to be mined by both
+sides, and where enemy destroyers and similar pests were apt to make
+their appearance unexpectedly. Fortunately the panic was of short
+duration. On returning to the office after dinner one learnt that the
+straying vessels had both fetched up on the Goodwins--luckily about
+low water--and were under control again.
+
+In any criticism of H.M. Government's action in connection with the
+Antwerp affair (as regards the prosecution of the war in the field,
+H.M. Government for all practical purposes then meant Mr. Asquith,
+Lord Kitchener, and Mr. Churchill) it must be allowed that the
+situation at the time was a most complicated and perplexing one. Lord
+French in his book makes it clear that, while he objected strongly to
+the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry Division being sent to the
+Belgian coast under the independent command of Sir H. Rawlinson
+instead of their being sent to Boulogne and placed under his own
+orders, he did not wish Antwerp to be abandoned. Lord Kitchener had,
+as a matter of fact, seized upon Antwerp as a means of inducing
+reluctant colleagues to assent to the United Kingdom being denuded of
+these regular troops and their being hurried to the theatre of war.
+Knowing what we know now, it seems almost certain that, no matter
+where the fresh troops from England turned up or whose orders they
+were under, the Belgian army and the Naval Division would have been
+lost for good and all had they not cleared out of the fortress when
+they did. The verdict of history will probably be that both H.M.
+Government and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force
+misread the situation, that H.M. Government's misreading was very much
+the graver of the two, that there was excuse for such misreadings when
+the inevitable fog of war is taken into consideration, and that the
+Germans threw away their chances and bungled the business worst of
+all.
+
+A few days after Antwerp had fallen, and a week or so before that
+tremendous conflict which has come to be known as the First Battle of
+Ypres was fairly launched, Sir C. Douglas, who for a long time past
+had not been in the best of health and upon whom the strain had been
+telling severely during the previous two and a half months, did not
+make his appearance at the office one morning. He had struggled on
+with splendid grit and determination almost to the very end, for he
+died within a few days, a victim of devotion to duty and of overwork.
+His place was taken by Sir J. Wolfe-Murray.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LORD KITCHENER'S START
+
+     A first meeting with Lord Kitchener -- Sent up to see him in
+     Pretoria by his brother under unpromising conditions -- The
+     interview -- The Chief's pleasant reception -- A story of Lord K.
+     from the Sudan -- An unpleasant interview with him in August 1914
+     -- Rare meetings with him during the first two or three months --
+     His ignorance of War Office organization -- His lack of
+     acquaintance with many matters in connection with the existing
+     organization of the army -- His indisposition to listen to advice
+     on such subjects -- Lord K. shy of strangers -- His treatment of
+     the Territorial Forces -- Their weak point at the outset of
+     hostilities, not having the necessary strength to mobilize at war
+     establishment -- Effect of this on the general plans -- The way
+     the Territorials dwindled after taking the field -- Lord K.
+     inclined at first to pile up divisions without providing them
+     with the requisite reservoirs of reserves -- His feat in
+     organizing four regular divisions in addition to those in the
+     Expeditionary Force -- His immediate recognition of the magnitude
+     of the contest -- He makes things hum in the War Office -- His
+     differences of opinion with G.H.Q. -- The inability of G.H.Q. to
+     realize that a vast expansion of the military forces was the
+     matter of primary importance -- Lord K.'s relations with Sir J.
+     French -- The despatch of Sir H. Smith-Dorrien to command the
+     Second Corps -- Sir J. French not well treated at the time of the
+     Antwerp affair -- The relegation of the General Staff at the War
+     Office to the background in the early days -- Question whether
+     this was entirely due to its having suffered in efficiency by the
+     withdrawals which took place on mobilization -- The General Staff
+     only eliminated in respect to operations.
+
+
+My first meeting with Lord Kitchener had taken place under conditions
+that augured no agreeable experience. It was in March or April 1901.
+At that time I had charge of a heterogeneous collection of guns in a
+body of troops operating in the Eastern Transvaal and commanded by
+General Walter Kitchener, the Chief's brother, and was also used by
+him as a sort of second-in-command to take charge of portions of the
+force when detached from time to time. Our commando had trekked out
+from Belfast and had camped in a likely spot, and on the morrow he
+took out part of the force in one direction and sent me off with part
+of the force in another direction, while the remainder stayed in camp
+guarding the impedimenta. I tumbled across a few snipers, and we
+enjoyed a harmless scrap; but Walter butted into a whole lot of
+truculent burghers. These were being reinforced and were full of
+fight, so he decided to retire, and also to retire the camp; but the
+message directing me to conform unfortunately went astray. The result
+was that before long I found myself covering the retirement of the
+whole gang, and being rather harried to boot--one of those _reculer
+pour mieux sauter_ sort of movements where it is all _reculer_ and no
+_sauter_. The casualties were, however, small, and we lost nothing
+worth bothering about; but Walter took his big brother very seriously
+indeed, was much concerned as to how the Chief might regard an
+operation which we could not possibly represent as a success, and,
+after much cogitation, packed me off to Pretoria to report in person.
+
+He gave me elaborate directions as to how best to approach the subject
+when in the presence. "No, don't put it that way, tell it him like
+this"--"He'll damn me and you, but whatever you do, don't make
+excuses," and so forth. One had read Steevens' appreciation of the
+then Sirdar in his _With Kitchener to Khartum_, and had gathered from
+newspapers (the worst possible source of information about the
+character and the idiosyncrasies of persons of note) that this
+commander-in-chief of ours was a cold, exacting, unsympathetic figure,
+much more given to jumping down your throat than to patting you on the
+back. The consequence was that when, having fetched up in Pretoria
+after some adventures, I was wending my way to Lord K.'s headquarters
+I felt very much as one does when repairing to the dentist. It was
+worse, indeed, than going to the dentist, because when I got there
+Colonel Hubert Hamilton, the Military Secretary (who was killed when
+in command of the Third Division soon after it reached the Lys from
+the Aisne in October 1914), greeted me with "Very sorry, but the
+Chief's awfully busy to-day. Roll up about this time to-morrow, will
+you, like a good chap?" It was the same story again on the next
+day--the Chief up to the neck in correspondence. But on presenting
+myself on the third day, Hamilton promptly ushered me into the great
+man's study, where he was sitting at his desk.
+
+"What d'you want?" demanded Lord K. I began explaining about our
+little affair near Belfast; but he cut me short with "Oh, I don't want
+to hear about all that. Had any trouble getting here?" Yes, the train
+in front of mine had been blown up, and----"They'll bag you on the way
+back," interrupted the Chief cheerily, "so I'd better get what I can
+out of you now; my brother writes that you've been about a good deal
+on the east side, and I'm going to take that in hand very shortly.
+Come along over here." We went across to where there was a huge great
+map of the Eastern Transvaal, with the positions of the posts and
+columns, etc., marked on it, and for twenty minutes or so I found
+myself enjoying the pleasantest interview with a much senior officer
+than I had ever had in my life. He listened to my exposition of how it
+seemed best to round up the enemy commandos, where sedentary forces
+ought to be dumped down to act as stops, and what lines the mobile
+columns ought to operate along. Lord K. occasionally interjected a
+question or criticism as to some particular point, but seemed not in
+the least displeased when I stuck to my own view. When he dismissed me
+he spoke in a particularly friendly way, and my experience of him on
+this occasion was nothing short of a revelation.
+
+"Had a satisfactory talk?" asked Hamilton when I came out, and, on my
+saying how nice the Chief had been, he remarked, "He's in one of his
+good moods to-day, but you mightn't always find him quite so tame.
+He's been down to the Old Colony and back these last two days, and
+found things moving--that's why he could not see you before. But he
+always keeps his movements very close, so you mustn't let it go any
+further."
+
+Walter Kitchener, not unnaturally, entertained unbounded admiration
+for, and belief in, his brother, and he often told me tales from
+Egyptian days of things that the Sirdar then did and of the resource
+he would display in unexpected emergencies. One of these yarns about
+the great War Minister at a stage of his career when he was still
+mounting the ladder of success deserves to be repeated here.[3] It
+happened one day, during the operations for the recovery of the Sudan
+from the Mahdi-ists, that "K." was riding forward with his staff,
+there being no troops nor transport actually on the move, he mounted
+on his camel, the rest on horses and ponies. By the wayside they came
+upon a heap of rolls of telegraph-wire lying near the track, which
+some unit had apparently abandoned as lumber or else had been unable
+to carry. "We can't leave that stuff behind," said the Sirdar to the
+staff; "bring it along." Two or three of them dismounted to see what
+could be done, but there was no gear available for lashing and the
+rolls were heavy. A little party of the small donkeys of the country
+was, however, being driven along by a native lad and came on the scene
+just at this juncture. "Hurry up. Put the wire on those donkeys. I
+don't want to sit here all day," commanded the Sirdar impatiently. The
+donkeys had no saddles nor equipment of any kind except rope halters
+of sorts, and the officers sampled various devices, without success,
+for placing the goods on the donkeys' backs and keeping them there.
+They experimented with balancing a roll on the back of one, but it
+promptly fell off again. They tied two rolls together and slung them
+across the back of another, pannier fashion; but the little beast gave
+a kick and a wriggle and deposited the load on the ground. Various
+dodges were tried, perspiration poured off the faces of the officers,
+they were covered with dust, their language grew stronger and
+stronger, and at last, feeling themselves entirely nonplussed, one of
+them, looking up at their chief as he sat on his camel with a sardonic
+smile on his face, observed deprecatingly, "I'm afraid we really can't
+manage it, sir."
+
+                   [Footnote 3: While this volume has been in the
+                   press Sir G. Arthur's _Life of Lord Kitchener_ has
+                   appeared, giving a different version of this story
+                   and probably the correct one. Walter Kitchener was
+                   speaking, I think, from hearsay.]
+
+"Can't manage it, can't you!" ejaculated the Sirdar; "here, let me
+come." He made his camel kneel, and dismounted, stalked over to one of
+the donkeys, gripped the animal by the nose, backed it till its hind
+feet were inside one of the rolls, turned the roll up over the
+donkey's back from behind, gave the beast a smack on the rump, and
+after one or two wriggles and kicks, the creature was trotting along,
+adorned with a loosely fitting girdle of telegraph-wire round its
+waist which it could not get rid of. The same plan was promptly
+adopted with the other donkeys. And in a few minutes the party were
+riding along again, with the donkeys, carrying the whole of the
+abandoned wire, in close attendance.
+
+That Lord Kitchener would cut up rough at times when things went
+wrong, as Hubert Hamilton had hinted at Pretoria, was brought home to
+me convincingly on the occasion of my first interview with him at the
+War Office after that visit to the Admiralty which is mentioned in
+Chapter I. General Hanbury Williams had been earmarked in advance for
+British Military Commissioner at Russian Headquarters, and he dashed
+off in a great hurry to take up the appointment on mobilization. I
+believe that he looked in to see me before starting, but I was not in
+my room at the moment; I am not sure, indeed, that I knew that he was
+going until after he had started. A few days later the Chief, when
+wanting to wire to his representative with the Tsar's armies,
+discovered that he had gone off without a cipher. It was possible, of
+course, to communicate through the Foreign Office and our embassy at
+St. Petersburg (as the capital was still called); but Lord K.
+naturally desired means of direct communication. He was extremely
+angry about it, and he gave me a most disagreeable five minutes.
+
+Although all this cipher business was under charge of one of my
+branches, the contretemps was due to no neglect on my own part. Nor
+was it the fault of the subordinate who actually handled the ciphers,
+because he did not even know that Hanbury Williams had gone until the
+row occurred. The mishap had resulted from our Military Commissioner
+making his exit at the very moment when new hands were taking up their
+duties and had not yet got the hang of these. But one guessed that
+explanations would not be received sympathetically by the Secretary of
+State, and that it would be wisest to take the rebuke "lying down"; he
+expected things to be done right, and that was all about it. Still, it
+was not an altogether encouraging start. Indeed I scarcely ever saw
+Lord K. during the first two or three months, and when I did, it was
+generally because some little matter had gone wrong in connection with
+the Secret Service or the Press, or owing to one of the Amateur
+Spy-Catchers starting some preposterous hare, or because he needed
+information as to some point of little importance. The fact is
+that--to put the matter quite bluntly--when he took up his burden the
+Chief did not know what the duties of his subordinates were supposed
+to be, and he took little trouble to find out. One day he sent for me
+and directed me to carry out a certain measure in connection with a
+subject that was not my business at all, and I was so ill-advised as
+to say, "It's a matter for the Adjutant-General's Department, sir, but
+I'll let them know about it." "I told you to do it yourself," snapped
+the Chief in a very peremptory tone. Under the circumstances, one
+could only go to the man concerned in the A.G. Department, explain
+matters, and beg him for goodness sake to wrestle with the problem and
+carry out what was wanted.
+
+What, however, was still more unfortunate than Lord K.'s lack of
+acquaintance with the distribution of work within the Office was that
+he was by no means familiar with many very essential details of our
+existing military organization. That is not an unusual state of
+affairs when a new Secretary of State is let loose in the War Office.
+But a new Secretary of State as a rule has the time, and is willing,
+to study questions of organization and policy closely before embarking
+on fresh projects. Lord Kitchener, however, arrived with certain
+preconceived ideas and cramped by defective knowledge of the army
+system. He had scarcely served at home since he had left Chatham as a
+young subaltern of the Royal Engineers. In Egypt, in India, even to a
+great extent in South Africa, the troops coming from the United
+Kingdom with which he had been brought into contact had been regulars.
+He had never had anything to say to the provision of British military
+personnel at its source. For the three years previous to the outbreak
+of the Great War he had been holding a civil appointment afar off, and
+had necessarily been out of touch with contemporary military thought.
+There must have been many matters in connection with the organization
+of His Majesty's land forces, thoroughly known to pretty well every
+staff-officer in the War Office, of which the incoming Secretary of
+State was entirely unaware. The British division of all arms of 1914
+represented a far larger force than the British divisions of all arms
+had represented with which he had had to do in the days of Paardeberg
+and Diamond Hill. The expressions "Special Reserve" and "Territorial
+Forces" did not, I believe, when he arrived, convey any very clear
+meaning to him. He was not, in fact, in all respects fully equipped
+for his task.
+
+With many, indeed with most, men similarly placed this might not have
+greatly mattered. There were plenty of officers of wide experience in
+Whitehall who could have posted him up fully in regard to points not
+within his knowledge. But Lord Kitchener had for many years previously
+always been absolute master in his own house, with neither the need
+nor the desire to lean upon others. Like many men of strong will and
+commanding ability, he was a centralizer by instinct and in practice.
+He took over the position of War Minister with very clearly defined
+conceptions of what must be done to expand the exiguous fighting
+forces of his country in face of the tremendous emergency with which
+it stood suddenly confronted. He was little disposed to modify the
+plans which he had formed for compassing that end, when subordinates
+pointed out that these clashed with arrangements that were already in
+full working order, or that they ignored the existence of formations
+which only stood in need of nursing and of consolidation to render
+them really valuable assets within a short space of time for the
+purpose of prosecuting war. The masterful personality and
+self-confidence to which the phenomenal success that attended his
+creation of the wonderful New Armies was so largely due, was in some
+respects a handicap to him in the early days of his stewardship.
+
+My impression of him--an impression unduly influenced perhaps by
+personal experiences--was that he was shy of strangers or comparative
+strangers. He did not give his confidence readily to subordinates with
+whom he found himself associated for the first time. He would not
+brook remonstrance, still less contradiction, from a man whom he did
+not know. It was largely due to this, as it seemed to me, that he was
+rather out of hand, so to speak, during the critical opening months.
+It was during those opening months that he performed the greatest
+services to the people of this land, that he introduced the measures
+which won us the war. But it was also during those opening months,
+when he was disinclined to listen to advice, that he made his worst
+mistakes.
+
+I do not believe that there was one single military authority of any
+standing within the War Office, except himself, who would not have
+preferred that the cream of the personnel, men who had served in the
+regulars, who flocked into the ranks in response to his trumpet call
+to the nation, should have been devoted in the first instance to
+filling the yawning gaps that existed in the Territorial Forces, and
+to providing those forces with trained reservists to fill war wastage.
+Such a disposition of this very valuable material seemed preferable to
+absorbing it at the outset in brand-new formations, which in any case
+would be unable to take the field for many months to come. Parliament
+would have readily consented to any alteration in the statutes
+governing the Territorial Forces which might have been necessary. Lord
+K.'s actions in this question to some extent antagonized the military
+side of the War Office just at first: we were thinking of the early
+future: he, as was his wont, was looking far ahead. My work was nowise
+concerned with the provision of troops in any form, and in later days,
+when I was often with the Chief, I never remember discussing the
+Territorials with him. But it is conceivable that he became somewhat
+prejudiced against this category of the land forces at the start on
+finding that they were unable to perform the very duty for which they
+were supposed to exist--that of home defence. Something may,
+therefore, perhaps be said here on this point.
+
+Mobilization means producing the force concerned, at its full war
+establishment and composed of officers and men who at least have some
+pretence to military training. It is, moreover, supposed to be
+completed at very short notice. Owing to their being territorial and
+to officers and other ranks living in their territorial districts, the
+Territorial Forces ought to have been mobilized more rapidly by some
+hours than the Expeditionary Force, and I believe that, in so far as
+collecting what personnel there was available is concerned, the
+Territorial Forces beat the Expeditionary Force. But the ranks of the
+Territorials had never filled in pre-war days, and there were
+practically no organized reserves. The war establishment was roughly
+315,000 of all ranks; but at the beginning of August the strength was
+only about 270,000, and this, be it remembered, included a proportion
+of totally untrained individuals, as well as sick, absentees, and so
+forth. To have mobilized these troops properly, the number of officers
+and men on the books at the start and before the order came ought to
+have amounted to at least 350,000.
+
+The consequence of this shortage was that, at the very moment when the
+Government and the country were on the first occasion for a century
+confronted by a really grave and complex military situation, at the
+very moment when there was a scare as to German projects of an
+immediate invasion, that category of our land forces which was
+especially earmarked for the defence of the British Isles was not in a
+position to perform its functions. The Sixth Division, properly
+forming part of the Expeditionary Force, had to be fetched over from
+Ireland to East Anglia to bolster up the Territorials, and Sir J.
+French was deprived of its use for six weeks at a very critical time.
+The ranks of the Territorial Forces filled up very rapidly _after_
+mobilization, but from the home defence point of view that was too
+late. We required our home defence army to be ready at once, so that
+the overseas army could be despatched complete to the Continent
+without _arriere pensee_. Its failure at the critical moment may have
+somewhat influenced Lord Kitchener in the estimates that he formed of
+it thenceforward. Instead of framing his plans with a view to
+reinforcing the Expeditionary Force as soon as possible with the
+existing fourteen Territorial divisions which were in some measure
+going concerns, by affording these special support, he preferred
+simply to expand the Territorial Forces as a whole. Four divisions
+were sent out of the country on garrison duty before the end of 1914,
+but although a number of individual battalions had preceded it, the
+first division to be sent to the front (the North Midland) did not
+sail from the United Kingdom till the end of February, more than six
+months after the outbreak of hostilities, while the two last to take
+the field did not leave till early in 1916. The policy may in the long
+run have proved the right one; but at the time it did seem a pity not
+to have accelerated the preparation of these existing troops for the
+ordeal of the field. None of us in Whitehall, however, wished the New
+Armies to be set up under the auspices of the Territorial
+Associations; that was a different question altogether.
+
+Moreover, whatever was the cause of it, the Territorial divisions
+after they took the field seemed to be treated as veritable
+Cinderellas for a long time. They generally set out short of
+establishment, and they were apt to dwindle away painfully for want of
+reserves after they had spent a few weeks on the war-path. The Returns
+show this to have been the case. More than one of the divisional
+Generals concerned spoke to me, or wrote to me, on the subject in the
+later months of 1915. This discouraging shrinkage was not manifesting
+itself to at all the same extent at that stage in such New Army
+divisions as were at the front.
+
+A good many of us at the War Office also did not, I think, see quite
+eye to eye with Lord K. in connection with his piling up of New Army
+divisions without providing them with reserves. The tremendous drain
+which modern war creates in respect to personnel came as a surprise to
+all the belligerents; but the surprise came fairly early in the
+proceedings, and the Adjutant-General's department had fully grasped
+what this meant, and had realized the scale of the provision necessary
+to meet it, by the end of 1914. If I remember aright, one whole "New
+Army" (the Fourth, I think it was) had to be broken up in the summer
+of 1915, and transformed into a reservoir of reserves, because the
+First, Second, and Third New Armies practically had none. It had been
+manifest long before these armies were gradually drawn into the fight
+that they would suffer heavy wastage, and that they would speedily
+become mere skeletons unless they had ample backing from home. Had the
+branches of the War Office which were supposed to deal with these
+questions been allowed their own way in regard to them, I imagine
+that greater foresight would have been displayed and that some
+confusion might have been avoided.
+
+The preceding paragraphs read perhaps rather like a deliberate attempt
+to belittle the achievements of the greatest of our War Ministers. But
+they only touch upon one side, the dark side so to speak, of Lord
+Kitchener's work as an organizer and administrator during the Great
+War. Little has been said hitherto as to the other and much more
+important side, the bright side, of that work.
+
+The marvels that he accomplished in respect to multiplying the land
+forces of the nation by creating improvised armies as it were by
+magic, have put in the shade a feat for which Lord Kitchener has never
+been given sufficient credit. Prior to August 1914, no organization
+existed for placing any portions of our regular army in the field in a
+Continental theatre of war, other than the Expeditionary Force and one
+additional division. The additional division was to be constituted if
+possible on the outbreak of war out of infantry to be withdrawn from
+certain foreign garrisons, and spare artillery, engineer and
+departmental units that existed in the United Kingdom. That additional
+division, the Seventh, was despatched to the Western Front within two
+months of mobilization. But Lord Kitchener also organized four further
+regular divisions, the Eighth, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth and
+Twenty-ninth, of which the first three were in the field within five
+months of mobilization, joining Sir J. French respectively in
+November, December and January, and the remaining one was nearly ready
+to take the field by the end of the six months. The Secretary of State
+prepared for this immediately on taking up office, by recalling
+practically the whole of the regulars on foreign service, with the
+exception of the British troops included in four mixed Indian
+divisions. Would any War Minister other than Lord Kitchener have had
+the courage to denude India of British regular troops, artillery as
+well as infantry, to the extent that he did? Supposing any other War
+Minister to have proposed such a thing, would the Government have
+backed him up? It was the handiwork of a very big man.
+
+Still, this was after all a quite minor detail in the constructive
+labours undertaken by one of the most illustrious public servants of
+our time. His paramount claim to the gratitude of his countrymen rests
+upon his nimble perception of the nature of the task which he had been
+suddenly called upon to perform, and upon the speed with which he set
+every channel in motion to accomplish his purpose. He realized, as it
+seemed by instinct, that this contest was going to be a very big
+business indeed, an incomparably bigger business than these topmost
+military authorities who had been in the confidence of the Government
+before the blow fell had any idea of. It is no exaggeration to say
+that in this matter he was a giant amongst the pigmies. He grasped the
+truth at once that this world war was to be a protracted struggle, a
+struggle in which the Entente would not gain the upper hand unless a
+tremendous effort was to be put forward by the British Empire. He saw
+almost at a glance that our military system such as it was, and as
+previously devised with a view to war conditions, provided what
+represented numerically no more than an insignificant fraction of the
+host which would ultimately be needed to give us victory. He
+furthermore--and it is well to insist upon this thus early, in view of
+fabrications which have been put about on the subject of
+munitions--clearly discerned the need for a huge expansion in the
+country's powers of output in respect to war material; so that under
+his impulse existing factories and establishments were developed on
+generous lines, and arrangements were instantly set on foot for
+creating entirely new factories and establishments. The result was
+that, after a lean and discouraging period for the troops in the
+field, the needs of an army which was ten times as strong as the army
+which soldiers of light and leading had been contemplating before war
+broke out, were being adequately met within fifteen months of the
+British ultimatum to Germany.
+
+Within the War Office itself he certainly made things hum. In pre-war,
+plain-clothes days, those messengers of distinguished presence--dignity
+personified in their faultlessly-fitting official frock-coats and red
+waistcoats--had lent a tone of respectability to the precincts,
+compensating for the unfortunate impression conveyed by
+Adjutant-Generals and such like who perambulated the corridors in
+grimy, abandoned-looking "office jackets." (No scarecrow on duty
+afield in the remotest of rural districts would have been seen in the
+garment which my predecessor, now F.M., Bart., and G.C.B., left
+hanging up as a legacy in the apartment which he vacated in my
+favour.) But--although old hands will hardly credit it and may think I
+am romancing--I have seen those messengers tearing along the passages
+with coat-tails flying as though mad monkeys were at their heels, when
+Lord K. wanted somebody in his sanctum and had invited one of them to
+take the requisite steps. If the Chief happened to desire the presence
+of oneself, one did not run. Appearances had to be preserved. But one
+walked rather fast.
+
+An earlier paragraph has hinted that, owing to military authorities in
+Whitehall not seeing quite eye to eye with the new Secretary of State
+when he took up his appointment, he was to some small extent working
+in an atmosphere of latent hostility to his measures. This state of
+affairs was, however, of very short duration, and certainly did not
+hamper his operations in the slightest degree; he would indeed have
+made uncommonly short work of anybody whom he found to be actively
+opposing him, or even to be hanging back. But the situation in the
+case of G.H.Q. of the Expeditionary Force was different. It is a
+matter of common knowledge--anybody who was unaware of it before the
+appearance of Lord French's "_1914_" will have learnt it from that
+volume--that the relations between Lord Kitchener and some of those up
+at the top in connection with our troops on the Western Front were,
+practically from the outset, not quite satisfactory in character.
+
+The attitude taken up by G.H.Q. over a comparatively small matter
+during the first few days is an example of this. The Secretary of
+State had laid his hands upon one officer and one or two
+non-commissioned officers of each battalion of the Expeditionary
+Force, and had diverted these to act as drill-instructors, and so
+forth, for the new formations which he proposed to create. That his
+action in this should have been objected to within the bereft units
+was natural enough; their officers could hardly be expected to take
+the long view on the question at such a juncture. But that the higher
+authorities of our little army proceeding to the front should have
+taken the measure so amiss was unfortunate. And it was, moreover,
+instructive, indicating as it did in somewhat striking fashion the
+lack of sense of proportion prevalent amongst some of those included
+in G.H.Q. This chapter deals only with early days; but it may perhaps
+be mentioned here that there was a disposition to deride and decry the
+New Army at St. Omer almost up to the date, May 1915, when the first
+three of its divisions, the Ninth, Twelfth and Fourteenth, made their
+appearance in the war zone.
+
+Watching the progress of events from behind the scenes, one could not
+but think that in respect to the occasional _tracasseries_ between the
+War Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the British troops in
+France and Flanders, there were faults on both sides. The wording of
+some of the telegraphic messages passing between Lord K. and Sir J.
+French did not strike one as altogether felicitous, and, if messages
+from G.H.Q. were provocative, the replies were not always calculated
+to pour oil on troubled waters. The truth is, that when a pair of
+people both of whom require "handling" become associated under
+conditions of anxiety and stress that are bound to be trying to the
+temper and jarring on the nerves, it's a horse to a hen they won't
+make much of a fist of handling each other. The Secretary of State's
+action in sending Sir H. Smith-Dorrien to command the Second Corps at
+the very outset of the campaign after General Grierson's tragic death,
+struck me at the time as a mistake. Sir J. French had asked for
+General Plumer who was available, and his wishes might well have been
+acceded to. Owing to circumstances of a quite special character the
+selection was not in any case an altogether happy one, as the
+relations between the new commander of the Second Corps and the chief
+of the B.E.F. had not always been too cordial in the past. Having been
+away from home so much, Lord K. may not have been aware of this; but I
+imagine that if he had consulted the Military Members of the Army
+Council they would have mentioned it, as it was almost a matter of
+common knowledge in the Service.
+
+On that unpleasant controversy with regard to the rights and the
+wrongs of what occurred when the War Minister paid his sudden visit to
+Paris during the retreat from Mons, of which so much has been heard, I
+can throw no light whatever. At a later date "Fitz" (Colonel O.
+Fitzgerald, Lord K.'s constant companion) and I were in pretty close
+touch, and he used to keep me informed of what his chief had in his
+mind; but I hardly knew him to speak to during the early weeks. In
+respect to the Antwerp business, it certainly did seem to me that our
+principal commander on the Western Front (for the moment there were
+two) was not being very well treated. From a perusal of some of the
+communications that were flying about at a juncture when Sir J. French
+was confronted by a complex problem, and was virtually embarking on an
+entirely new set of operations, one gathered that he was hardly being
+kept so well informed of what was in progress and of what was
+contemplated as he had a right to expect, and as was indeed demanded
+by the situation. Still, this was no doubt due to what one might call
+bad Staff work, and not to any wish to keep Sir John in the dark as to
+Sir H. Rawlinson's orders, nor as to the position of this new British
+force that was being planted down in the war zone. It may well have
+been the direct result of Lord K.'s system of keeping all telegraphic
+work in connection with operations in his own hands, instead of this
+being carried out by the General Staff as under the existing
+regulations it was supposed to be.
+
+Much has been written and has been said in public about the pushing of
+the General Staff into the background at the War Office during the
+early months of the war. An idea exists that this subversion was
+mainly, if not indeed entirely, consequential on the weakening of its
+personnel as a body owing to a number of its most prominent and
+experienced members having gone off to the wars. While readily
+admitting that its efficiency suffered as a result of these
+withdrawals, I am by no means sure that it would have managed to keep
+in the foreground even if the whole of its more shining lights had on
+mobilization remained where they were in Whitehall. Lord Kitchener had
+never been closely associated with Generals Robertson and Henry
+Wilson, its two principal members to leave for the front, and it by no
+means follows that if they had remained they would, during the first
+few critical weeks, have been much more successful than were Sir C.
+Douglas and Sir J. Wolfe-Murray in keeping a hand on the helm. The
+Secretary of State would no doubt have learnt to value their counsel
+before long, but he would no more have tolerated the slightest attempt
+at dictation in respect to the general conduct of the war until he
+knew his men, than he would have put up with dictation as to how the
+personnel which he was attracting into the ranks at the rate of tens
+of thousands per week were to be disposed of. The story of how the
+General Staff gradually recovered much of its lost ground will,
+however, be touched upon in the next chapter, and on that point no
+more need be said at present.
+
+It may, however, be remarked here that the comparative elimination of
+the General Staff was virtually confined to its elimination in
+respect to what admittedly is its most important function in times of
+national emergency--advising the Government of the country on the
+subject of the general conduct of the war--and in respect to the
+administrative task of actually issuing instructions as to operations
+to those in supreme command in the theatres of conflict. The duties of
+the General Staff cover many other matters besides these. They include
+collection of information, secret service, questions of international
+law, military education, training of troops, etc. It fulfilled its
+mission in connection with such subjects just as had always been
+intended, nor, in so far as they were concerned, was it thrust on one
+side in any sense. Lord Kitchener's system of centralization only
+directly affected a small proportion of the very numerous
+directorates, branches, and sections into which the War Office was
+divided up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LORD KITCHENER'S LATER RECORD
+
+     The munitions question and the Dardanelles, to be dealt with
+     later -- The Alexandretta project of the winter of 1914-15 --
+     Such an operation presented little difficulty then -- H.M.S.
+     _Doris'_ doings -- The scheme abandoned -- I am sent to Paris
+     about the Italian conventions just after the Dardanelles landings
+     -- Concern at the situation after the troops had got ashore at
+     Helles and Anzac -- A talk with Lord K. and Sir E. Grey -- Its
+     consequences -- Lord K. seemed to have lost some of his
+     confidence in his own judgement with regard to operations
+     questions -- The question of the withdrawal of the _Queen
+     Elizabeth_ from the Aegean -- The discussion about it at the
+     Admiralty -- Lord K.'s inability to take some of his colleagues
+     at their own valuation -- Does not know some of their names --
+     Another officer of distinction gets them mixed up in his mind --
+     Lord K.'s disappointment at the early failures of the New Army
+     divisions -- His impatience when he wanted anything in a hurry --
+     My own experiences -- Typists' idiosyncrasies aggravate the
+     trouble -- Lord K. in an unreasonable mood -- His knowledge of
+     French -- His skilful handling of a Portuguese mission -- His
+     readiness to see foreign officers when asked to do so -- How he
+     handled them -- The Serbian Military Attache asks for approval of
+     an attack by his country upon Bulgaria at the time of Bulgarian
+     mobilization -- A dramatic interview with Lord K. -- Confidence
+     placed in him with regard to munitions by the Russians -- His
+     speeches in the House of Lords -- The heat of his room -- His
+     preoccupation about the safety of Egypt -- He disapproves of the
+     General Staff plan with regard to its defence -- His attitude
+     with regard to national service -- His difficulties in this
+     matter -- His anxiety to have a reserve in hand for delivering
+     the decisive blow in the war -- My last meeting with him -- His
+     pleasure in going to Russia -- His failure to accomplish his
+     mission, a great disaster to the Entente cause -- A final word
+     about him -- He did more than any man on the side of the Allies
+     to win the war -- Fitz.
+
+
+Lord Kitchener's actions and attitude in connection with two
+particular matters evoked a good deal of criticism in various quarters
+at the time, and much has been said and written about them. One of
+those matters was the munitions question, the other was the
+Dardanelles undertaking; both of those subjects are, however,
+discussed in special later chapters, and no reference will therefore
+be made to them in this one, except incidentally. I have, moreover, no
+recollection of ever having been brought into contact with the
+Secretary of State in connection with those projects for combined
+naval and military operations on the Flanders coast which received
+considerable attention in the winter of 1914-15, although, as will be
+mentioned in Chapter VI., aware of what was under review.
+
+That Flanders coast scheme constituted, it may be observed, a question
+of the general strategical conduct of the war; it was, in fact, a
+question of "operations." The first time that I went into any problem
+coming properly under that heading with the Secretary of State was
+when a plan of landing troops at or near Alexandretta was on the tapis
+in December 1914. There was a good deal to be said for such an
+enterprise at that particular juncture. Military opinion invariably
+favours active in preference to passive defence, so long as active
+defence can be regarded as reasonably feasible and the troops needed
+for the purpose are available. The Turks were mustering for an attack
+upon Egypt across the Isthmus of Sinai at that time. It was an axiom
+in our military policy that the Nile delta must be rendered secure
+against such efforts. There was something decidedly attractive about
+employing the troops--or a portion of them--who must in any case be
+charged with the protection of Egypt, actively against the enemy's
+line of communications instead of their hanging about, a stationary
+force, on the Suez Canal awaiting the onset of the Osmanli. Right
+through the war, the region about the Gulf of Iskanderun was one of
+prime strategical importance, seeing that Entente forces planted down
+in those parts automatically threatened, if they did not actually
+sever, the Ottoman communications between Anatolia and the theatres of
+war in Palestine and in Mesopotamia. But at dates subsequent to the
+winter of 1914-15 the enemy had fully realized that this was the case,
+was in a position to provide against the eventuality, and had taken
+steps accordingly.
+
+At the time I speak of, the Turks were not, however, in strong force
+at or near Alexandretta. Nor were they in a position to assemble
+formidable bodies of troops in that neighbourhood at short notice. For
+railway communications running westward towards Smyrna and the Golden
+Horn remained interrupted by the great Taurus range of mountains, the
+tunnels through which were making slow progress, and the tunnels
+through the Amanus hills which sever Aleppo from the Cilician Plain
+were likewise incomplete. One of our light cruisers (H.M.S. _Doris_,
+if my memory is not at fault) was stationed in the Gulf of Iskanderun,
+and was having a high old time. She dodged up and down the coast,
+appeared unexpectedly at unwelcome moments, and carried terror into
+the hearts of the local representatives of the Sublime Porte. She
+landed boats' crews from time to time just to show that she was
+top-dog, without their even being fired upon. Somebody ashore having
+done something that she disapproved of, she ordered the Ottoman
+officials to blow up certain of the bridges on their own railway, and
+when these harassed individuals, anxious to oblige, proffered the
+excuse that they lacked the wherewithal to carry her instructions out,
+she lent them explosives and saw to it that they were properly used.
+Her activities made it plain to us that there was absolutely no fight
+in the enemy at the moment in this quarter.
+
+The whole subject of an expedition to Alexandretta was carefully gone
+into, in consultation with Sir J. Maxwell who was commanding the
+forces in Egypt, and we came to the conclusion that a comparatively
+small force could quite easily effect a landing and gain sufficient
+ground to make itself comfortable on enemy soil, even if the Turks
+managed gradually to assemble reinforcements. One realized that
+securing a considerable sector of ground [p.63] at once was essential in an
+amphibious operation of this kind, the very thing that was never
+accomplished on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Lord K. was much interested
+in the project for a time; he believed that it would help the
+Russians, who were in some straits in Armenia, and he was satisfied
+that if it was successfully carried into effect, hostile designs
+against the Suez Canal line would automatically be brought to nought.
+A job of this sort would have served as a capital exercise for some of
+the Australasian troops then in Egypt, who from the training point of
+view were still a raw soldiery; such a task would have represented a
+very different class of trial from that which they were actually to
+undergo three months later when getting ashore at Anzac Cove. But Mr.
+Churchill's naval project against the Dardanelles began to take shape
+early in January, and it put an end to any thoughts about
+Alexandretta. The matter is, indeed, only mentioned here because its
+consideration marked about the first occasion on which Lord Kitchener
+made any use of the General Staff within the War Office in connection
+with any operations question outside the United Kingdom.
+
+It was not until another four months had elapsed, however, that I
+personally had much say in regard to those very questions which a
+Director of Military Operations would, from his title, seem
+necessarily to be closely concerned with. The change that then took
+place I attribute very largely to an incident which on that account
+deserves recording. It happened that, on the very day after welcome
+tidings came to hand by cable from Sir I. Hamilton to the effect that
+he had successfully landed 29,000 troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on
+the 25th of April, I was sent off to Paris to represent the British
+Army at a secret conference with French and Russian commissioners and
+with representatives of the Italians (who were coming into the war),
+at which naval and military conventions with our fresh ally were to be
+drawn up. Further reference to this conference will be made in a later
+chapter. The consequence was that for several days I heard no more
+about Sir Ian's operations beyond what appeared in the newspapers, and
+it was only when Mr. Churchill turned up somewhat unexpectedly and
+told me what had occurred, that it was borne in on me that our
+Dardanelles expeditionary force was completely held up in cramped
+positions and without elbow-room on an uncomfortable sort of shore. An
+examination of the telegrams and a discussion with my assistants after
+getting back from Paris convinced me that the situation was in the
+highest degree unsatisfactory, and I gathered, furthermore, that H.M.
+Government did not seem to be aware how unsatisfactory the situation
+was.
+
+A day or two later, Lord K. summoned me to his room to ask some
+question, when I found Sir E. Grey closeted with him. Here was an
+opportunity that was not to be missed. While the Chief was making a
+note at his desk of the point that he wanted to know, I spoke to Sir
+Edward, and told him in effect that we had not a dog's chance of
+getting through the Dardanelles unless he secured the aid of the
+Bulgars, or of the Greeks, or of both of them--purposely putting the
+matter more strongly than I actually felt about it, in the hopes of
+making an impression by a jeremiad. Lord K. stopped writing and looked
+up. We had a short conversation, and after a few minutes I left the
+room. The Foreign Minister may not have been impressed, but Lord K.
+was; for he sent for me again later in the day, and we had a long
+discussion about Sir I. Hamilton's prospects. The incident, moreover,
+had a result which I had not anticipated. From that time forward the
+Chief often talked to me about the position in the Dardanelles and in
+the Near East generally. He used to take me with him to the
+Dardanelles Committee which was formed soon afterwards; and when he
+was away I ordinarily represented him at the deliberations of that
+body, deliberations which, as a matter of fact, covered a good deal of
+ground besides the Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+It struck me at the time that Lord Kitchener's confidence in himself
+and his own judgement, in connection with what may be called
+operations subjects, had been somewhat shaken, and that from this
+stage onwards he rather welcomed the opinion of others when such
+points arose. The Antwerp adventure had proved a fiasco. The endeavour
+to force the Dardanelles by naval power, unaided by troops, had
+conspicuously failed. Coming on the top of those discouraging
+experiences, our army thrown ashore on the Gallipoli Peninsula had,
+after suffering very heavy losses, straightway been brought to a
+standstill. As regards the Fleet's efforts against the Straits, I
+gathered at the time (from Fitzgerald, I think) that in taking an
+optimistic view of the project when it was under discussion by the War
+Council, Lord K. had been a good deal influenced by recollections of
+the bombardment of Alexandria, at which he had been present. The Chief
+always claimed to have been led astray by Mr. Churchill concerning the
+potentialities of the _Queen Elizabeth_, and had, I should say, come
+to the conclusion that the judgement of the then First Lord, with whom
+he had been so closely associated for nine months, was not quite
+infallible. He cannot but have been aware that his Cabinet colleagues
+no longer reposed the implicit trust in his own judgement that they
+had accorded him at the outset. All through the summer of 1915 he grew
+more and more disposed to listen to the views of the General Staff as
+regards questions affecting the general conduct of the war, and, after
+Sir A. Murray became C.I.G.S. in October, that institution was almost
+occupying its proper position in the consultative sense. It did not
+recover its proper position in the executive sense, however, until
+Lord K. arranged that Sir W. Robertson should take up charge at the
+end of the year.
+
+The question of the _Queen Elizabeth_ cropped up in somewhat acute
+form two or three weeks after my conversation with Sir E. Grey which
+has been mentioned above. Lord Fisher had, as I knew from himself,
+been getting decidedly jumpy about the enemy U-boats, which were
+known to be approaching the Aegean, and about the middle of May he
+raised the question of fetching away the "_Lizzie_," as Sir I.
+Hamilton's troops used to call her, lest evil should befall this, the
+most powerful ship in commission at the time. Lord Fisher has referred
+to this matter in his book _Memories_. He speaks of great tension
+between Lord K. and himself over the business, and he mentions an
+interview at the Admiralty at which, according to him, Lord K. got up
+from the table and left when he (Lord Fisher) announced that he would
+resign unless the battleship was ordered out of that forthwith. Now
+there may have been more than one interview at the Admiralty, but I
+was present at the conference when the matter was settled, and my
+recollection of what occurred does not agree with Lord Fisher's
+account.
+
+Lord Kitchener sent for me early one morning, and on my presenting
+myself, told me that Lord Fisher was insisting upon recalling the
+_Queen Elizabeth_ owing to enemy submarines, that Mr. Churchill was in
+two minds but leant towards keeping her where she was, that he (Lord
+K.) objected to her removal, and that I was to accompany him to a
+meeting at the Admiralty a little later in connection with the affair.
+"They've rammed that ship down my throat," said he in effect.
+"Churchill told me in the first place that she would knock all the
+Dardanelles batteries into smithereens, firing from goodness knows
+where. He afterwards told me that she would make everything all right
+for the troops as they landed, and after they landed. And now, without
+'with your leave or by your leave,' old Fisher says he won't let her
+stop out there." He seemed to be quite as much concerned about the way
+he had been treated in the matter, as influenced by any great alarm at
+the prospect of the ship leaving the vicinity of the Dardanelles.
+Finally, he asked me what I thought myself.
+
+Now, there could be no question as to the _Queen Elizabeth_ being a
+most powerful ship of war; but the fact was that she had been a
+regular nuisance. Mr. Churchill had somehow persuaded himself, and
+what was worse, he had managed to persuade Lord Kitchener as well as
+Mr. Asquith and others, that she would just about settle the
+Dardanelles business off her own bat. I had, as it happened (and as
+will be mentioned in the next chapter), expressed doubts to him six
+months earlier when the idea of operations in this quarter was first
+mooted, as to the efficacy of gun-fire from warships in assisting
+troops on shore or when trying to get ashore. Nothing which had
+happened since had furnished any reason for altering that view. No
+battleship depending upon flat trajectory guns could ever play a role
+of paramount importance during fighting ashore, except in quite
+abnormal circumstances. The whole thing was a delusion. Ships of war,
+and particularly such a vessel as the _Queen Elizabeth_, did
+undoubtedly provide moral support to an army operating on land close
+to the coast, and their aid was by no means to be despised; but their
+potentialities under such conditions were apt to be greatly
+overestimated, and had, in fact, been greatly overestimated by the War
+Council. My reply to the Chief, therefore, was to the effect that it
+was of secondary importance from the soldier's point of view whether
+this particular battleship stopped or cleared out, and that, seeing
+the risks which she obviously was running, it seemed to me a mistake
+to contest the point. We discussed the matter briefly, and Lord K.
+gave me to understand that, although he must put up some sort of fight
+as he had already raised objections, he would make no real stand about
+it at the coming pow-wow.
+
+When we went across the road we found Mr. Churchill and Lord Fisher
+waiting in the First Lord's room. After some remarks by Mr. Churchill
+giving the _pros_ and _cons_, Lord Fisher burst out that, unless
+orders were dispatched to the battleship without delay to "come out of
+that," he would resign. The First Lord thereupon, somewhat reluctantly
+as it seemed to me, intimated that in view of the position taken up
+by his principal expert adviser, he had no option but to recall the
+vessel. Lord Kitchener demurred, but he demurred very mildly. There
+was no jumping up and going off in a huff. Some perfectly amicable
+discussion as to one or two other points of mutual interest ensued,
+and when we took our departure the Chief was in the very best of
+humours and asked me if he had made as much fuss as was expedient
+under the circumstances.
+
+Lord K. seemed quite incapable of taking his Cabinet colleagues so
+seriously as people of that sort take themselves. Indeed, but for the
+more prominent ones, he never could remember what their jobs were, nor
+even recollect their names. It put one in a cold perspiration to hear
+him remark, when recounting what had occurred at a Cabinet seance or
+at the meeting of some committee bristling with Privy Councillors, "A
+fellow--I don't know his name but he's got curly hair--said..." Other
+soldiers besides Lord K. have, however, been known on occasion to get
+these super-men mixed up in their minds. There were three Ministers,
+for instance, whom for convenience we will call Messrs. Abraham, Isaac
+and Jacob. Mr. Jacob was on one occasion taking part in a conference
+at the War Office about something or other, a whole lot of the
+brightest and best sitting round a table trying to look intelligent;
+and in the course of the proceedings he felt constrained to give his
+opinion on a matter that had cropped up. A soldier of high degree, who
+was holding a most respectable position in the War Office and was
+sitting on the opposite side of the table, thereupon lifted up his
+voice. "I quite see Mr. Abraham's point," he began argumentatively,
+"but I----." He was thrown into pitiable confusion, was routed, lost
+his guns, his baggage, everything, forgot what he was about to say, on
+being brought up short by a snarl from across the table, "My name is
+Jacob, not Abraham."
+
+One day in the summer of 1915 when Lord K. had summoned me to ask some
+question, he appeared to be in particularly low spirits, and
+presently he showed me a communication (a telegram, I think it was)
+from Sir J. French, intimating that one of the New Army divisions
+which had recently proceeded across the water had not borne itself
+altogether satisfactorily when assailed in the trenches. The troops
+had apparently been in a measure caught napping, although they had
+fought it out gallantly after being taken at a disadvantage owing to
+keeping careless guard. That these divisions, in which he naturally
+enough took such exceptional personal interest, needed a great deal of
+breaking-in to conditions in presence of the enemy before they could
+be employed with complete confidence, had been a bitter disappointment
+to him. On this subject he was perhaps misled to some extent by the
+opinions of officers who were particularly well qualified to judge.
+The New Army troops had shown magnificent grit and zeal while
+preparing themselves in this country for the ordeal of the field,
+under most discouraging conditions, and they had come on very fast in
+consequence. Their very experienced divisional commanders, many of
+whom had come conspicuously to the front in the early months of the
+war and had learnt in the best of schools what fighting meant under
+existing conditions, were therefore rather disposed to form unduly
+favourable estimates of what their divisions would be capable of as
+soon as they entered upon their great task in the war zone. I remember
+receiving a letter from that very gallant and popular gunner, General
+F. Wing (who was afterwards killed at Loos), written very shortly
+before his division proceeded to France, in which he expressed himself
+enthusiastically with regard to the potentialities of his troops. His
+earnest hope was to find himself pitting them against the Boche as
+soon as the division took the field.
+
+In one respect we most of us, I think, found Lord K. a little
+difficult at times. He was apt to be impatient if, when he was at all
+in a hurry, he required information from, or wanted something carried
+out by, a subordinate. This impatience indeed rather disposed him to
+rush his fences at times. Your book or your orator always extols the
+man of lightning decision, and in time of war soldiers do often have
+to make up their minds for better or for worse on the spur of the
+moment. But there is a good deal to be said for very carefully
+examining all the factors bearing upon the question at issue before
+coming to a conclusion, if there be leisure for consideration. Certain
+of the Secretary of State's colleagues were perpetually starting some
+new hare or other overnight, and the result would often be that the
+Chief would send for me at about 9.30 A.M., would give me some
+brand-new document or would tell me of some fresh project that was
+afoot, and would direct me to let him have a note on the subject not
+later than 11 A.M., so that he should be fully posted up in the matter
+by 11.30 A.M., when the War Council, or the Cabinet, or the
+Dardanelles Committee, as the case might be, would be wanting to chat
+about it.
+
+One would thereupon proceed to investigate the project, or whatever
+the thing was, would muster one's data, would probably consult some
+subordinate and get him to lend a hand, and by, say, 10.15 A.M. one
+had hurriedly drafted out a memorandum, and had handed it to one's
+typists with injunctions that the draft must be reproduced at all
+hazards within twenty minutes. About 10.30 A.M. a War Office
+messenger, wearing a hunted look on his face, would appear at one's
+door. "His Lordship wants to know, sir, if you have that paper ready
+that he asked you for." "Tell him that he shall have it directly," and
+one got on to the telephone to the clerks' room and enjoined despatch.
+In another ten minutes, Lord K.'s Private Secretary, and one of the
+best, Creedy, would turn up panting but trying not to look heated. "I
+say, can't you let the S. of S. have that confounded paper he is
+worrying about? Do be quick so that we may have some peace." Fresh
+urgings through the telephone, accompanied by reminders that the
+twenty minutes had more than elapsed. Five minutes later Fitzgerald
+would arrive. "Look here! K.'s kicking up the devil's own fuss because
+you won't let him have some paper or other. Typists? But it's always
+those typists of yours, General. Why don't you have the lot up against
+the wall out in the courtyard, and have them shot? It's the only thing
+to do in these cases." When one had almost given up hope, the typist
+would hurry in with a beautifully prepared document, and one would
+rush off to the Chief. "Oh! Here you are at last. What a time you've
+been. Now, let me see what you say.... Well, that seems all right. But
+stop. Show me on the map where this place B---- that you mention is.
+One of them may ask." They were just a little exhausting, those
+occasions.
+
+What exactly the tomfoolery is that expert typists engage on after
+they have typed a document, I have never been able to discover. As
+long as they are at play on their machines these whirr like the
+propeller of a Handley-Page. They get down millions of words a minute.
+But when they have got the job apparently done, they simmer away to
+nothing. They perform mysterious rites with ink-eraser. They scratch
+feebly with knives. They hold up to the light, they tittivate, they
+muse and they adorn. It is not the slightest use intimating that you
+do not care twopence whether there are typographic errors or not--the
+expert typist treats you with the scorn that the expert always does
+treat the layman with. At such junctures it is an advantage if the
+typist happens to be a he, because you can tell him what you think of
+him. If the typist happens to be a she, and you tell her what you
+think of her, the odds are she will take cover under a flood of tears,
+and goodness only knows what one is supposed to do then. Not that my
+typists were not highly meritorious--I would not have exchanged them
+with anybody. They merely played their game according to the rules.
+
+Lord K. could no doubt be really unreasonable on occasion; but I can
+only recall one instance of it in my own experience. It all arose over
+our Military Attache at our Paris embassy, Colonel H. Yarde-Buller,
+having taken up his abode from an early date at Chantilly so as to be
+in close touch with General Joffre's headquarters. Not being on the
+spot at the Embassy, his work in the meantime was being done, and very
+well done, by our Naval Attache, Captain M. H. Hodges. I do not know
+why it was, but one afternoon the Chief sent for me to say that a
+Military Attache was required at once in Paris, and that I was to
+proffer names for him to choose from forthwith. After consultation
+with my French experts, I produced a list of desirable candidates for
+the post, all, to a man, equipped with incontestable qualifications.
+But Lord K. would have none of my nominees, although he probably knew
+uncommonly little about any of them. I tried one or two more casts,
+but the Chief was really for the moment in an impossible mood. Even
+Fitzgerald was in despair. At last the name of Colonel Le Roy Lewis
+occurred to me, whom I somehow had not thought of before; but on
+repairing to the Chief's anteroom, where Fitz always was, a restful
+air was noticeable in the apartment, and Fitz acquainted me in a tone
+of relief that the boss had gone off home. He moreover counselled me
+to keep Le Roy Lewis up my sleeve and to lie low, as the whole thing
+might have blown over by next day, and that is exactly what happened.
+One heard no more about it; but several weeks later I began myself to
+find that the military work in Paris was getting so heavy that we
+ought to have an attache of our own, instead of depending upon the
+Admiralty's man, Hodges. So I went to Lord K., proposed the
+appointment of a second Military Attache, and suggested Le Roy Lewis
+for the job. "Certainly," said Lord K.; "fix the business up with the
+Foreign Office, or whatever's necessary." The fuss there had been a
+few weeks before had apparently been forgotten.
+
+His intimate acquaintance with the French language stood him in rare
+stead, and this undoubtedly represented an asset to the country during
+the period that he was War Minister. His actual phraseology and his
+accent might peradventure not have been accounted quite faultless on
+the boulevards; but he was wonderfully fluent, he never by any chance
+paused for a word, and he always appeared to be perfectly familiar
+with those happy little turns of speech to which the Gallic tongue so
+particularly lends itself. The ease with which he took charge of, and
+dominated, the whole proceedings on the occasion of one or two of the
+earlier conferences on the farther side of the Channel between our
+Ministers and the French astonished our representatives, as some of
+them have told me. He thoroughly enjoyed discussions with foreign
+officers who had been sent over officially to consult with the War
+Office about matters connected with the war, and he always, as far as
+one could judge, deeply impressed such visitors. I do not think that
+the warmth with which some of them spoke about him after such pow-wows
+when I ushered them out, was a mere manifestation of politeness. He
+was gifted with a special bent for diplomacy, and he prided himself
+with justice on the skill and tact with which he handled such
+questions.
+
+Quite early in the war--it must have been about November 1914--a small
+Portuguese military mission turned up, bearers of a proposal that our
+ancient ally should furnish a division to fight under Sir J. French's
+orders on the Western Front. Our Government, as it happened, were not
+anxious, on political grounds which need not be gone into here, for
+open and active co-operation on the part of Portugal at this time.
+Regarding the question from the purely military point of view, one
+doubted whether the introduction into the Flanders war zone of
+Portuguese troops, who would require certain material which we could
+then ill spare before they took the field, would not be premature at
+this early juncture. When tactfully interrogating concerning the
+martial spirit, the training efficiency, and so forth, of the rank and
+file, one was touched rather than exhilarated by the head of the
+mission's expression of faith "ils savent mourir." The officers
+composing the mission were, however, enthusiasts for their project,
+and they were on that account somewhat difficult to keep, as it were,
+at arm's length. But Lord K.'s management of the problem was masterly.
+
+In the course of a protracted conference in his room, he contrived to
+persuade our friends from Lisbon that the despatch of the division at
+this moment would be a mistake from their, and from everybody else's,
+point of view, and he extracted promises out of them to let us have
+many thousands of their excellent Mauser rifles, together with a
+goodly number of their Schneider-Canet field guns. The small arms (of
+which we were horribly short at the time) proved invaluable in South
+Africa and Egypt, while the guns served to re-equip the Belgian army
+to some extent with field artillery. He managed to convince the
+mission that this was by far the most effective form of assistance
+which Portugal could then afford to the Entente--as was indeed the
+case--and he sent them off, just a little bewildered perhaps, but
+perfectly satisfied and even gratified. One felt a little bewildered
+oneself, the whole business had been conducted with such nicety and
+discretion.
+
+His name counted for much in the armies of the Allies, as I myself
+found later wherever I went in Russia. Foreign officers coming on
+official errands to London, attached an enormous importance to
+obtaining an interview with him, and he was very good about this. "Oh,
+I can't be bothered with seeing the man," he would say; "you've told
+him the thing's out of the question. What's the good of his coming to
+me, taking up my time?" "But you see, sir," one would urge; "he's a
+little rubbed up the wrong way at not getting what he wants, and will
+not put the thing pleasantly to his own people when he fetches up at
+their end. You can smooth him down as nobody else could, and then
+he'll go away off out of this like a lamb and be quite good." "Oh
+well, bring him along. But, look here. You must have him away again
+sharp out of my room, or he'll keep on giving tongue here all the rest
+of the day." What actually happened as a rule on such occasions was
+that Lord K. would not let the missionary get a word in edgeways,
+smothered him with cordiality, chattered away in French as if he were
+wound up, and the difficulty was, not to carry the man off but to find
+an opportunity for jumping up and thereby conveying a hint to our
+friend that it was time to clear out. "Comme il est charmant, M. le
+Marechal," the gratified foreign officer would say after one had
+grabbed him somehow and conducted him out of the presence; "je
+n'oublierai de ma vie que je lui ai serre la main." And he would go
+off back to where he had come from, as pleased as Punch, having
+completely failed in his embassy.
+
+But Lord K. could if the occasion called for it, adopt quite a
+different tone when dealing with an Allied representative, and I have
+a vivid remembrance of one such interview to which there seems to be
+no harm in referring now. Some aspects of the tangled political web of
+1915, in the Near East, will be dealt with at greater length in
+Chapter VII. Suffice it to say here that, at the juncture under
+reference, Serbia, with formidable German and Austro-Hungarian hosts
+pouring into her territory from the north and aware that her
+traditional foe, Bulgaria, was mobilizing, desired to attack Tsar
+Ferdinand's realm before it was ready. That, from the purely military
+point of view, was unquestionably the sound procedure to adopt.
+"Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel just, but four times he who
+gets his blow in fust." We know now that it would have been the sound
+procedure to adopt, even allowing for arguments against such a course
+that could be put forward from the political point of view. But our
+Government's attitude was that, in view of engagements entered into by
+Greece, the Serbs must not act aggressively against the still neutral
+Bulgars. Nor do I think that, seeing how contradictory and
+inconclusive the information was upon which they were relying, they
+were to blame for maintaining an attitude which in the event had
+untoward consequences.
+
+One afternoon the Serbian Military Attache came to see me. He called
+in to beg us soldiers to do our utmost to induce H.M. Government to
+acquiesce in an immediate offensive on the part of King Peter's troops
+against the forces of the neighbouring State, which were mobilizing
+and were evidently bent on mischief. I presented our Government's case
+as well as I could, although my sympathies were in fact on military
+grounds entirely on the side of my visitor. He thereupon besought me
+to take him to Lord Kitchener, and I did so. The Chief talked the
+question over in the friendliest and most sympathetic manner, he gave
+utterance to warm appreciation of the vigorous, heroic stand which the
+sore-beset little Allied nation had made, and was making, in face of
+dangers that were gathering ever thicker, he expressed deep regret at
+our inability to give effective assistance, and he admitted that from
+the soldier's point of view there was much to be said for the
+contention that an immediate blow should be struck at Serbia's eastern
+neighbour. But he stated our Government's attitude in the matter
+clearly and uncompromisingly, and he would not budge an inch on the
+subject of our sanctioning or approving an attack upon Bulgaria so
+long as Bulgaria remained neutral.
+
+The Attache protested eagerly, volubly, stubbornly, pathetically, but
+all to no purpose. Then, when at last we rose to our feet, Lord K.,
+finding his visitor wholly unconvinced, drew himself up to his full
+height. He seemed to tower over the Attache, who was himself a tall
+man, and--well, it is hard to set down in words the happenings of a
+tense situation. The scene was one that I never shall forget, as, by
+his demeanour rather than by any words of his, Lord K. virtually
+issued a command that no Serb soldier was to cross the Bulgar border
+unless the Bulgars embarked on hostilities. The Attache stood still a
+moment; then he put his kepi on, saluted gravely, turned round and
+went out without a word. I followed him out on to the landing. "Mon
+Dieu!" he said; "mon Dieu!" And then he went slowly down the great
+marble staircase, looking a broken man. But for that interview the
+Serbs might perhaps have given their treacherous neighbours an
+uncommonly nasty jar before these got going, and this might have
+rendered their own military situation decidedly less tragic than it
+came to be within a very few days. But I do not see that Lord
+Kitchener could have done otherwise than support the attitude of the
+Government of which he was a member.
+
+Striking testimony to the confidence which his name inspired amongst
+our Allies is afforded by the action of the Russians in the summer of
+1915, in entrusting the question of their being furnished with
+munitions from the United States into his hands. They came to him as a
+child comes to its mother. This, be it noted, was at a time when our
+own army fighting in many fields was notoriously none too well fitted
+out with weapons nor with ammunition for them, at a time when the most
+powerful group of newspapers in this country had recently been making
+a pointed attack upon him in connection with this very matter, at a
+time when an idea undoubtedly existed in many quarters in the United
+Kingdom that the provision of vital war material had been neglected
+and botched under his control. That there was no justification
+whatever for that idea does not alter the fact that the idea
+prevailed. As I assumed special responsibilities in connection with
+Russian supplies at a later date, a date subsequent to the _Hampshire_
+catastrophe, and as the subject of munitions will be dealt with in a
+later chapter, no more need be said on the subject here. But the point
+seemed to deserve mention at this stage.
+
+We came rather to dread the occasions when the Chief was going to
+deliver one of his periodical orations in the House of Lords.
+Singularly enough, he used to take these speeches of his, in which he
+took good care never to tell his auditors anything that they did not
+know before, quite seriously--a good deal more seriously than we did.
+He prepared them laboriously, absorbing a good deal of his own time,
+and some of the time of certain of those under him, and then he would
+read out his rough draft to one, asking for approval and grateful for
+hints. He was always delighted to have some felicitous turn of
+expression proffered him, and he would discuss its merits at some
+length as compared with his own wording, ending by inserting it in the
+draft or rejecting it, as the case might be. I remember on one
+occasion, when he was going to fire off one of these addresses, just
+about the time when the great Boche thrust of 1915 into the heart of
+Russia came to an end, his making use of the idiom that the German
+"bolt was about shot." I objected. "Don't you like the phrase?"
+demanded Lord K. I admitted that it was an excellent phrase in itself,
+but urged that it was not altogether applicable, that the enemy seemed
+to have come to a standstill, not because he could get no farther but
+because he did not want to go farther, meaning to divert force in some
+new direction, and that the words somehow represented our principal
+foe as in worse case than was correct. Lord K. seemed disappointed. He
+said that he would consider the matter, and he made a note on his
+draft. But he stuck to his guns as it turned out; he used the phrase
+in the Upper House a day or two later, and it was somewhat criticised
+in the newspapers at the time. He was, I believe, so much captivated
+by his little figure of speech that he simply could not bear to part
+with it.
+
+He was a regular salamander. The heat of his room, owing to the huge
+fire that he always maintained if it was in the least cold outside and
+to the double windows designed to keep out the noise of Whitehall, was
+at times almost unbearable. One's head would be in a buzz after being
+in it for some time. His long sojourn in southern lands no doubt
+rendered him very susceptible to low temperatures. On one occasion,
+when General Joffre had sent over a couple of superior staff officers
+to discuss some questions with him, the four of us sat at his table
+for an hour and a half, and the two visitors and I were almost [p.79] in a
+state of collapse at the end. "Mais la chaleur! Pouf! C'etait
+assommant!" I heard one say to the other as they left the room, not
+noticing that I was immediately behind.
+
+Lord Kitchener's judgement in respect to general military policy in
+the Near East and the Levant, during the time that he was War Minister
+was, I think, to some small extent warped at times by excessive
+preoccupation with regard to Egypt and the Sudan. His hesitation to
+concur in the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula until he had
+convinced himself of the urgent necessity of the step by personal
+observation, was, I am sure, prompted by his fears as to the evil
+moral effect which such a confession of failure would exert in the
+Nile Delta, and up the valley of the great river. Soon after Sir
+Archie Murray had become C.I.G.S., and when the War Council had taken
+to asking for the considered views of the General Staff upon problems
+of the kind, a paper had to be prepared on the subject of how best to
+secure Egypt. This document I drafted in the rough in the first
+instance. Sir Archie and we Directors of the General Staff then went
+carefully through it and modified it in some respects. Its purport
+when presented was that the proper course to pursue with regard to
+Egypt would be to depend upon holding the line of the Suez Canal, and
+some minor areas in front of it, as a comparatively small force would
+suffice for the purpose.
+
+Lord K. was much disappointed. He sent for me, expressed himself as
+strongly opposed to our view, and he seemed rather hurt at the
+attitude we had taken up. He favoured the despatch of a body of troops
+to the Gulf of Alexandretta with the idea of carrying on a very active
+defence; he wished to keep the enemy as far away from Egypt as
+possible for fear of internal disturbances, and this opinion was, I
+know, concurred in by Sir R. Wingate and Sir J. Maxwell. We should, no
+doubt, have concurred in that view likewise, had there been unlimited
+numbers of divisions to dispose of, and had there been no U-boats
+about. But an army merely sufficient to hold the Egyptian frontier
+would have been entirely inadequate to start a campaign based on the
+sea in northern Syria, and experiences in the Dardanelles theatre of
+war hardly offered encouragement for embarking on ventures on the
+shores of the Levant. Lord K. called Sir D. Haig, who happened to be
+over on short leave at the time, into counsel; Sir Douglas supported
+the contention that a comparatively small force distributed about the
+Canal would render things secure. The Chief then despatched General
+Home (who in those days was known rather as an expert gunner than as
+commander of aggregates of army corps) to Egypt to report; I had
+ceased to be D.M.O. before the report came to hand, but I believe that
+it favoured our plan, the plan which actually was adopted and which
+served its purpose for many months.
+
+A good many of us in the War Office were a little inclined to cavil at
+our Chief's deliberation in the matter of demanding a system of
+national service, when the country had arrived at the stage where
+expansion of the fighting forces was no longer hopelessly retarded by
+lack of war material. But, looking back upon the events of the first
+year of the war, one realizes now that if he made a mistake over this
+subject it was in not establishing the principle by statute at the
+very beginning, in the days when he was occupying a position in the
+eyes of his countrymen such as no British citizen had enjoyed for
+generations. He could have done what he liked at the start. The nation
+was solid behind him. Not Great Britain alone, but also Ireland, would
+have swallowed conscription with gusto in September 1914, after the
+retreat from Mons. Our man-power could in that case have been tapped
+gradually, by methods that were at once scientific and equitable, so
+as to cause the least possible disturbance to the country's productive
+capacity.
+
+Twelve months later, he had ceased to present quite so commanding a
+figure to the proletariat as he had presented when first he was called
+in to save the situation. Of this he was probably quite aware himself,
+and it is a great mistake to suppose that he was indifferent to
+public opinion or even to the opinion of the Press. By that time,
+moreover, he was probably a good deal hampered by some of his
+colleagues and their pestilent pre-war pledges. A good many
+politicians nowadays find it convenient to forget that during those
+very days when the secret information reaching them must surely have
+made them aware of Germany's determination to make war on a suitable
+opportunity presenting itself, they were making the question of
+compulsory service virtually a party matter, and were binding
+themselves to oppose it tooth and nail. The statemonger always assumes
+that the public take his pledges (which he never boggles over breaking
+for some purely factious object) seriously. The public may be silly,
+but they are not quite so silly as that.
+
+Having missed the tide when it was at the flood, Lord K. was wise in
+acting with circumspection, and in rather shrinking from insisting
+upon compulsion so long as it had not become manifestly and
+imperatively necessary. When, in the early autumn of 1915, he told me
+off as a kind of bear-leader to a Cabinet Committee presided over by
+Lord Crewe, which was to go into the general question of man-power and
+of the future development of the forces--a Committee which was
+intended, as far as I could make out, to advise as to whether
+compulsory service was to be adopted or not--I found him a little
+unapproachable and disinclined to commit himself. I was, of course,
+only supposed to assist in respect to information and as regards
+technical military points; but it would have been a help to know
+exactly what one's Chief desired and thought. Fitzgerald was a great
+standby on such occasions. I gathered from him that the Secretary of
+State was not anxious to precipitate bringing the question to a head,
+with the conception ever at the back of his mind of conserving
+sufficient fighting resources under his hand to deal the decisive blow
+in the war when the psychological moment should come, months ahead. He
+was not, in 1915, looking to 1916; he was looking to 1917, having
+made up his mind from the outset that this was to be a prolonged war
+of attrition. He, no more than all others, could foresee that the
+Russian revolution was to occur and was to delay the final triumph of
+the Entente for full twelve months.
+
+The last time that I saw the greatest of our War Ministers was a day
+or two before he started on his fatal expedition to Russia. I had
+recently come back from that country, and had been able to give him
+and Fitzgerald some useful hints as to minor points--kit, having all
+available decorations handy to put on for special occasions, taking
+large-sized photographs to dole out as presents, and so forth. He was
+very anxious to get back speedily, and had been somewhat disturbed to
+hear that things moved slowly in the Tsar's dominions, and that the
+trip would inevitably take considerably longer than he had counted on.
+I had urged him not to be in too great haste--to visit several groups
+of armies, and to show himself in Moscow and Kieff, feeling absolutely
+convinced that if the most was made of his progress through Russian
+territory it would do an immense amount of good. But he was in just as
+great a hurry to get journeys over in 1916 as he had been in South
+African days, when he used to risk a smash by requiring the trains in
+which he roamed the theatre of war to travel at a speed beyond that
+which was safe on such tortuous tracks; and it is easy to understand
+how hard-set, with so impetuous a passenger, the Admiralissimo of the
+Grand Fleet would have been to delay the departure of the _Hampshire_
+merely on the grounds of rough weather on the day on which she put to
+sea.
+
+On that last occasion when I saw him the Field-Marshal was in rare
+spirits, looking forward eagerly to his time in Russia, merry as a
+schoolboy starting for his holidays, only anxious to be off. With that
+incomparable gift of his for interpreting the essentials of a
+situation, he fully realized how far-reaching might be the
+consequences of the undertaking to which he stood committed. The
+public of this country perhaps hardly realize that the most
+unfortunate feature of his death at that time, from the national point
+of view, was that it prevented his Russian trip. Had it not been for
+the disaster of the 5th of June 1916 off the Orkneys, that convulsion
+of March 1917 in the territories of our great eastern Ally might never
+have occurred, or it might at least have been deferred until after the
+war had been brought to a happy termination. Apart from this, Lord
+Kitchener's work was almost done. Thanks to him, the United Kingdom
+had, alike in respect to men and to material, been transformed into a
+great military Power, and yet further developments had been assured.
+The employing of the instrument which he had created could be left to
+other hands.
+
+Many appreciations of him appeared at the time of his lamented
+passing, and have appeared since. His character and his qualifications
+as man of action and elaborator had not always been appraised quite
+correctly during his lifetime, and they are a subject of differences
+of opinion still. Often was he spoken of as a great organizer and
+administrator. But his claim to possess such qualifications rested
+rather upon the results that he obtained than upon the methods by
+which he obtained them. Of detail he possessed no special mastery, and
+yet he would concern himself with questions of detail which might well
+have been left to subordinates to deal with. He won the confidence of
+those under him not so much through trusting them in the sense of
+leaving them responsibility, as through compelling them to trust him
+by the force of his personality and by the wide compass of his outlook
+upon the numberless questions that were ever at issue. He had been
+described as harsh, taciturn, and unbending. He was on the contrary a
+delightful chief to serve once one understood his ways, although he
+would stand no nonsense and, like most people, was occasionally out of
+humour and exacting.
+
+A more cunning hand than mine is needed to depict adequately the great
+soldier-statesman. But this I would say. There has been much foolish
+talk as to this individual and to that having won the war. That any
+one person could have won the war is on the face of it an absurdity.
+The greatest factor in achieving the result was the British Navy; but
+who would claim that any one of the chieftains in our fleets or
+pulling the naval strings ashore decided the issue of the struggle?
+Next, however, to what our sailors achieved afloat, the most important
+influence in giving victory to the side of the Entente was the
+development, to an extent previously undreamt of, of the British
+fighting resources ashore. That was primarily the handiwork of Lord
+Kitchener. His country can fairly claim that he accomplished more than
+did any other individual--French, American, Italian, Russian,
+British--to bring German militarism to the ground.
+
+No reference to the famous Field-Marshal's career during the Great War
+would be complete without one word as to "Fitz." Fitzgerald was, after
+a fashion, the complement of his Chief. We in Whitehall would have
+been lost without him. A comparatively junior officer, he was looked
+upon with some suspicion by those high up in the War Office just at
+first, in consequence of the exceptional influence that he enjoyed
+with the War Minister, and of his always knowing more about what was
+going on than anybody else but the War Minister himself. But all hands
+speedily came to appreciate the rare qualities of this seeming
+interloper, to realize what useful services he was able and ever ready
+to perform, and to turn his presence at his Chief's elbow to the best
+account. Sometimes he would be acting as a buffer; at other times he
+assumed the role of coupling-chain. Lord Kitchener frequently employed
+him to convey instructions verbally, and on such occasions the
+emissary always knew exactly what was in the War Minister's mind. If
+after an interview with the Chief one felt any doubts as to what was
+required of one, a hint to Fitz would be sure to secure the
+information of which one stood in need. Lord K. reposed implicit
+confidence in the judgement of this Personal Military Secretary of
+his, and with good reason. Often when the solution of some problem
+under discussion appeared to be open to question, he would say, "Let's
+have in Fitz and see what he thinks."
+
+The relations between them were like father and son. Each swore by the
+other, and Lord K. indeed never seemed better pleased than when one
+showed a liking for the Bengal Lancer whom he had chosen when in India
+and attached to himself. "I'll go and talk it over with Fitz, sir,"
+was sure to be rewarded with a pleasant smile and a "Yes, do."
+Possessing a charming personality, a keen intellect, a fund of humour
+and a considerable knowledge of the world, Fitz was an extremely
+attractive figure quite apart from the exceptional qualifications
+which he possessed for a post which he filled with so much credit to
+himself, and with such advantage to others. Of the thousands who went
+down in the great struggle, few were probably more sincerely mourned
+by hosts of friends than the gallant soldier whose body, washed ashore
+on the iron-bound coast of the Orkneys, we laid to rest one showery
+June afternoon in the hillside cemetery overlooking Eastbourne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DARDANELLES
+
+     The Tabah incident -- The Dardanelles memorandum of 1906 --
+     Special steps taken with regard to it by Sir H.
+     Campbell-Bannerman -- Mr. Churchill first raises the question --
+     My conference with him in October 1914 -- The naval project
+     against the Straits -- Its fundamental errors -- Would never have
+     been carried into effect had there been a conference between the
+     Naval War Staff and the General Staff -- The bad start -- The
+     causes of the final failure on the 18th of March -- Lord K.'s
+     instructions to Sir I. Hamilton -- The question of the packing of
+     the transports -- Sir I. Hamilton's complaint as to there being
+     no plan prepared -- The 1906 memorandum -- Sir Ian's complaint
+     about insufficient information -- How the 1906 memorandum
+     affected this question -- Misunderstanding as to the difficulty
+     of obtaining information -- The information not in reality so
+     defective -- My anxiety at the time of the first landing -- The
+     plan, a failure by early in May -- Impossibility of sending out
+     reinforcements then -- Question whether the delay in sending out
+     reinforcements greatly affected the result in August 1915 -- The
+     Dardanelles Committee -- Its anxiety -- Sir E. Carson and Mr.
+     Churchill, allies -- The question of clearing out -- My
+     disinclination to accept the principle before September -- Sir C.
+     Monro sent out -- The delay of the Government in deciding -- Lord
+     K. proceeds to the Aegean -- My own experiences -- A trip to
+     Paris with a special message to the French Government -- Sent on
+     a fool's errand, thanks to the Cabinet -- A notable state paper
+     on the subject -- Mr. Lloyd George and the "sanhedrin" --
+     Decision to evacuate only Anzac and Suvla -- Sir W. Robertson
+     arrives and orders are sent to evacuate Helles -- I give up the
+     appointment of D.M.O.
+
+
+No sooner did disquieting intelligence come to hand to the effect that
+the Ottoman authorities had given the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_ a
+suspicious welcome in Turkish waters during the opening weeks of the
+great struggle, than it became apparent that war with a fresh
+antagonist was at least on the cards. It was, moreover, obvious that
+if there were to be a rupture between the Entente and the Sublime
+Porte, the Bosphorus was certain to be closed as a line of
+communication between the Western Powers and Russia. Such an
+eventuality was bound to exercise a far-reaching influence over the
+course of the war as a whole. One therefore naturally gave some
+attention to the possibilities involved in an undertaking against
+Constantinople and the Straits--a subject with which by chance I
+happened to be probably as familiar as anybody in the army.
+
+Some eight years before, in the early part of 1906, H.M. Government
+had found itself at variance with the Sublime Porte in connection with
+a spot called Tabah at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, which we
+regarded as within the dominions of the Khedive but which Osmanli
+troops had truculently taken possession of. The Sultan's advisers had
+been rather troublesome about the business, and Downing Street and the
+Foreign Office had been obliged to take up a firm attitude before the
+Ottoman Government unwillingly climbed down. I had been in charge of
+the strategical section of the Military Operations Directorate at that
+time, and, in considering what we might be able to do in the military
+line supposing that things came to a head, had investigated the
+problems involved in gaining possession of the Dardanelles. Some years
+earlier, moreover, I had passed through the Straits and had spent a
+night at Chanak in the Narrows, taking careful note of the lie of the
+land, of the batteries as then existing, and so forth.
+
+After an accommodation had been arrived at with Johnny Turk in 1906,
+the Committee of Imperial Defence had followed up this question of
+operations against the Hellespont, more or less as an academic
+question; and I had drafted a paper on the subject, which was gone
+through line by line by General Spencer Ewart who was then D.M.O., in
+consultation with myself, was modified in some minor respects by him,
+was initialed by General Lyttelton, the Chief of the General Staff,
+and was accepted in principle by the C.I.D., Sir J. Fisher (as he then
+was) having as First Sea Lord expressed his full concurrence with the
+views therein expressed. These in effect "turned" the project "down."
+When about the end of August I searched for the 1906 memorandum in the
+files of the Committee of Imperial Defence papers which were in my
+safe, I found a note in the file concerned to say that by order of the
+Prime Minister the memorandum had been withdrawn. The reason for this
+I discovered at a later date. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman had fully
+realized the importance of this Dardanelles transaction of 1906. He
+had perceived that it was a matter of quite exceptional secrecy. He
+had dreaded the disastrous results which might well arise were news by
+any mischance to leak out and to reach the Sublime Porte that the
+naval and military authorities in this country had expressed the
+opinion that successful attack upon the Dardanelles was virtually
+impracticable, and that H.M. Government had endorsed this view. Tell
+the Turk that, and our trump card was gone. We could then no longer
+bluff the Ottoman Government in the event of war with feints of
+operations against the Straits--the very course which I believe would
+have been adopted in 1914-1915, had the Admiralty War Staff and the
+General Staff considered the question together without Cabinet
+interference and submitted a joint report for the information of the
+War Council. That 1906 memorandum and the Committee of Imperial
+Defence transactions in connection with it were treated differently
+from any C.I.D. documents of analogous kind then or, as far as I know,
+subsequently. I never saw the memorandum from 1906 till one day in May
+1915, when Mr. Asquith pushed a copy across the table to me at a
+meeting of the War Council in Downing Street, and I recognized it at
+once as in great measure my own production. It would not seem to have
+been brought to the notice of the Dardanelles Commission that the
+memorandum (to which several references are made in their Reports) was
+practically accepted by the Committee of Imperial Defence as governing
+the military policy of the country with respect to attack on the
+Straits in the event of war.
+
+The consequence of my having made myself familiar with the question in
+the past was that, when at the beginning of September 1914 Mr.
+Churchill raised the question of a conjunct Greek and British
+enterprise against the Straits, it was a simple matter for me to
+prepare a short memorandum on the subject, a memorandum of a decidedly
+discouraging nature. As a matter of fact, what was perhaps the
+strongest argument against the undertaking at that time was by
+oversight omitted from the document--the Greeks had no howitzers or
+mobile heavy artillery worth mentioning, and any ordnance of that
+class that we disposed of in the Mediterranean was of the prehistoric
+kind. The slip was of no great importance, however, because there
+never was the remotest chance of King Constantine, who was no mean
+judge of warlike problems, letting his country in for so dubious an
+enterprise.
+
+We were not actually at war with the Ottoman Empire for another two
+months. But hostilities had virtually become certain during the month
+of October, and one morning in the latter part of that month the First
+Lord sent a message across asking me to come over to his room and
+discuss possibilities in connection with the Dardanelles. I found the
+First Sea Lord (Prince Louis of Battenberg) and the Fourth Sea Lord
+(Commodore C. F. Lambert) waiting, as well as Mr. Churchill, and we
+sat round a table with all the maps and charts that were necessary for
+our purpose spread out on it. The problem of mastering the Straits was
+examined entirely from the point of view of a military operation based
+upon, and supported by, naval power. If the question of a fleet attack
+upon the defences within the defile was mentioned at all, it was only
+referred to quite incidentally.
+
+From my own observation on the spot, and as a result of later
+examination of maps, charts, confidential reports, and so forth, I had
+come to the conclusion that the key to the Dardanelles lay in the
+Kilid Bahr plateau, which dominates the channel at its very narrowest
+point from the European (Gallipoli Peninsula) side. By far the best
+plan of gaining possession of this high ground would, I considered, be
+to land, by surprise if possible, the biggest military force that
+could be very rapidly put ashore on that long stretch of coast-line
+practicable for troops to disembark from boats in fine weather, which
+was situated about the locality that has since become immortalized as
+Anzac Cove. A project on these lines is what we actually discussed
+that morning in the First Lord's room. I pointed out the difficulties
+and the dangers involved, _i.e._ the virtual impossibility of
+effecting a real surprise, the perils inseparable from a
+disembarkation in face of opposition, the certainty that the enemy was
+even now improving the land defences of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and
+the fact that, at the moment, we had no troops to carry such a scheme
+out and that we were most unlikely to have any to spare for such an
+object for months to come. One somewhat controversial tactical point I
+gave particular attention to--the efficacy of the fire of warships
+when covering a military landing and when endeavouring to silence
+field-guns on shore; my own view was that the potentialities of a
+fleet under such conditions were apt to be greatly overestimated. My
+exposition was intended to be dissuasive, and I think that Mr.
+Churchill was disappointed.
+
+We had a most pleasant discussion, the First Lord having a good
+working knowledge of military questions owing to his early career and
+training, and being therefore able to appreciate professional points
+which might puzzle the majority of civilians. At the end of it he
+seemed to clearly realize what a very serious operation of war a
+military undertaking against the Straits was likely to be, but he
+dwelt forcibly, and indeed enthusiastically, upon the results that
+would be gained by the Entente in the event of such an undertaking
+being successfully carried out--on that subject we were all quite at
+one. The story of this informal pow-wow has been recorded thus at
+length, because it was really the only occasion on which the General
+Staff were afforded anything like a proper opportunity of expressing
+an opinion as to operations against the Dardanelles, until after the
+country had been engulfed up to the neck in the morass and was
+irretrievably committed to an amphibious campaign on a great scale in
+the Gallipoli Peninsula. Prince Louis resigned his position as First
+Sea Lord a few days later; Commodore Lambert often mentioned the
+pow-wow in conversation with me in later days, after the mischief (for
+which the professional side of the Admiralty was only very partially
+to blame) had been done.
+
+As one gradually became acquainted in the following January with the
+nature of the naval scheme for dealing with the Straits, it was
+difficult not to feel apprehension. While, as Brigade-Major R.A. in
+the Western Command and later as commanding a company of R.G.A. at
+Malta, concerned with coast defence principles, the tactical rather
+than the technical scientific side of such problems had always
+interested me. When musing, during those interminable waits which take
+place in the course of a day's gun practice from a coast-defence
+battery, as to what would be likely to happen in the event of the work
+actually engaging a hostile armament, one could picture oneself driven
+from the guns under the hail of flying fragments of rock, concrete,
+and metal thrown up by the ships' huge projectiles. But one did not
+picture the battery as destroyed and rendered of no effect. Anybody
+who has tried both is aware how infinitely easier gun practice is at
+even a moving target on the water than it is at a target on land. One
+foresaw that the enemy's warships would plaster the vicinity of the
+work with projectiles, and would create conditions disastrous to human
+life if the gun-detachments did not go to ground, but that they would
+not often, if ever, actually hit the mark and demolish guns and
+mountings.
+
+The Admiralty's creeping form of attack, chosen on Admiral Carden's
+initiative, ignored this aspect of the question altogether. The whole
+scheme hinged upon _destroying_ the Ottoman coast batteries, the very
+thing that ships find it hardest to do. They can silence batteries;
+but what is the good of that if they then clear out and allow the
+defenders to come back and clean up? The creeping plan, moreover,
+obviously played into the hands of Turkish mobile guns, which would
+turn up in new positions on successive days, and which, as I had told
+Mr. Churchill three months before, our ships would find most difficult
+to deal with; these guns would probably give the mine-sweepers much
+more trouble than the heavy ordnance in the enemy's fixed defences.
+Then, again, one could not but be aware that the Sister Service was
+none too well equipped for dealing with the enigma of mines in any
+form--that had become obvious to those behind the scenes during the
+first six months of the war--and one's information pointed to the
+Turkish mine-defence of the Dardanelles being more up to date than was
+their gun-defence. Finally, and much the most important of all, this
+deliberate procedure was the worst possible method to adopt from the
+army's point of view, supposing the plan to fail and the army then to
+be called in to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. The enemy would
+have been given full warning, and would deliberately have been allowed
+what the Turk always stands in need of when on the war-path--time to
+prepare.
+
+The "First Report" of the Dardanelles Commission, as well as
+sidelights thrown upon the affair from other quarters, have
+established that of the three eminent naval experts who dealt with the
+project and who were more or less responsible for its being put into
+execution, two, Sir Arthur Wilson and Sir Henry Jackson, were by no
+means enthusiastic about it, while the third, Lord Fisher, was opposed
+to it but allowed himself to be overruled by the War Council. Had
+those three admirals met three representatives of the General Staff,
+Sir J. Wolfe-Murray, General Kiggell and myself, let us say, sitting
+round a table with no Cabinet Ministers present, I am certain that
+the report that we should have drawn up would have been dead against
+the whole thing. The objections raised from the military side would
+have been quite sufficient to dispel any doubts that the sailors had
+left on the subject. As for that naive theory that we might draw back
+in the middle of the naval operations supposing that the business went
+awry, of which I do not remember hearing at the time---- Pooh! We
+could hardly, left to ourselves, have been such flats as to take that
+seriously.
+
+The cable message from Tenedos which announced the result of the first
+effort against the conspicuous and comparatively feeble works that
+defended the mouth of the Straits, was the reverse of heartening. The
+bombarding squadron enjoyed an overwhelming superiority in armament
+from every point of view--range, weight of metal, and accuracy. The
+conditions were almost ideal for the attacking side, as there was
+plenty of sea-room and no worry about mines. If the warships could not
+finally dispose of Turkish works such as this, and with everything
+favourable, by long-range fire, then long-range fire was "off." Once
+inside the Straits, the fleet, manoeuvring without elbow-room, would
+have to get pretty near its work, mines or no mines, if it was going
+to do any good. The idea of the _Queen Elizabeth_ pitching her stuff
+over the top of the Gallipoli Peninsula left one cold. Several days
+before Admiral de Robeck delivered his determined attack upon the
+defences of the Narrows of the 18th of March, one had pretty well made
+up one's mind that the thing was going to be a failure, and that the
+army was going to be let in for an extremely uncomfortable business.
+
+Accounts emanating from the Turkish side have suggested that the naval
+operations were within an ace of succeeding, and that they only had to
+be pressed a little further to achieve their object. An examination of
+the books by Mr. Morgenthau and others does not bear this out. The
+Turks imagined that our fleet had been beaten off by gun-fire on the
+18th, and they appear to have got nervous because the ammunition for
+certain of their heaviest guns was running short. Their heavy guns,
+and the ammunition for them, was a matter of quite secondary
+importance. The fleet was beaten off owing to the effect of the
+drifting mines. The Turks thought that the damage done to the ships
+was due to their batteries, when it was in reality caused by their
+mines. They did not appreciate the situation correctly, for they do
+not appear to have been short of mines. The Russian plan of letting
+these engines of destruction loose at the Black Sea end of the
+Bosphorus to drift down with the current indeed provided the Osmanlis
+with a constant supply of excellent ones; they were picked up, shipped
+down to the Dardanelles, and used against the Allies' fleet. These
+weapons, drifting and fixed, together with the mobile artillery which
+so seriously interfered with mine-sweeping, proved to be the trump
+cards in the hands of Johnny Turk and his Boche assistants.
+
+I was present when Lord Kitchener met Sir I. Hamilton and his chief
+staff-officer, General Braithwaite, and gave Sir Ian his instructions.
+At that time Lord K. still hoped that, in so far as forcing the
+Dardanelles was concerned, the fleet would effect its purpose,
+practically if not wholly unaided by the troops. These were designed
+rather for operations subsequent to the fall of what was after all but
+the first line of Ottoman defence. It was only after Sir Ian arrived
+on the spot that the naval attack actually failed and that military
+operations on an ambitious scale against the Gallipoli Peninsula took
+the stage. The fact that when the transports arrived at Mudros they
+were found not to be packed suitably for effecting an immediate
+disembarkation on hostile soil, has been a good deal criticized.
+Although it was not a matter within my responsibility, I was sharply
+heckled over the point by Captain Stephen Gwynne when before the
+Dardanelles Commission. But the troops left before there was any
+question of attempting a landing in force in face of the enemy in
+the immediate vicinity of the Straits. At the date when they sailed it
+remained quite an open question as to what exactly their task was to
+be. The transports could not have been appropriately packed even after
+military operations in the Gallipoli Peninsula had been decided upon,
+without knowing exactly what was Sir Ian's plan.
+
+Sir Ian complained to the Dardanelles Commission that no preliminary
+scheme of operations had been drawn up by the War Office; and he
+certainly got little assistance in that direction, although it might
+not have been of much use to him if he had.[4] He also complained that
+there was a great want of staff preparation, no arrangements for
+water, for instance, having been made. This was in effect the
+consequence of the General Staff at this time not exercising its
+proper functions or being invested with the powers to which it was
+entitled. There never was a meeting of the various directors in the
+War Office concerned, under the aegis of the General Staff, to go into
+these matters in detail. The troops would certainly be called upon to
+land somewhere, sooner or later, whether the fleet forced the
+Dardanelles or not, and all the arrangements as regards supplies,
+transport, water, hospitals, material for piers, etc., required to be
+worked out by those responsible after getting a lead from the General
+Staff. If the commodities of all kinds involved could not be procured
+locally or in Egypt, then it was up to the War Office to see that
+they should be sent out from home, and be sent out, moreover,
+practically at the same time as the troops left so that they should be
+on the spot when needed.
+
+                   [Footnote 4: A single "preliminary scheme of
+                   operations" would have been of little service to
+                   the C.-in-C. of "Medforce"--it must have been based
+                   on the mistaken assumption (which held good when he
+                   started) that the fleet would force the Straits,
+                   and it would consequently have concerned itself
+                   with undertakings totally different from those
+                   which, in the event, Sir Ian had to carry out. If
+                   the army was to derive any benefit from projects
+                   elaborated in the War Office, there must have been
+                   a second "preliminary scheme of operations" based
+                   on the assumption that the fleet was going to fail.
+                   What profit is there in a plan of campaign that
+                   dictates procedure to be followed after the first
+                   great clash of arms? In the case under
+                   consideration, the first great clash of arms befell
+                   on the 18th of March, five days after Sir Ian left
+                   London with his instructions, and it turned the
+                   whole business upside down.]
+
+Sir Ian also mentioned that he had not been shown the 1906 memorandum
+before going to the Near East. As it turned out, the mystery made
+about this document (although there was excellent reason for the
+special steps that were taken in connection with it at the time of its
+coming before the Committee of Imperial Defence) proved inconvenient
+in 1914-15. One wonders, indeed, whether it was ever seen by the
+Admiralty experts at the time when they had Admiral Carden's plan of a
+creeping naval attack upon the Dardanelles under consideration,
+because the memorandum expressed considerable doubts as to the
+efficacy of gun-fire from on board ship against the land, and the
+event proved that these doubts were fully justified. Had I had a copy
+in my possession I should certainly have shown it to Sir Ian, or else
+to Braithwaite, with whom, as he had been a brother-Director on the
+General Staff at the War Office for some months previously, I was in
+close touch.
+
+Sir Ian, the Report says, "dwelt strongly on the total absence of
+information furnished him by the War Office staff," and he complained
+very justly that the map, or maps, given him had proved inaccurate and
+inadequate. Now, that reflected upon Generals Ewart and H. Wilson, who
+had been holding the appointment of D.M.O. between 1906 and 1914, and
+it reflected upon Sir N. Lyttelton, the late Lord Nicholson (actually
+a member of the Commission) and Sir J. French, who had successively
+been Chiefs of the General Staff during the same period. Topographical
+information cannot be procured after hostilities have broken out; it
+has to be obtained in advance. On noting what was said about this in
+the "First Report" of the Dardanelles Commission, I asked to be
+allowed to give evidence again, and the Commission were good enough to
+recall me in due course. The object was, not to contest Sir I.
+Hamilton's assertions but to point out that under the circumstances
+of the case no blame was fairly attributable to those who were
+responsible for information of some sort being available.
+
+To have obtained full information as to the Gallipoli Peninsula and
+the region around the Dardanelles, but especially as to the peninsula,
+was a matter of money--and plenty of it. In no country in the world in
+pre-war days was spying on fortified areas of strategical importance
+without money a more unprofitable game than in the Ottoman dominions.
+There were, on the other hand, few countries where money, if you had
+enough of it, was more sure to procure you the information that you
+required. Ever since the late General Brackenbury was at the head of
+the Intelligence Department of the War Office in the eighties secret
+funds have been at its disposal, but they have not been large, and
+there have always been plenty of desirable objects to devote those
+funds to. Had the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1906 taken the line
+that, even admitting an attack upon the Straits to be a difficult
+business, its effect if successful was nevertheless likely to be so
+great that the matter was one to be followed up, a pretty substantial
+share of the secret funds coming to hand in the Intelligence
+Department between 1906 and 1914 would surely have been devoted to
+this region. All kinds of topographical details concerning the
+immediate neighbourhood of the Dardanelles would thereby have been got
+together, ready for use; it would somehow have been discovered in the
+environs of Stamboul that the Gallipoli Peninsula had been surveyed
+and that good large-scale maps of that region actually existed, and
+copies of those large-scale maps would have found their way into the
+War Office, where they would speedily have been reproduced.
+
+It was made plain to me when giving evidence before the Commission
+that the Rt. Hon. A. Fisher and Sir T. Mackenzie, its members
+representing the Antipodes, considered that there had been great
+neglect on the part of the War Office in obtaining information with
+regard to the environs of the Dardanelles in advance. But, quite
+apart from the peculiar situation created by the decision of the
+Committee of Imperial Defence, there must have been serious
+difficulties in obtaining such information about the Gallipoli
+Peninsula--only those who have had experience in such matters know how
+great the difficulties are. Intelligence service in peace time is a
+subject of which the average civilian does not understand the meaning
+nor realize the dangers. The Commission, which included experts in
+such matters in the shape of Admiral Sir W. May and Lord Nicholson,
+made no comment on this point in its final Report, evidently taking
+the broad view that the lack of information was, under all the
+circumstances of the case, excusable. In his special Report, Sir T.
+Mackenzie on the other hand blames the Imperial General Staff for
+being "unprepared for operations against the Dardanelles and
+Bosphorus," obviously having the question of information in his mind,
+as he must be perfectly well aware that the planning of actual
+operations was just as much a matter for the Admiralty as for the
+General Staff, the whole problem being manifestly an amphibious one.
+
+As a matter of fact, considering the kind of place that the Gallipoli
+Peninsula was, and taking into consideration the extreme jealousy with
+which the Turks, quite properly from their point of view, had always
+regarded the appearance of strangers in that well-watched region, the
+information contained in the secret official publications which the
+Mediterranean Expeditionary Force took out with it was by no means to
+be despised. All but one of the landing places actually utilized on
+the famous 25th of April were, I think, designated in these booklets,
+and that one was unsuitable for landing anything but infantry. A great
+deal of the information proved to be perfectly correct, and a good
+deal more of it might have proved to be correct had the Expeditionary
+Force ever penetrated far enough into the interior of the Peninsula to
+test it.
+
+There had been many occasions giving grounds for disquietude since the
+days of Mons, but I never felt greater anxiety at any time during the
+war than when awaiting tidings as to the landing on the Aegean shore.
+We knew that this was about to take place, but I was not aware of the
+details of Sir I. Hamilton's plan. Soldiers who had examined carefully
+into the factors likely to govern a disembarkation in force in face of
+an enemy who was fully prepared, were unanimous in viewing such an
+operation as a somewhat desperate enterprise. There was no modern
+precedent for an undertaking of the kind. One dreaded some grave
+disaster, feared that the troops might entirely fail to gain a footing
+on shore, and pictured them as driven off after suffering overwhelming
+losses. The message announcing that a large part of the army was
+safely disembarked came as an immense relief. Although disappointed at
+learning that only a portion of the troops had been put ashore at
+Anzac on the outside of the Peninsula, which, I had presumed, would be
+the point selected for the main attack, I felt decidedly optimistic
+for the moment. What had appeared to be the greatest obstacle to
+success had been overcome, for a landing had been effected in spite of
+all that the enemy could do to hinder it. As mentioned in the previous
+chapter, I left London immediately afterwards, and it was a bitter
+disappointment to hear the truth a few days later, to realize that my
+first appreciation had been incorrect, and to learn that gaining a
+footing on shore did not connote an immediate advance into the
+interior. It provides a good example of how difficult it is to
+forecast results in war.
+
+By fairly early in May, there already seemed to be little prospect of
+the Expeditionary Force achieving its object unless very strong
+reinforcements in men and munitions were sent out to the Aegean. But
+there was shortage of both men and munitions, and men and munitions
+alike were needed elsewhere. The second Battle of Ypres, coupled with
+the miscarriage of the Franco-British offensive about La Bassee,
+indicated that the enemy was formidable on the Western Front.
+Although there was every prospect of an improvement before long in
+respect to munitions output, the shell shortage was at the moment
+almost at its worst. We knew at the War Office that the Russians were
+in grave straits in respect to weapons and ammunition, and one could
+not tell whether the German Great General Staff, probably quite as
+well aware of this as we were, would assume the offensive in the
+Eastern theatre of war, or would transfer great bodies of troops from
+East to West to make some determined effort against the French and
+ourselves. The change of Government which introduced Mr. Asquith's
+Coalition Cabinet, moreover, came about at this time, and political
+palaver seriously delayed decisions.
+
+It was, no doubt, unfortunate, from the point of view of the
+Dardanelles campaign, that there was so much hesitation about sending
+out the very substantial reinforcements which only actually reached
+Sir I. Hamilton at the end of July and during the early days of
+August. But it by no means necessarily follows that if they had
+reached their destination, say, six weeks sooner, the Straits would
+have been won. Much stress has always been laid upon the torpor that
+descended upon Suvla during the very critical hours which followed the
+successful disembarkation of the new force in that region; but those
+inexperienced troops and their leaders must have acted with
+extraordinary resolution and energy to have appreciably changed the
+fortunes of General Birdwood's great offensive against Sari Bair.
+Information from the Turkish side does not suggest that Liman von
+Sanders gained any great accessions of strength during July and early
+August. It was the ample warning which the enemy received of what was
+impending before ever a soldier was landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula
+that, far more than anything which occurred subsequently, rendered the
+Dardanelles operations abortive.
+
+The Dardanelles Committee came into being in June. This body included
+most of the more prominent figures in the Coalition Cabinet.
+Attending its deliberations from time to time one acquired the
+impression that an undue amount of attention was being given in
+Government circles to the Aegean theatre of war, an attention out of
+all proportion either to its importance or to our prospects of
+success; for the talk ranged over the whole wide world at times and
+the Committee dealt with a good deal besides the Dardanelles. Its
+members always took the utmost interest in the events in the Gallipoli
+Peninsula, and, up to the date when the August offensive in that
+region definitely failed, they were mostly in sanguine mood. One or
+two optimistic statements made in public at that time were indeed
+quite inappropriate and had much better been left unspoken. The
+amateur strategist, that inexhaustible source of original and
+unprofitable proposals, was by no means inarticulate at these
+confabulations in 10 Downing Street. He would pick up Sir I.
+Hamilton's Army and would deposit it in some new locality, just as one
+might pick up one's pen-wiper and shift it from one side of the
+blotting-pad to the other. That is how some people who are simply
+bursting with intelligence, people who will produce whole newspaper
+columns of what to the uninformed reads like sensible matter, love to
+make war. In a way, the U-boats in the Aegean served as a blessing in
+disguise; they helped to squash many hare-brained schemes inchoated
+around Whitehall, and to consign them to oblivion before they became
+really dangerous.
+
+After the failure of the August offensive in the Gallipoli Peninsula,
+the members of the Dardanelles Committee became extremely anxious, and
+with good reason. They would come round to my room and discuss the
+situation individually, and I am afraid they seldom found me in
+optimistic vein. I had run over to Ulster in April 1914 on the
+occasion of certain stirring events taking place, which brought
+General Hubert Gough and his cavalry brigade into some public
+prominence, and which robbed the War Office of the services of Colonel
+Seely, Sir J. French and Sir Spencer Ewart. I had been allowed behind
+the scenes in the north of Ireland as a sympathiser, had visited
+Omagh, Enniskillen, historic Derry and other places, had noted the
+grim determination of the loyalists, and had been deeply impressed by
+the efficiency and the foresight of the inner organization. Necessity
+makes strange bedfellows. It was almost startling to find within
+fifteen months of that experience Sir E. Carson arriving in my
+apartment together with Mr. Churchill, their relations verging on the
+mutually affectionate, eager to discuss as colleagues the very
+unpromising position of affairs on the shores of the Thracian
+Chersonese.
+
+From a very early stage in the Dardanelles venture there had been a
+feeling in some quarters within the War Office that we ought to cut
+our losses and clear out of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and that sending
+out reinforcements to the Aegean which could ill be spared from other
+scenes of warlike activity looked uncommonly like throwing good money
+after bad. My friends at G.H.Q., from whom I used to hear frequently,
+and who would look in when over on duty or on short leave, were
+strongly of this opinion; but they naturally were somewhat biassed.
+One took a long time to reconcile oneself to this idea, even when no
+hope of real success remained. It was not until September indeed, and
+after the decision had been come to to send out no more fresh troops
+to Sir I. Hamilton, that I personally came to the conclusion that no
+other course was open than to have done with the business and to come
+away out of that with the least possible delay. Sir Ian had sent home
+a trusted staff-officer, Major (now Major-General) the Hon. Guy
+Dawnay, to report and to try to secure help. Dawnay fought his corner
+resolutely and was loyalty itself to his chief, but the information
+that he had to give and his appreciation of the situation as it stood
+were the reverse of encouraging. By the middle of October, when the
+Salonika affair had begun to create fresh demands on our limited
+resources and when Sir C. Monro was sent out to take up command of the
+Mediterranean [p.103] Expeditionary Force, any doubts which remained on the
+subject had been dispelled, and I was glad to gather from the new
+chief's attitude when he left that, in so far as he understood the
+situation before satisfying himself of the various factors on the
+spot, he leant towards complete and prompt evacuation.
+
+If a withdrawal was to be effected, it was manifest that this ought to
+be carried out as soon as possible in view of the virtual certainty of
+bad weather during the winter months. But the War Council, which had
+superseded the Dardanelles Committee, unfortunately appeared to halt
+helplessly between two opinions. Even Sir C. Monro's uncompromising
+recommendation failed to decide its members. Lord Kitchener was loth
+to agree to the step, as he feared the effect which a British retreat
+might exert in Egypt and elsewhere in the East. As will be remembered
+he proceeded to the Aegean himself at the beginning of November to
+take stock, but he soon decided for evacuation after examining the
+conditions on the spot. The whole question remained in abeyance for
+some three weeks.
+
+My own experiences of what followed were so singular that a careful
+note of dates and details was made at the time, because one realized
+even then that incidents of the kind require to be made known. They
+may serve as a warning. On the 23rd of November my chief, Sir A.
+Murray, summoned me, after a meeting of the War Council, to say that
+that body wished me to repair straightway to Paris and to make General
+Gallieni, the War Minister, acquainted with a decision which they had
+just arrived at--viz., that the Gallipoli Peninsula was to be
+abandoned without further ado. The full Cabinet would meet on the
+morrow (the 24th) to endorse the decision. That afternoon Mr. Asquith,
+who was acting as Secretary of State for War in the absence of Lord
+Kitchener, sent for me and repeated these instructions.
+
+I left by the morning boat-train next day, having wired to our
+Military Attache to arrange, if possible, an interview with General
+Gallieni that evening; and he met me at the Gare du Nord, bearer of an
+invitation to dinner from the War Minister, and of a telegram from
+General Murray intimating that the Cabinet, having met as arranged,
+had been unable to come to a decision but were going to have another
+try on the morrow. Here was a contingency that was not covered by
+instructions and for which one was not prepared, but I decided to tell
+General Gallieni exactly how matters stood. (Adroitly drawn out for my
+benefit by his personal staff during dinner, the great soldier told us
+that stirring tale of how, as Governor of Paris, he despatched its
+garrison in buses and taxis and any vehicles that he could lay hands
+upon, to buttress the army which, under Maunoury's stalwart
+leadership, was to fall upon Von Kluck's flank, and was to usher in
+the victory of the Marne.)
+
+A fresh wire came to hand from the War Office on the following
+afternoon, announcing that the Cabinet had again been unable to clinch
+the business, but contemplated a further seance two days later, the
+27th. On the afternoon of the 27th, however, a message arrived from
+General Murray, to say that our rulers had yet again failed to make up
+their minds, and that the best thing I could do under the
+circumstances was to return to the War Office. General Gallieni, when
+the position of affairs was explained to him, was most sympathetic,
+quoted somebody's dictum that "la politique n'a pas d'entrailles," and
+hinted that he did not always find it quite plain sailing with his own
+gang. Still, there it was. The Twenty-Three had thrown the War Council
+over (it was then composed of Messrs. Asquith, Bonar Law, Lloyd
+George, and Balfour, and Sir E. Grey, assisted by the First Sea Lord
+and the C.I.G.S.) and they were leaving our army marooned on the
+Gallipoli Peninsula, with the winter approaching apace, in a position
+growing more and more precarious owing to Serbia's collapse and to
+Bulgaria's accession to the enemy ranks having freed the great artery
+of communications connecting Germany with the Golden Horn.
+
+Life in the War Office during the Great War, even during those early
+anxious days of 1914 and 1915, had its lighter side. The astonishing
+cheeriness of the British soldier under the most trying circumstances
+has become proverbial; but his officer shares this priceless
+characteristic with him and displays it even amid the deadening
+surroundings of the big building in Whitehall. The best laugh that we
+enjoyed during that strenuous period was on the morning when news came
+that Anzac and Suvla had been evacuated at the cost of only some
+half-dozen casualties and of the abandonment of a very few worn-out
+guns. Then it was that an official, who was very much behind the
+scenes, extracted a document on the familiar grey-green paper from his
+safe and read it out with appropriate "business" to a joyous party.
+
+This State paper, a model of incisive diction and of moving prose,
+conceived in the best Oxford manner, drew a terrible picture of what
+might occur in withdrawing troops from a foreshore in presence of a
+ferocious foe. Its polished periods portrayed a scene of horror and
+despair, of a bullet-swept beach, of drowning soldiers and of
+shattered boats. It quoted the case of some similar military
+operation, where warriors who had gained a footing on a hostile
+coast-line had been obliged to remove themselves in haste and had had
+the very father and mother of a time during the process--it was
+Marathon or Syracuse or some such contemporary martial event, if I
+remember aright. This masterly production, there is reason to believe,
+had not been without its influence when the question of abandoning the
+Gallipoli Peninsula was under consideration of those responsible. Well
+did Mr. Lloyd George say in the House of Commons many months later in
+the course of his first speech after becoming Prime Minister: "You
+cannot run a war with a Sanhedrin."
+
+When the War Council, or the Cabinet, or whatever set of men in
+authority it was who at last got something settled, made up their
+minds that a withdrawal of sorts was really to take place, they in a
+measure reversed the decision which I had been charged to convey to
+the French Government a fortnight before. The orders sent out to Sir
+C. Monro only directed an evacuation of Anzac and Suvla to take place.
+This, it may be observed, seems to some extent to have been the fault
+of the sailor-men. They butted in, wanting to hang on to Helles on
+watching-the-Straits grounds; they were apparently ready to impose
+upon our naval forces in the Aegean the very grave responsibility of
+mothering a small army, which was blockaded and dominated on the land
+side, as it clung to the inhospitable, storm-driven toe of the
+Gallipoli Peninsula in midwinter.
+
+Sir W. Robertson arrived a few days later to take up the appointment
+of C.I.G.S., which, I knew, meant the splitting up of my Directorate.
+Being aware of his views beforehand as we had often talked it over, I
+had a paper ready drafted for his approval urging an immediate total
+evacuation of Turkish soil in this region. This he at once submitted
+to the War Council, and within two or three days orders were
+telegraphed out to the Aegean to the effect that Helles was to be
+abandoned. After remaining a few days longer at the War Office as
+Director of Military Intelligence, I was sent by the C.I.G.S. on a
+special mission to Russia, and my direct connection with the General
+Staff came to an end but for a short period in the summer of 1917. It
+is a satisfaction to remember that the last question of importance in
+which I was concerned before leaving Whitehall for the East was in
+lending a hand towards getting our troops out of the impossible
+position they were in at the mouth of the Dardanelles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SOME EXPERIENCES IN THE WAR OFFICE
+
+     A reversion to earlier dates -- The statisticians in the winter
+     of 1914-15 -- The efforts to prove that German man-power would
+     shortly give out -- Lack of the necessary premises upon which to
+     found such calculations -- Views on the maritime blockade -- The
+     projects for operations against the Belgian coast district in the
+     winter of 1914-15 -- Nature of my staff -- The "dug-outs" -- The
+     services of one of them, "Z" -- His care of me in foreign parts
+     -- His activities in other Departments of State -- An alarming
+     discovery -- How "Z" grappled with a threatening situation -- He
+     hears about the Admiralty working on the Tanks -- The
+     cold-shouldering of Colonel Swinton when he raised this question
+     at the War Office in January 1915 -- Lord Fisher proposes to
+     construct large numbers of motor-lighters, and I am told off to
+     go into the matter with him -- The Baltic project -- The way it
+     was approached -- Meetings with Lord Fisher -- The "beetles" --
+     Visits from the First Sea Lord -- The question of secrecy in
+     connection with war operations -- A parable -- The land service
+     behind the sea service in this matter -- Interviews with Mr.
+     Asquith -- His ways on such occasions.
+
+
+These random jottings scarcely lend themselves to the scrupulous
+preservation of a chronological continuity. Many other matters
+meriting some mention as affecting the War Office had claimed one's
+attention before the Dardanelles campaign finally fizzled out early in
+January 1916. The General Staff had to some extent been concerned in
+the solutions arrived at by the Entente during the year 1915 of those
+acutely complex problems which kept arising in the Balkans. Then,
+again, quite a number of "side-shows" had been embarked on at various
+dates since the outbreak of the conflict, of which some had been
+carried through to a successful conclusion to the advantage of the
+cause, while the course of others had been of a decidedly chequered
+character. The munitions question, furthermore, which had for a time
+caused most serious difficulty but which had been disposed of in great
+measure by the end of 1915 owing to the foresight and the labours of
+Lord Kitchener and of the Master-General of the Ordnance's Department,
+was necessarily one in which the Military Operations Directorate was
+deeply interested. These and a number of other matters will be dealt
+with in special chapters, but some more or less personal experiences
+in and around Whitehall may appropriately be placed on record here.
+
+Already, early in the winter of 1914-15, the statisticians were busily
+at work. They had found a bone and they were gnawing at it to their
+heart's content. Individuals of indisputable capacity and of infinite
+application set themselves to work to calculate how soon Boche
+man-power would be exhausted. Lord Haldane hurled himself into the
+breach with a zest that could hardly have been exceeded had he been
+contriving a totally new Territorial Army organization. Professor Oman
+abandoned Wellington somewhere amidst the declivities of the sierras
+without one qualm, and immersed himself in computations warranted to
+make the plain man's hair stand on end. The enthusiasts who
+voluntarily undertook this onerous task arrived at results of the most
+encouraging kind, for one learnt that the Hun as a warrior would
+within quite a short space of time be a phantom of the past, that
+adult males within the Kaiser's dominions would speedily comprise only
+the very aged, the mentally afflicted or the maimed wreckage from the
+battlefields of France and Poland, and that if this attractive
+Sovereign proposed to continue hostilities he must ere long, as
+Lincoln said of Jefferson Davis, "rob the cradle and the grave." Even
+Lord Kitchener displayed some interest in these mathematical
+exercises, and was not wholly unimpressed when figures established the
+gratifying fact that the German legions were a vanishing proposition.
+I was always in this matter graded in the "doubting Thomas" class.
+
+The question seemed to base itself upon what premises you thought fit
+to start from. You could no doubt calculate with some certainty upon
+the total number of Teuton males of fighting age being somewhere about
+fifteen millions in August 1914, upon 700,000, or so, youths annually
+reaching the age of eighteen, and upon Germany being obliged to have
+under arms continually some five million soldiers. After that you were
+handling rather indeterminate factors. You might put down
+indispensables in civil life at half a million or at four millions
+just as you liked; but it made the difference of three and a half
+millions in your pool to start with, according to which estimate you
+preferred. After that you had to cut out the unfit--another
+problematical figure. Finally came the question of casualties based on
+suspicious enemy statistics, and the perplexities involved in the
+number of wounded who would, and who would not, be able to return to
+the ranks. The only conclusion that one seemed to be justified in
+arriving at was that the wastage was in excess of the intake of
+youngsters, that the outflow was greater than the inflow, and that if
+the war went on long enough German man-power would give out. When that
+happy consummation would be arrived at, it was in the winter of
+1914-15 impossible to say and fruitless to take a shot at.
+
+The Director of Military Operations received copies of most Foreign
+Office telegrams as a matter of course, and during the early months of
+the war many of these documents as they came to hand were found to be
+concerned with that very ticklish question, the maritime blockade. The
+attitude taken up by those responsible in this country regarding this
+matter has been severely criticized in many quarters, certain organs
+of the Press were loud in their condemnation of our kid-glove methods
+in those days, and the Sister Service seemed to be in discontented
+mood. But there was a good deal to be said on the other side. Lack of
+familiarity with international law, with precedents, and with the
+tenour and result of the discussions which had at various times taken
+place with foreign countries over the manners and customs of naval
+blockade, made any conclusions which I might arrive at over so complex
+a problem of little profit. But it always did seem to me that the
+policy actually adopted was in the main the right one, and that to
+have bowed before advocates of more drastic measures might well have
+landed us in a most horrible mess. You can play tricks with neutrals
+whose fighting potentialities are restricted, which you had better not
+try on with non-belligerents who may be able to make things hot for
+you. The progress of the war in the early months was not so wholly
+reassuring as to justify hazarding fresh complications.
+
+In his book, "_1914_," Lord French has dealt at some length with an
+operations question which was much in debate during the winter of
+1914-15. He and Mr. Churchill were at this time bent on joint naval
+and military undertakings designed to recover possession of part, or
+of the whole, of the Belgian coast-line--in itself a most desirable
+objective. Although I did not see most of the communications which
+passed between the French Government and ours on the subject, nor
+those which passed between Lord Kitchener and the Commander-in-Chief
+of the B.E.F., I gathered the nature of what was afoot from Sir J.
+Wolfe Murray and Fitzgerald, as also from G.H.Q. in France, and
+examined the problem which was involved with the aid of large-scale
+maps and charts and such other information as was available. The
+experts of St. Omer did not appear to accept the scheme with
+absolutely whole-hearted concurrence. By some of them--it may have
+been a mistaken impression on my part--the visits of the First Lord of
+the Admiralty to their Chief hardly seemed to be welcomed with the
+enthusiasm that might have been expected. Whisperings from across the
+Channel perhaps made one more critical than one ought to have been,
+but, be that as it may, the project hardly struck one as an especially
+inviting method of employing force at that particular juncture. We
+were deplorably short of heavy howitzers, and we were already feeling
+the lack of artillery ammunition of all sorts. Although some
+reinforcements--the Twenty-Seventh and Twenty-Eighth Divisions--were
+pretty well ready to take the field, no really substantial
+augmentation of our fighting forces on the Western Front was to be
+anticipated for some months. The end was attractive enough, but the
+means appeared to be lacking.
+
+In long-range--or, for the matter of that, short-range--bombardments
+of the Flanders littoral by warships I placed no trust. Mr.
+Churchill's "we could give you 100 or 200 guns from the sea in
+absolutely devastating support" of the 22nd of November to Sir J.
+French would not have excited me in the very least. In his book, the
+Field-Marshal ascribes the final decision of our Government to refuse
+sanction to a plan of operations which they had approved of at the
+first blush, partly to French objections and partly to the sudden
+fancy taken by the War Council for offensive endeavour in far-distant
+fields. That may be the correct explanation; but it is also possible
+that after careful consideration of the subject Lord Kitchener
+perceived the tactical and strategical weakness of the plan in itself.
+
+My staff was from the outset a fairly substantial one--much the
+largest of that in any War Office Directorate--and, although I am no
+great believer in a multitudinous personnel swarming in a public
+office, it somehow grew. It was composed partly of officers and others
+whom I found on arrival, partly of new hands brought in automatically
+on mobilization like myself to fill the places of picked men who had
+been spirited away with the Expeditionary Force, and partly of
+individuals acquired later on as other regular occupants were received
+up into the framework of the growing fighting forces of the country. A
+proportion of the new-comers were dug-outs, and it may not be out of
+place to say a word concerning this particular class of officer as
+introduced into the War Office, of whom I formed one myself.
+Instigated thereunto by that gushing fountain of unimpeachable
+information, the Press, the public were during the early part of the
+war disposed to attribute all high crimes and misdemeanours, of which
+the central administration of the nation's military forces was
+pronounced to have been guilty, to the "dug-out." That the personnel
+of the War Office was always set out in detail at the beginning of the
+_Monthly Army List_, the omniscient Fourth Estate was naturally aware;
+but the management of a newspaper could hardly be expected to purchase
+a copy (it was not made confidential for a year). Nor could a
+journalistic staff condescend to study this work of reference at some
+library or club. Under the circumstances, and having heard that such
+people as "dug-outs" actually existed, the Press as a matter of course
+assumed that within the portals in Whitehall Lord Kitchener was
+struggling in vain against the ineptitude and reactionary tendencies
+of a set of prehistoric creatures who constituted the whole of his
+staff. The fact, however, was that all the higher appointments (with
+scarcely an exception other than that of myself) were occupied by
+soldiers who had been on the active list at the time of mobilization,
+and the great majority of whom simply remained at their posts after
+war was declared.
+
+Nor were "dug-outs," whether inside or outside of the War Office, by
+necessity and in obedience to some inviolable rule individuals
+languishing in the last stage of mental and bodily decay. Some of them
+were held to be not too effete to bear their burden even amid the
+stress and turmoil of the battlefield. One, after serving with
+conspicuous distinction in several theatres of war, finished up as
+Chief of the General Staff and right-hand man to Sir Douglas Haig in
+1918. Those members of the band who were at my beck and call within
+the War Office generally contrived to grapple effectually with
+whatever they undertook, and amongst them certainly not the least
+competent and interesting was a Rip Van Winkle, whom we will call
+"Z"--for short.
+
+A subaltern at the start, "Z" was fitted out with all the virtues of
+the typical subaltern, but was furnished in addition with certain
+virtues that the typical subaltern does not necessarily possess. It
+could not be said of him that
+
+                    deep on his brow engraven
+               Deliberation sat and sovereign care,
+
+but he treated Cabinet Ministers with an engaging blend of firmness
+and familiarity, and he could, when occasion called for it, keep
+Royalty in its place. Once when he thought fit to pay a visit on duty
+to Paris and the front, he took me with him, explaining that unless he
+had a general officer in his train there might be difficulties as to
+his being accompanied by his soldier servant. Generals and colonels
+and people of that kind doing duty at the War Office did not then have
+soldier servants--but "Z" did. It is, however, bare justice to him to
+acknowledge that, after I had served his purpose and when he came to
+send me back to England from Boulogne before he resumed his inspection
+of troops and trenches, he was grandmotherly in his solicitude that I
+should meet with no misadventure. "Have you got your yellow form all
+right, sir? You'd better look. No, no; that's not it, that's another
+thing altogether. Surely you haven't lost it already! Ah, that's it.
+Now, do put it in your right-hand breast pocket, where you won't get
+it messed up with your pocket-handkerchief, sir, and remember where it
+is." It reminded one of being sent off as a small boy to school.
+
+It was his practice to make a round of the different Public
+Departments of a forenoon, and to draw the attention of those
+concerned in each of them to any matters that appeared to him to call
+for comment. The Admiralty and the Foreign Office naturally engaged
+his attention more than others, but he was a familiar figure in them
+all. His activities were so varied indeed that they almost might have
+been summed up as universal, which being the case, it is not perhaps
+altogether to be wondered at that he did occasionally make a mistake.
+For instance:
+
+He burst tumultuously into my room one morning flourishing a paper.
+"Have you seen this, sir?" As a matter of fact I had seen it; but as
+the document had conveyed no meaning to my mind, dissembled. Its
+purport was that 580 tons of a substance of which I had never heard
+before, and of which I have forgotten the name, had been landed
+somewhere or other in Scandinavia. "But do you know what it is, sir?
+It's the most appalling poison! It's the concoction that the South Sea
+Islanders smear their bows and arrows with--cyanide and prussic acid
+are soothing-syrup compared to it. Of course it's for those filthy
+Boches. Five hundred and eighty tons of it! There won't be a bullet or
+a zeppelin or a shell or a bayonet or a dart or a strand of
+barbed-wire that won't be reeking with the stuff." I was aghast.
+"Shall I go and see the Director-General, A.M.S., about it, sir?"
+
+"Yes, do, by all means. The very thing."
+
+He came back presently. "I've seen the D.-G., sir, and he's
+frightfully excited. He's got hold of all his deputies and hangers-on,
+and the whole gang of them are talking as if they were wound up. One
+of them says he thinks he has heard of an antidote, but of course he
+knows nothing whatever about it really, and is only talking through
+his hat, I tell you what, sir, we ought to lend them a hand in this
+business. I know Professor Stingo; he's miles and away the biggest man
+on smells and that sort of thing in London, if not in Europe. So, if
+you'll let me, I'll charter a taxi and be off and hunt him up, and get
+him to work. If the thing can be done, sir, he's the lad for the job.
+May I go, sir?"
+
+"Very well, do as you propose, and let me know the result."
+
+He turned up again in the afternoon. "I've seen old man Stingo, sir,
+and he's for it all right. He's going to collect a lot more sportsmen
+of the same kidney, and they're going to have the time of their lives,
+and to make a regular night of it. You see, sir, I pointed out to him
+that this was a matter of the utmost urgency--not merely a question of
+finding an antidote, but also of distributing it methodically and
+broadcast. After it's been invented or made or procured, or whatever's
+got to be done, some comedian in the Quartermaster-General's show will
+insist on the result being packed up in receptacles warranted
+rot-proof against everything that the mind of man can conceive till
+the Day of Judgment--you know the absurd way those sort of people go
+on, sir--and all that will take ages, aeons." He really thought of
+everything. "And there'll have to be books of instructions and
+classes, and the Lord knows what besides! After that the stuff'll have
+to be carted off to France and the Dardanelles, and maybe to Archangel
+and Mesopotamia; so Stingo and Co. are going to be up all night, and
+mean to arrive at some result or to perish in the attempt. And now,
+sir, what have you done about it at the Foreign Office?"
+
+This was disconcerting, seeing that I had done nothing.
+
+"Oh, but, sir," sounding that note of submissive expostulation which
+the tactful staff-officer contrives to introduce when he feels himself
+obliged reluctantly to express disapproval of superior military
+authority, "oughtn't we to do something? How would it be if I were to
+go down and see Grey, or one of them, and to talk to him like a
+father?"
+
+"Well, perhaps it might be advisable to make a guarded suggestion to
+them on the subject. Give my compliments to ----" But he was gone.
+
+He returned in about half an hour. "I've been down to the Foreign
+Office, sir, and as you might have expected, they haven't done a
+blooming thing. What those 'dips' think they're paid for always beats
+me! However, I've got them to promise to cable out to their
+ambassadors and consuls and bottle-washers in Scandinavia to keep
+their wits about them. I offered to draft the wires for them; but they
+seemed to think that they could do it themselves, and I daresay
+they'll manage all right now that I've told them exactly what they
+are to say. I really do not know that we can do anything more about it
+this evening," he added doubtfully, and with a worried, far-away look
+on his face. Good heavens, he was never going to think of something
+else! He took himself off, however, still evidently dissatisfied and
+communing with himself.
+
+Next forenoon "Z" came into my room in a hurry. "I've been hearing
+about the caterpillars, sir," he exclaimed joyously.
+
+"The caterpillars?"
+
+"Oh, not crawly things like one finds in one's salad, sir. The ones
+the Admiralty are making[5]--armoured motor contrivances, with great
+big feet that will go across country and jump canals, and go bang
+through Boche trenches and barbed wire as if they weren't there.
+They'll be perfectly splendid--full of platoons and bombs and machine
+guns, and all the rest of it. I _will_ say this for Winston and those
+mariners across Whitehall, when they get an idea they carry it out and
+do not bother whether the thing'll be any use or can be made at
+all--care no more for the Treasury than if it was so much dirt, and
+quite right too! Just what it is. But when they've got their
+caterpillars made, they won't know what to do with them any more than
+the Babes in the Wood. Then we'll collar them; but in the meantime I
+might be able to give them some hints, so, if you'll let me, I'll go
+across and----"
+
+                   [Footnote 5: The first I heard of the Tanks, which
+                   made so dramatic a debut near the Somme a year and
+                   a half later.]
+
+"Yes, yes; but just one moment. How about the poison?"
+
+"The poison, sir? What poi--oh, that stuff. Didn't I tell you, sir? It
+isn't poison at all. You see, sir, it's this way. There are two forms
+of it. There's the white form, and that _is_ poison, shocking poison;
+it's what the Fijians use when they want to pacify a busybody like
+Captain Cook who comes butting in where he isn't wanted. As a matter
+of fact there's uncommon little of it--they don't get a hundredweight
+in a generation. Then there's the red form, and that's what Johnnies
+have been dumping down 580 tons of at What's-its-name. It's quite
+innocuous, and is used for commercial purposes--tanning leather, or
+making spills, or something of that kind. Now may I go to the Ad----"
+
+"But have you told all this to the Director-General?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir. I told him first thing this morning."
+
+"Did he pass no remarks as to your having started him off after this
+absurd hare of yours?"
+
+"Well, you see, sir, he's an uncommonly busy man, and I didn't feel
+justified in wasting his time. So, after relieving his mind, I cleared
+out at once."
+
+"And your professors?"
+
+"Oh, those professor-men--it would never do to tell them, sir. They'd
+be perfectly miserable if they were deprived of the excitement of
+muddling about with their crucibles and blow-pipes and retorts and
+things. It would be cruelty to animals to enlighten them--it would
+indeed, sir; and I know that you would not wish me to do anything to
+discourage scientific investigation. Now, sir, may I go over to the
+Admiralty?" And off he went, with instructions to find out all that he
+could about these contrivances that he had heard about, and to do what
+he could to promote their production. A treasure: unconventional,
+resourceful, exceptionally well informed, determined; the man to get a
+thing done that one wanted done--even if he did at times get a thing
+done that one didn't particularly want done--and in some respects
+quite the best intelligence officer I have come across in a fairly
+wide experience. To-day "Z" commands the applause of listening senates
+in the purlieus of St. Stephen's and has given up to party what was
+meant for mankind; but although he is not Prime Minister yet, nor even
+a Secretary of State, that will come in due course.
+
+It was in May 1915 that "Z" told me that the Admiralty were at work on
+some sort of land-ship, and set about finding out what was being
+done; he had previously been in communication with Colonel E. D.
+Swinton over at the front. Only in the latter part of 1919, when the
+question of claims in connection with the invention and the
+development of Tanks had been investigated by a Royal Commission, did
+I learn to my astonishment that this matter had been brought by
+Swinton before the War Office so early as the beginning of January
+1915, and that his projects had then been "turned down" by a technical
+branch to which he had, unfortunately, referred them. It does not seem
+possible that the technical branch can have brought the question to
+the notice of the General Staff, or I must have heard of it. The value
+of some contrivance such as he was confident could be constructed was
+from the tactical point of view incontestable, and had been
+incontestable ever since trench warfare became the order of the day on
+the Western Front in the late autumn of 1914. But the idea of the
+land-ship appeared to be an idle dream, and there was perhaps some
+excuse for the General Staff in its not of its own accord pressing
+upon the technical people that something of the sort must be produced
+somehow. Knowledge that a thoroughly practical man possessed of
+engineering knowledge and distinguished for his prescience like
+Swinton was convinced that the thing was feasible, was just what was
+required to set the General Staff in motion.
+
+Thanks to Swinton, and also to "Z," the General Staff did get into
+touch with the Admiralty in May, and then found that a good deal had
+already been done, owing to Mr. Churchill's imagination and foresight
+and to the energy and ingenuity with which the land-ship idea had been
+taken up at his instigation. But the War Office came badly out of the
+business, and the severe criticisms to which it has been exposed in
+connection with the subject are better deserved than a good many of
+the criticisms of which it has been the victim. The blunder was not
+perhaps so much the fault of individuals as of the system. The
+technical branches had not been put in their place before the war,
+they did not understand their position and did not realize that on
+broad questions of policy they were subject to the General Staff. It
+is worthy of note, incidentally, that Swinton never seems to have got
+much satisfaction with G.H.Q. in France until he brought his ideas
+direct before the General Staff out there on the 1st of June by
+submitting a memorandum to the Commander-in-Chief. It is to be hoped
+that the subserviency of all other branches to the General Staff in
+connection with matters of principle has been established once for all
+by this time; it was, I think, pretty well established by Sir W.
+Robertson when he became C.I.G.S. Should there ever be any doubt about
+the matter--well, remember the start of the Tanks!
+
+One morning in January or February 1915, Lord K. sent for me to his
+room. It appeared that Lord Fisher had in mind a project of
+constructing a flotilla of lighters of special type, to be driven by
+motor power and designed for the express purpose of landing large
+bodies of troops rapidly on an enemy's coast. The First Sea Lord was
+anxious to discuss details with somebody from our side of Whitehall,
+and the Chief wished me to take the thing up, the whole business being
+of a most secret character. Lord Fisher, I gathered, contemplated
+descents upon German shores; Lord K. did not appear to take these very
+seriously, but he did foresee that a flotilla of the nature proposed
+might prove extremely useful in connection with possible future
+operations on the Flanders littoral. In any case, seeing that the
+Admiralty were prepared to undertake a construction job of this kind
+more or less in the interests of us soldiers, we ought to give the
+plan every encouragement.
+
+Vague suggestions had reached me from across the road shortly
+before--I do not recollect exactly how they came to hand--to the
+effect that one ought to examine into the possibilities offered by
+military operations based on the German Baltic coast and against the
+Frisian Islands. Attacks upon these islands presented concrete
+problems; the question in their case had been already gone into
+carefully by other hands before the war, and schemes of this
+particular kind had not been found to offer much attraction when their
+details came to be considered. As for the Baltic coast, one was given
+nothing whatever to go upon--was groping in the dark. You wondered how
+it was proposed to obtain command of these protected waters, bearing
+in mind the nature of the approaches through defiles which happened to
+be in the main in neutral hands, but you realized that this was a
+naval question and therefore somebody else's job. Still, even given
+this command, what then? Investigations of the subject, based upon
+uncertain premises, did not lead to the conclusion that, beyond
+"containing" hostile forces which otherwise might be available for
+warfare in some other quarter, a landing in large force on these
+shores was likely to prove an effective operation of war; and it was
+bound to be an extremely hazardous one.
+
+It has since transpired from Lord Fisher's volcanic _Memories_ that
+the First Sea Lord had, with his "own hands alone to preserve secret
+all arrangements," prepared plans for depositing three "great armies"
+at different places in the Baltic, "two of them being feints that
+could be turned into reality." How the First Sea Lord could draw up
+plans of this kind that were capable of being put into effective
+execution without some military assistance I do not pretend to
+understand. A venture such as this does not begin and end with dumping
+down any sort of army you like at a spot on the enemy's shores where
+it happens to be practicable to disembark troops rapidly. Once landed,
+the army still has to go ahead and do its business, whatever this is,
+as a military undertaking, and it stands in need of some definite and
+practicable objective. The numbers of which it is to consist and its
+detailed organization have to be worked out in advance, with a clear
+idea of what service it is intended to perform and of the strength of
+the enemy forces which it is likely to encounter while carrying out
+its purpose. It has to be fed and has to be supplied with war material
+after it has been deposited on _terra firma_. Is it to take its
+transport with it, or will it pick this up on arrival? Even the
+constitution of the armada which is to convey it to its point of
+disembarkation by no means represents a purely naval problem. Until
+the sailors know what the composition of the military force in respect
+to men, animals, vehicles, etc., is to be, they cannot calculate what
+tonnage will be required, or decide how that tonnage is to be allotted
+for transporting the troops oversea. For a project of this kind to be
+worked out solely by naval experts would be no less ridiculous than
+for it to be worked out solely by military experts. Secrecy in a
+situation of this kind is no doubt imperative, but you must trust
+somebody or you will head straight for catastrophe.
+
+When I went over by appointment to see Lord Fisher, he got to work at
+once in that inimitable way of his. He explained that what he had in
+view was to place sufficient motor-lighters at Lord Kitchener's
+disposal, each carrying about 500 men, to land 50,000 troops on a
+beach at one time. He insisted upon the most absolute secrecy. What he
+wanted me to do was to discuss the construction of the lighters in
+detail with the admiral who had the job in charge, so as to ensure
+that their design would fall in with purely military requirements. I
+had, some sixteen years before when Lord Fisher had been
+Commander-in-Chief on the Mediterranean station, enjoyed a
+confidential discussion with him in Malta concerning certain
+strategical questions in that part of the world, and had been amazed
+at the alertness of his brain, his originality of thought, his
+intoxicating enthusiasm, and his relentless driving power. Now, in
+1915, he seemed to be even younger than he had seemed then. He covered
+the ground at such a pace that I was speedily toiling breathless and
+dishevelled far in rear. It is all very well to carry off _Memories_
+into a quiet corner and to try to assimilate limited portions of that
+work at a time, deliberately and in solitude. But to have a
+hotch-potch of Shakespeare, internal combustion engines, chemical
+devices for smoke screens, principles of the utilization of sea power
+in war, Holy Writ, and details of ship construction dolloped out on
+one's plate, and to have to bolt it then and there, imposes a strain
+on the interior economy that is greater than this will stand. After an
+interview with the First Sea Lord you suffered from that giddy,
+bewildered, exhausted sort of feeling that no doubt has you in thrall
+when you have been run over by a motor bus without suffering actual
+physical injury.
+
+The main point that I insisted upon when in due course discussing the
+construction details of the motor-lighters with the admiral who was
+supervising the work, was that they should be so designed as to let
+the troops aboard of them rush out quickly as soon as the prow should
+touch the shore. The vessels were put together rapidly, and one or two
+of those first completed were experimented with in the Solent towards
+the end of April, when they were found quite satisfactory. Although
+they were never turned to account for the purpose which Lord Fisher
+had had in mind when the decision was taken to build them, a number of
+these mobile barges proved extremely useful to our troops in the later
+stages of the Dardanelles campaign, notably on the occasion of the
+landing at Suvla and while the final evacuations were being carried
+out. Indeed, but for the "beetles" (as the soldiers christened these
+new-fangled craft), our army would never have got away from the
+Gallipoli Peninsula with such small loss of stores and impedimenta as
+it did, and the last troops told off to leave Helles on the stormy
+night of the 8th-9th of January 1916 might have been unable to embark
+and might have met with a deplorable disaster.
+
+After that first meeting with him at the Admiralty, I frequently saw
+Lord Fisher, and he kept me acquainted with his views on many points,
+notably on what was involved in the threat of the U-boats after Sir I.
+Hamilton had landed his troops in the Gallipoli Peninsula. On more
+than one occasion he honoured me with a surprise visit in my office.
+These interviews in my sanctum were of quite a dramatic,
+Harrison-Ainsworth, Gunpowder-Treason, Man-in-the-Iron-Mask character.
+He gave me no warning, scorning the normal procedure of induction by a
+messenger. He would appear of a sudden peeping in at the door to see
+if I was at home, would then thrust the door to and lock it on the
+inside with a deft turn of the wrist, would screw up the lean-to
+ventilator above the door in frantic haste, and would have darted over
+and be sitting down beside me, talking earnestly and _ventre-a-terre_
+of matters of grave moment, almost before I could rise to my feet and
+conform to those deferential observances that are customary when a
+junior officer has to deal with one of much higher standing. Some
+subjects treated of on these occasions were of an extremely
+confidential nature, and in view of the laxity of many eminent
+officials and--if the truth be told--of military officers as a body,
+the precautions taken by the First Sea Lord within my apartment were
+perhaps not without justification.
+
+War is too serious a business to warrant the proclamation of
+prospective naval and military operations from the housetops.
+Reasonable precautions must be taken. One thing one did learn during
+those early months of the war, and that was that the fewer the
+individuals are--no matter who they may be--who are made acquainted
+with secrets the better. But this is not of such vital importance when
+the secret concerns some matter of limited interest to the ordinary
+person as it is when the secret happens to relate to what is
+calculated to attract public attention.
+
+Of course it was most reprehensible on the part of that expansive
+youth, Geoffrey, to have acquainted Gladys--strictly between
+themselves of course--that his company had been "dished out with a
+brand-new, slap-up, experimental automatic rifle, that'll make Mr.
+Boche sit up when we get across." Still it did no harm, because Gladys
+doesn't care twopence about rifles of any kind, and had forgotten all
+about it before she had swallowed the chocolate that was in her
+mouth. But when Geoffrey informed Gladys a fortnight later--again
+strictly between themselves--that the regiment was booked for a stunt
+at Cuxhaven, it did a great deal of harm. Because, although Gladys did
+not know where Cuxhaven was, she looked it up in the atlas when she
+got home, and she thereupon realized, with a wriggle of gratification,
+that she was "in the know," and under the circumstances she could
+hardly have been expected not to tell Agatha--under pledge, needless
+to say, of inviolable secrecy. Nor would you have been well advised to
+have bet that Agatha would not--in confidence--mention the matter to
+Genevieve, because you would have lost your money if you had. Then, it
+was only to be expected that Genevieve should let the cat out of the
+bag that afternoon at the meeting of Lady Blabit's Committee for the
+Development of Discretion in Damsels, observing that in _such_ company
+a secret was bound to be absolutely safe. However, that was how the
+whole story came to be known, and Geoffrey might just as well have
+done the thing handsomely, and have placarded what was contemplated in
+Trafalgar Square alongside Mr. Bonar Law's frenzied incitements to buy
+war bonds.
+
+Speaking seriously, there is rather too much of the sieve about the
+soldier officer when information comes to his knowledge which it is
+his duty to keep to himself. He has much to learn in this respect from
+his sailor brother. You won't get much to windward of the naval cadet
+or the midshipman if you try to extract out of him details concerning
+the vessel which has him on her books in time of war--what she is,
+where she is, or how she occupies her time. These youngsters cannot
+have absorbed this reticence simply automatically and as one of the
+traditions of that great Silent Service, to which, more than to any
+other factor, we and our Allies owe our common triumph in the Great
+War. It must have been dinned into them at Osborne and Dartmouth, and
+it must have been impressed upon them--forcibly as is the way amongst
+those whose dwelling is in the Great Waters--day by day by their
+superiors afloat. The subject used not to be mentioned at the Woolwich
+Academy in the seventies. Nor was secretiveness inculcated amongst
+battery subalterns a few years subsequently. One does not recollect
+hearing anything about it during the Staff College course, nor call to
+mind having preached the virtues of discretion in this matter to one's
+juniors oneself at a later date. Here is a matter which has been
+grossly neglected and which the General Staff must see to.
+
+When Lord Kitchener was going to be away from town for two or three
+days in the summer of 1915, he sometimes instructed me to be at Mr.
+Asquith's beck and call during his absence in case some important
+question should suddenly arise, and once or twice I was summoned to 10
+Downing Street of a morning in consequence, and was ushered into the
+precincts. On these occasions the Prime Minister was to be found in a
+big room upstairs; and he was always walking up and down, like
+Aristotle only that he had his hands in his pockets. His demeanour
+would be a blend of boredom with the benign. "Whatch-think of this?"
+he would demand, snatching up some paper from his desk, cramming it
+into my hand, and continuing his promenade. Such observations on my
+part in response to the invitation as seemed to meet the case would be
+acknowledged with a grunt--dissent, concurrence, incredulity, or a
+desire for further information being communicated by modulations in
+the grunt. Once, when the document under survey elaborated one of Mr.
+Churchill's virgin plans of revolutionizing the conduct of the war as
+a whole, the Right Honourable Gentleman in an access of exuberance
+became garrulous to the extent of muttering, "'Tslike a hen laying
+eggs."
+
+But, all the same, when instructions came to be given at the end of
+such an interview, they invariably were lucid, concise, and very much
+to the point. You knew exactly where you were. For condensing what was
+needed in a case like this into a convincing form of words, for
+epitomizing in a single sentence the conclusions arrived at (supposing
+conclusions by any chance to have been arrived at) after prolonged
+discussions by a War Council, or at a gathering of the Dardanelles
+Committee, I have never come across anybody in the same street with
+Mr. Asquith.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN THE WAR OFFICE
+
+     Varied nature of my responsibilities -- Inconvenience caused by a
+     Heath-Caldwell being a brother-Director on the General Staff --
+     An interview with Lord Methuen -- The Man of Business -- His
+     methods when in charge of a Government Department -- War Office
+     branches under Men of Business -- The art of advertisement --
+     This not understood by War Office officials -- The paltry staff
+     and accommodation at the disposal of the Director of Supplies and
+     Transport, and what was accomplished -- Good work of the
+     Committee of Imperial Defence in providing certain organizations
+     for special purposes before the war -- The contre-espionage
+     branch -- The Government's singular conduct on the occasion of
+     the first enemy spy being executed at the Tower -- The cable
+     censorship -- The post office censorship -- A visit from Admiral
+     Bacon -- His plan of landing troops by night at Ostend -- Some
+     observations on the subject -- Sir J. Wolfe Murray leaves the War
+     Office -- An appreciation of his work -- The Dardanelles papers
+     to be presented to Parliament referred to me -- My action in the
+     matter and the appointment of the Dardanelles Committee in
+     consequence -- Mr. Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War --
+     His activities -- I act as D.C.I.G.S. for a month -- Sound
+     organization introduced by Sir W. Robertson -- Normal
+     trench-warfare casualties and battle casualties -- I learn the
+     facts about the strengths of the different armies in the field --
+     Troubles with the Cabinet over man-power -- Question of
+     resignation of the Army Council -- The Tank Corps and Tanks --
+     The War Office helps in the reorganization of the Admiralty --
+     Some of the War Cabinet want to divert troops to the Isonzo --
+     The folly of such a plan -- Objections to it indicated -- Arrival
+     of General Pershing in London -- I form one of the party that
+     proceeds to Devonport to meet Colonel House and the United States
+     Commissioners -- Its adventures -- Admirals adrift -- Mr. Balfour
+     meets the Commissioners at Paddington.
+
+
+During those months as Director of Military Operations my
+responsibilities were in reality of a most varied nature. They covered
+pretty well the whole field of endeavour, from drafting documents
+bearing upon operations--subjects for the edification of the very
+elect--down to returning to him by King's Messenger the teeth which a
+well-known staff-officer had inadvertently left behind him at his club
+when returning to the front from short leave. One was for various
+reasons brought into contact with numbers of public men who were quite
+outside of Government circles and official institutions, and whose
+acquaintance it was agreeable to make. Moreover, officers of high
+standing, over from the front or holding commands at home, would look
+in to pass the time of day and keep one posted with what was going on
+afield. Soldiers appointed to some new billet overseas had constantly
+to be fitted out with instructions, or to be provided with books,
+maps, and cipher. The last that I was to see of that brilliant leader,
+General Maude, was when I went down to Victoria to see him and my old
+contemporary of "Shop" days, General E. A. Fanshawe, off on their
+hurried journey to the Dardanelles in August 1915.
+
+A certain amount of minor inconvenience in connection with telephones,
+correspondence, visits, and so on, arose owing to General
+Heath-Caldwell taking up the appointment of Director of Military
+Training about six months after mobilization. That two out of the four
+Directors on the General Staff within the War Office should have
+practically the same name, was something of a coincidence. Lord
+Methuen, who was then holding a very important appointment in
+connection with the home army (with which I had nothing to do), was
+ushered into my room one day. He had scarcely sat down when he began,
+"Now I know how tremendously busy all you people are, and I won't keep
+you one moment, but ...," and he embarked on some question in
+connection with the training of the troops in the United Kingdom. I
+tried to interrupt; but he checked me with a gesture, and took
+complete command of the situation. "No, no. Just let me finish what I
+want to say ..." and off he was again in full cry, entirely out of
+control. After one or two other attempts to stop him, I had to give it
+up. You can't coerce a Field-Marshal: it isn't done. At last, after
+about five minutes of rapid and eager exposition of what he had come
+to the War Office to discuss, he wound up with "Well, what d'you think
+of that. I haven't kept you long, have I?" It was then up to me to
+explain that he had attacked the wrong man, that the question he was
+interested in did not concern me, and that the best thing I could do
+was to conduct him forthwith to Heath-Caldwell's lair.
+
+One saw something of the Man of Business in those days, as also later.
+Next to the "Skilled Workman," the "Man of Business" is the greatest
+impostor amongst the many impostors at present preying on the
+community. Just as there are plenty of genuine Skilled Workmen, so
+also are there numbers of Men of Business who, thanks to their
+capacity and to the advantage that they have taken of experience,
+constitute real assets to the nation. Latter-day events have, however,
+taught us that the majority of the individuals who pose as Skilled
+Workmen are in reality engaged on operations which anybody in full
+power of his faculties and of the most ordinary capacity can learn to
+carry on within a very few hours, if not within a very few minutes.
+What occurred in Government departments during the war proved that a
+very large percentage of the Men of Business, who somehow found their
+way into public employ, were no great catch even if they did manage to
+spend a good deal of the taxpayer's money. To draw a sharp
+dividing-line between the nation's good bargains and the nation's bad
+bargains in this respect would be out of the question. To try to
+separate the sheep from the goats would be as invidious as it would be
+vain--there were a lot of hybrids. But it was not military men within
+the War Office alone who suffered considerable disillusionment on
+being brought into contact with the Man of Business in the aggregate;
+that was also the experience of the Civil Service in general.
+
+The successful Man of Business has owed his triumphs to aptitude in
+capturing the business of other people. Therefore when he blossoms out
+as a Government official in charge of a department, he devotes his
+principal energies to trying to absorb rival departments. It was a
+case of fat kine endeavouring to swallow lean kine, but finding at
+times that the lean kine were not so badly nourished after all--and
+took a deal of swallowing. And yet successful Men of Business, when
+introduced into Government departments, do have their points. One
+wonders how much the income-tax payer would be saved during the next
+decade or two had some really great knight of industry, content to do
+his own work and not covetous of that of other people (assuming such a
+combination of the paragon and the freak to exist), been placed in
+charge of the Ministry of Munitions as soon as Mr. Lloyd George had,
+with his defiance of Treasury convention, with his wealth of
+imagination, and with his irrepressible and buoyant courage, set the
+thing up on the vast foundations already laid by the War Office.
+Unsuccessful Men of Business, when introduced into Government
+departments, have their points too, but they are mostly bad points.
+
+The Man of Business' procedure, when he is placed at the head of a
+Government department, or of some branch of a Government department,
+in time of war is well known. He makes himself master of some gigantic
+building or some set of buildings. He then sets to work to people the
+premises with creatures of his own. He then, with the assistance of
+the superior grades amongst the creatures, becomes wrapped up in
+devising employment for the multitudinous personnel that has been got
+together. He then finds that he has not got sufficient accommodation
+to house his legions--and so it goes on. He talks in moments of
+relaxation of "introducing business methods into Whitehall." But that
+is absurd. You could not introduce business methods into Whitehall,
+because there is not room enough; you would have to commandeer the
+whole of the West End, and then you would be cramped. While the big
+men at the top are wrestling with housing problems, the staff are
+engaged in writing minutes to each other--a process which, when
+indulged in, in out-of-date institutions of the War Office,
+Admiralty, Colonial Office type, is called "red tape," but which, when
+put in force in a department watched over by Men of Business, is
+called "push and go." Engulfed in one of the mushroom branches that
+were introduced into the War Office in the later stages of the war, I
+could not but be impressed by what I saw. The women were splendid: the
+way in which they kept the lifts in exercise, each lady spending her
+time going up and down, burdened with a tea-cup or a towel and
+sometimes with both, was beyond all praise.
+
+One is prejudiced perhaps, and may not on that account do full justice
+to the achievements of some of those civilian branches which were
+evolved within the War Office and which elbowed out military branches
+altogether or else absorbed them. But they enjoyed great advantages,
+and on that account much could fairly be expected of them. Your
+civilian, introduced into the place with full powers, a blank cheque
+and the uniform of a general officer, stood on a very different
+footing from the soldier ever hampered by a control that was not
+always beneficently administered--financial experts on the War Office
+staff are apt to deliver their onsets upon the Treasury to the
+battle-cry of _Kamerad_. Still, should the civilian elect to maintain
+on its military lines the branch that he had taken over, he sometimes
+turned out to be an asset. When the new broom adopted the plan of
+picking out the best men on the existing staff, of giving those
+preferred a couple of steps in rank, of providing them with large
+numbers of assistants, and of housing the result in some spacious
+edifice or group of edifices especially devised for the purpose, he
+sometimes contrived to develop what had been an efficient organization
+before into a still more efficient one. In that case the spirit of the
+branch remained, it carried on as a military institution but with a
+free hand and with extended liberty of action--and the public service
+benefited although the cost was considerably greater. But that was not
+always the procedure decided upon.
+
+Whatever procedure was decided upon, every care was taken to
+advertise. Advertisement is an art that the Man of Business thoroughly
+understands, and as to which he has little to learn even from the
+politician with a Press syndicate at his back. Soldiers are deplorably
+apathetic in this respect. It will hardly be believed that during the
+war the military department charged with works and construction often
+left the immediate supervision of the creation of some set of
+buildings in the hands of a single foreman of works, acting under an
+officer of Royal Engineers who only paid a visit daily as he would
+have several other duties of the same nature to perform. But if that
+set of buildings under construction came to be transferred to a
+civilian department or branch--the Ministry of Munitions, let us
+say--a large staff of supervisors of all kinds was at once introduced.
+Offices for them to carry on their supervisory duties in were erected.
+The thing was done in style, employment was given to a number of
+worthy people at the public expense, and it is quite possible that the
+supervisory duties were carried on no less efficiently than they had
+previously been by the foreman of works, visited daily by the officer
+of Royal Engineers.
+
+From the outbreak of war and for nearly two years afterwards, the
+headquarters administration of the supply branch of our armies in all
+theatres except Mesopotamia and East Africa was carried out at the War
+Office by one director, five military assistants and some thirty
+clerks, together with one "permanent official" civilian aided by
+half-a-dozen assistants and about thirty clerks. It administered and
+controlled and supervised the obtaining and distribution of all
+requirements in food and forage, as also of fuel, petrol,
+disinfectants, and special hospital comforts, not only for the armies
+in the field but also for the troops in the United Kingdom. This meant
+an expenditure which by the end of the two years had increased to
+about half a million sterling per diem. Affiliated to this branch, as
+being under the same director, was the headquarters administration of
+the military-transport service, consisting of some fifteen military
+assistants and fifty or sixty clerks. The military transport service
+included a personnel of fully 300,000 officers and men, and the branch
+was charged with the obtaining of tens of thousands of motor vehicles
+of all kinds and of the masses of spare parts needed to keep them in
+working order, together with many other forms of transport material.
+The whole of these two affiliated military branches of the War Office
+could have been accommodated comfortably on one single floor of the
+Hotel Metropole! Well has it been said that soldiers have no
+imagination.
+
+There were four especial branches under me to which some reference
+ought to be made. Of two of them little was, in the nature of things,
+heard during the war; these two were secret service branches, the one
+obtaining information with regard to the enemy, the other preventing
+the enemy from receiving information with regard to us. Of the other
+two, one dealt with the cable censorship and the other with the postal
+censorship. The Committee of Imperial Defence has been taken to task
+in some ill-informed quarters because of that crying lack of
+sufficient land forces and of munitions of certain kinds which made
+itself apparent when the crisis came upon us. It was, however, merely
+a consultative and not an executive body. It had no hold over the
+purse-strings. Shortcomings in these respects were the fault not of
+the Committee of Imperial Defence but of the Government of the day. On
+the other hand, the Committee did splendid work in getting expert
+sub-committees to compile regulations that were to be brought into
+force in each Government department on the outbreak of war--compiling
+regulations cost practically nothing. Moreover, thanks to its
+representations and to its action, organizations were created in
+peace-time for prosecuting espionage in time of war and for ensuring
+an effective system of contre-espionage; these were under the control
+of the Director of Military Operations, and were the two secret
+branches referred to above.
+
+About the former nothing can appropriately be disclosed. So much
+interesting information about the latter has appeared in _German Spies
+at Bay_ that little need be said about it, except to repeat what has
+already appeared in that volume--the branch had already achieved a
+notable triumph more than a fortnight before our Expeditionary Force
+fired a shot and some hours before the Royal Navy brought off their
+first success. For the whole enemy spy system within the United
+Kingdom was virtually laid by the heels within twenty-four hours of
+the declaration of war. Every effort to set it up afresh subsequently
+was nipped in the bud before it could do mischief.
+
+One point, however, deserves to be placed on record. The
+disinclination of H.M. Government to announce the execution of the
+first enemy agent to meet his fate, Lodi, was one of the most
+extraordinary incidents that came to my knowledge in connection with
+enemy spies. Lodi was an officer, or ex-officer, and a brave man who
+in the service of his country had gambled with his life as the
+stake--and had lost. He had fully acknowledged the justice of his
+conviction. All who were acquainted with the facts felt sympathy for
+him, although there could, of course, be no question of not carrying
+out the inevitable sentence of the court-martial. And yet our
+Government wanted to hush the whole thing up. They did not seem to
+realize that the shooting of a spy does not, when the spy is an enemy,
+mean punishment for a crime, that it represents a penalty which has to
+be inflicted as a deterrent, and which if it is to fulfil its purpose
+must be made known. Those of us who knew the facts were greatly
+incensed at the most improper, and indeed fatuous, attitude which the
+Executive for a time took up. What made them change their minds I do
+not know.
+
+Then there was the cable censorship, an organization which did
+admirable work and got little thanks for it. The personnel consisted
+largely of retired officers, and many of them broke down under the
+prolonged strain. The potentialities of the cable censorship had not
+been fully foreseen when it was automatically established on
+mobilization, and of what it accomplished the general public know
+practically nothing at all. The conception of this institution had at
+the outset merely been that of setting up a barrier intended to
+prevent naval and military information that was calculated to be of
+service to the enemy from passing over the wires, whether in cipher or
+in clear. But an enterprising, prescient, and masterful staff
+perceived ere long that their powers could be developed and turned to
+account in other directions with advantage to the State, notably in
+that of stifling the commercial activities of the Central Powers in
+the Western Hemisphere. The consequence was that within a very few
+months the cable censorship had transformed itself to a great extent
+out of an effective shield for defence into a potent weapon of attack.
+The measure of its services to the country will never be known, as
+some of its procedure cannot perhaps advantageously be disclosed. Its
+labours were unadvertised, and its praises remained unsung. But those
+who were behind the scenes are well aware of what it accomplished,
+creeping along unseen tracks, to bring about the downfall of the Hun.
+
+The postal censorship started as a branch of comparatively modest
+dimensions; but it gradually developed into a huge department,
+employing a personnel which necessarily included large numbers of
+efficient linguists. The remarkable success achieved by the
+contre-espionage service in preventing the re-establishment of the
+enemy spy system after it had been smashed at the start was in no
+small degree due to the work of the censorship. That the requisite
+number of individuals well acquainted with some of the outlandish
+lingoes which had to be grappled with proved to be forthcoming, is a
+matter of surprise and a subject for congratulation. This was not a
+case merely of French, German, Italian, and languages more or less
+familiar to our educated and travelled classes. Much of the work was
+in Scandinavian and in occult Slav tongues, a good deal of it not even
+written in the Roman character. The staff was largely composed, it
+should be mentioned, of ladies, some of them quite young; but young or
+old--no, that won't do, for ladies are never old--quite young or only
+moderately young, they took to the work like ducks to the water and
+did yeoman service. As in the case of the cable censorship, employment
+in the postal censorship was a thankless job; but the labourers of
+both sexes in the branch had at least the satisfaction of knowing that
+they had done their bit--some of them a good deal more than their
+bit--for their country in its hour of trial.
+
+Reference was made in the last chapter to certain discussions which
+took place in the winter of 1914-15 on the subject of suggested
+conjunct naval and military operations on the Flanders coast. The
+possibility of such undertakings was never entirely lost sight of
+during 1915, although the diversion of considerable British forces to
+far-off theatres of war necessarily enhanced the difficulties that
+stood in the way of a form of project which had much to recommend it
+from the strategical point of view. Our hosts on the Western Front
+were absolutely dependent upon the security of the Narrow Seas, and
+that security was being menaced owing to the enemy having laid his
+grip upon Ostend and Zeebrugge. One afternoon in the autumn of 1915
+Admiral Bacon of the Dover Patrol, who believed in an extremely active
+defence, came to see me and we had a long and interesting
+conversation. He was full of a scheme for running some ship-loads of
+troops right into Ostend harbour at night and landing the men by
+surprise about the mole and the docks. His plans were not, however, at
+this time worked out so elaborately, nor had such effective
+preparations been taken in hand with regard to them, as was the case
+at a later date after Sir D. Haig had taken up command of the B.E.F.
+The Admiral describes these preparations and his developed plans in
+_The Dover Patrol_.
+
+On the occasion of this talk in the War Office, Admiral Bacon was, if
+I recollect aright, contemplating landing the troops straight off the
+ordinary type of vessel, not off craft especially designed and
+constructed for the particular purpose, as was intended in his
+improved project. Nor was it, I think, proposed to use "beetles"
+(these may perhaps all have gone to the Mediterranean). My impression
+at the time was that the scheme had very much to recommend it in
+principle, but that its execution as it stood must represent an
+extremely hazardous operation of war. Nor was this a moment when one
+felt much leaning towards new-fangled tactical and strategical
+devices, for we had a large force locked up under most depressing
+conditions in the Gallipoli Peninsula, we were apparently going to be
+let in for trouble in Macedonia, and, although the United Kingdom and
+the Dominions had by this time very large forces under arms, a
+considerable proportion of the troops could hardly be looked upon as
+efficient owing to lack of training.
+
+Looking at this question of the Flanders littoral from what, in a
+naval and military sense, may be called the academical point of view,
+it is certainly a great pity that neither the project worked out by
+Admiral Bacon in the winter of 1915-16 in agreement with G.H.Q., nor
+yet the later plan for conjunct operations to take place in this coast
+region had the Passchendael offensive of 1917 not been so disastrously
+delayed, was put into execution. Had either of them actually been
+carried out this must, whatever the result was, have provided one of
+the most dramatic and remarkable incidents in the course of the Great
+War.
+
+Passing reference has already been made to Sir Archie Murray's
+assumption of the position of C.I.G.S. in October 1915, when he
+replaced the late Sir James Wolfe-Murray. Shrewd, indefatigable, of
+very varied experience, an excellent administrator and a man of such
+charming personality that he could always get the very best out of
+his subordinates, Sir James would have admirably filled any high,
+non-technical appointment within the War Office during the early part
+of the contest, other than that which he was suddenly called upon to
+take up on the death of Sir C. Douglas. Absolutely disinterested, his
+energies wholly devoted to the service of the State, compelling the
+respect, indeed the affection, of all of us who were under him in
+those troublous times, a more considerate chief, nor one whose opinion
+when you put a point to him you could accept with more implicit
+confidence, it would have been impossible to find. But for occupying
+the headship of the General Staff under the existing circumstances he
+lacked certain desirable qualifications. Although well acquainted with
+the principles that should govern the general conduct of war and no
+mean judge of such questions, he was not disposed by instinct to
+interest himself in the broader aspects of strategy and of military
+policy. His bent was rather to concern himself with the details.
+Somewhat cautious, nay diffident, by nature, he moreover shrank from
+pressing his views, worthy of all respect as they were, on others, and
+he was always guarded in expressing them even when invited to do so.
+
+Dealing with a Secretary of State of Lord Kitchener's temperament,
+reticence of this kind did not work. Lord K. liked you to say what you
+thought without hesitation, and, once he knew you, he never resented
+your giving an opinion even uninvited if you did so tactfully. As for
+the personnel who constitute War Councils and their like, it is not
+the habit of the politician to hide his light under a bushel, nor to
+recoil from laying down the law about any matter with which he has a
+bowing acquaintance. That an expert should sit mute when his own
+subject is in debate, surprises your statesman profoundly. That the
+expert should not be brimming over with a didactic and confident flow
+of words when he has been invited to promulgate his views, confounds
+your statesman altogether. General Wolfe-Murray never seemed to
+succeed in getting on quite the proper terms either with his immediate
+superior, the War Minister, or yet with the members of the Government
+included in the War Council and the Dardanelles Committee; and it was
+cruel luck that, with so fine a record in almost all parts of the
+world to look back upon, this most meritorious public servant should
+towards the close of his career have found himself unwillingly thrust
+into a position for which, as he foresaw himself when he assumed it,
+he was not altogether well suited.
+
+Subsequent to returning from Russia, and very shortly after the loss
+of the _Hampshire_ with Lord Kitchener and his party, I came to be for
+some weeks unemployed, afterwards taking up a fresh appointment--one
+in connection with Russian supplies, which later developed into one
+covering supplies for all the Allies and to which reference will be
+made in a special chapter. But the result was that, as a retired
+officer, I ceased for the time being to be on the active list and
+became a gentleman at large. Thereby hangs a tale; because it was just
+at this juncture that I was asked by the Army Council to go into the
+question of papers which were to be presented to the House of Commons
+in connection with the Dardanelles Campaign. Badgered by inquisitive
+members of that assembly, Mr. Asquith had committed himself to the
+production of papers; and Mr. Churchill had got together a dossier
+dealing with his share in the affair, which was sent to me to
+consider, together with all the telegrams, and so forth, that bore on
+the operations and their prologue.
+
+On examining all this stuff, it soon became manifest that the
+publication of any papers at all during the war, in connection with
+this controversial subject, was to be deprecated. Still, one
+recognized that the Prime Minister's promise had to be fulfilled
+somehow; so the great object to be kept in view seemed to be to keep
+publication within the narrowest possible limits compatible with
+satisfying the curiosity of the people in Parliament. As a matter of
+fact, there were passages in some of the documents which Mr. Churchill
+proposed for production that must obviously be expunged, in view of
+Allies' susceptibilities and of their conveying information which
+might still be of value to the enemy. There could be no question that,
+no matter how drastic might be the cutting-down process, the
+Admiralty, the War Office and the Government would come badly out of
+the business. Furthermore, any publication of papers must make known
+to the world that Lord Kitchener's judgement in connection with this
+particular phase of the war had been somewhat at fault.
+
+When asking me to take the matter up, the Army Council had probably
+overlooked my civilian status or forgotten what a strong position this
+placed me in. An ex-soldier does not often get an opportunity of
+enjoying an official heart-to-heart talk, on paper, with the
+powers-that-be in the War Office. My report was to the effect that it
+was undesirable to produce any papers at all during the war, but that,
+as some had to be produced, they ought to be cut down to a minimum,
+that everybody official concerned in the business at home would be
+more or less shown up, that this was particularly unfortunate just at
+this time in view of Lord Kitchener's lamented death, that the papers
+must be limited to those bearing upon the period antecedent to the
+actual landing of the army in the Gallipoli Peninsula, that if this
+last proviso was accepted I would go fully into the question and
+report in detail, and that if the proviso was not accepted I declined
+to act and they might all go to the--well, one did not quite put it in
+those words, but they would take it that way. The result was not quite
+what one had either expected or desired. The production-of-papers
+project was dropped, and the Dardanelles Commission was appointed
+instead.
+
+Mr. Lloyd George had become Secretary of State for War by this time.
+He was full of zeal and of original ideas, nor had he any intention
+of being merely a "passenger." He had, after the manner of new War
+Ministers, introduced a fresh personal entourage into the place, and a
+momentary panic, caused by the news that telephonic communications
+into and out of the place were passing in an unknown guttural language
+not wholly unlike German, was only allayed on its being ascertained
+that certain of his hangers-on conversed over the wires in Welsh.
+Besides being full of original ideas, the new Secretary of State was
+in a somewhat restless mood. He took so keen an interest in some
+wonderful scheme in connection with Russian railways (about which I
+was freely consulted) that he evidently was hankering after going on a
+mission to that part of the world himself. He no doubt believed that a
+visit from him would be an equivalent for the visit by Lord Kitchener
+which had been interrupted so tragically. To anybody who had recently
+been to Russia, such an idea was preposterous. Few who counted in the
+Tsar's dominions had ever heard of the Right Honourable Gentleman at
+this time; Lord Kitchener's name, on the other hand, had been known,
+and his personality had counted as an asset (as I knew from my own
+experience), from Tornea on the Lappland borders to the highlands of
+Erzerum. The project did not strike one as deserving encouragement,
+and I did what I could to damp it down unobtrusively.
+
+It was nearly a year later than this, in the summer of 1917, that,
+owing to the horse of General Whigham, the Deputy C.I.G.S., slipping
+up with him near the Marble Arch and giving him a nasty fall, he
+became incapacitated for a month. Sir W. Robertson thereupon called me
+in to act as _locum tenens_. From many points of view this proved to
+be a particularly edifying and instructive experience. One could not
+fail to be impressed with the smoothness with which the military side
+of the War Office was working under the system which Sir William had
+introduced, and one furthermore found oneself behind the scenes in
+respect to the progress of the war and to numbers of matters only
+known to the very few.
+
+The plan under which nearly all routine work in connection with the
+General Staff, work that the C.I.G.S. would otherwise be obliged to
+concern himself with personally to a large extent, was delegated to a
+Deputy who was a Member of the Army Council was an admirable
+arrangement. It worked almost to perfection as far as I could see. It
+allowed Sir W. Robertson, in consultation with his Directors of
+Military Operations and of Intelligence, Generals Maurice and
+Macdonogh, to devote his attention to major questions embracing the
+conduct of the war on land as a whole. The Deputy in the meantime
+wrestled with the details, with the correspondence about points of
+secondary importance, in fact with the red tape if you like to call it
+that, while keeping in close and constant touch with the
+administrative departments and branches. Everybody advocates
+de-centralization in theory; Sir William actually carried it out in
+practice, reminding me of that Prince of military administrators, the
+late Sir H. Brackenbury. The Deputy's room opened off that of the
+C.I.G.S.; but on many days I never even saw him except when he looked
+in for a minute to ask if I had anything for him, or when I happened
+to walk home some part of the way to York House with him after the
+trouble was over for the day.
+
+It was intensely interesting to have the daily reports of casualties
+at the Western Front passing through one's hands, and to note the
+extent to which these mounted up on what might be called non-fighting
+days as compared to days of attack. As this was during the opening
+stages of the Flanders offensive subsequent to General Plumer's
+victory at Messines, these statistics were extremely instructive. I do
+not know whether the details have ever been worked out for the years
+1915-17, but it looked to me at that time as if the losses in three
+weeks of ordinary trench-warfare came on the average to about the same
+total as did the losses in a regular formal assault of some section
+of the enemy's lines. Or, putting the thing in another form and
+supposing the above calculation to be correct, you would in three
+weeks of continuous attack in a given zone only lose the same number
+of men as you would lose in that same zone in a year of stagnant,
+unprofitable trench-warfare. Some of our offensives on the Western
+Front have been condemned on the grounds of their costliness in human
+life; but it has not been sufficiently realized in the country how
+heavy the losses were during periods of quiescence.
+
+As acting D.C.I.G.S. one, moreover, enjoyed opportunities of examining
+the various compiled statements showing the numbers of our forces in
+the various theatres, with full information as to the strength of our
+Allies' armies in all quarters, as well as the carefully prepared
+estimates of the enemy's fighting resources as these were arrived at
+by our Intelligence organizations in consultation with those of the
+French, Italians, Belgians, and others. One learnt the full details of
+our "order of battle" for the time being, exactly where the different
+divisions, army corps, etc., were located, and who commanded them. It
+transpired that the Entente host on the Salonika Front at this time
+comprised no fewer than 655,000 of all ranks, without counting in the
+Serbs who would have brought the total up to about 800,000, while the
+enemy forces opposed to them were calculated to muster only about
+450,000; the situation was, in fact, much worse than one had imagined.
+One discovered that, while slightly over 17 per cent of the male
+population of Great Britain had been enrolled as soldiers, only 5 per
+cent of the Irish male population had come forward, and that but for
+north-east Ulster the figure would not have reached 3 per cent. One
+became aware, moreover, that the Army Council, or at least its
+Military Members, were at loggerheads with the War Cabinet over the
+problem of man-power, and that this question was from the military
+point of view giving grounds for grave anxiety.
+
+In one of my drawers there was the first draft of a [p.144] secret paper on
+this subject, which expressed the views of the Military Members of the
+Council in blunt terms, and which amounted in reality to a crushing
+indictment of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. I have a copy of the
+draft in my possession, but as it was a secret document it would be
+improper to give details of its contents; it, moreover, was somewhat
+modified and mellowed in certain particulars before the paper was
+actually sent to Downing Street. The final discussion took place at a
+full meeting of the Army Council while I was acting as D.C.I.G.S., but
+which I did not attend as not being a statutory member of that body.
+Parliament ought to call for this paper; it was presented in July
+1917; it practically foreshadowed what actually occurred in March
+1918. The Military Members of the Council nearly resigned in a body
+over this business; but they were not unanimous on the question of
+resignation, although perfectly unanimous as regards the seriousness
+of the position. It may be mentioned that at a considerably later date
+the Army Council did, including its civilian members, threaten
+resignation as a body when Sir N. Macready gave up the position of
+Adjutant-General to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,
+owing to an attempt made from Downing Street to civilianize the
+Adjutant-General's department. The Army Council beat Downing Street,
+hands down.
+
+The disquieting conditions in respect to man-power were, incidentally,
+hampering the development of two important combatant branches at this
+time, the Machine-Gun Corps and the Tank Corps. The heavy demands of
+these two branches, coupled with the fact that infantry wastage was
+practically exceeding the intake of recruits, threatened a gradual
+disappearance of the principal arm of the Service. We had by this time
+got long past the stage with which, when D.M.O., I had been familiar,
+where lack of material and munitions was checking the growth of our
+armies in the field. We had arrived at the stage where material and
+munitions were ample, but where it was becoming very difficult to
+maintain our armies in the field from lack of personnel--a state of
+things directly attributable to the Government's opportunist,
+hand-to-mouth policy in the matter, and to their disinclination to
+insist upon practically the whole of the younger categories of male
+adults joining the colours. The organization of the Tank Corps was
+finally decided actually while I was acting as D.C.I.G.S. In so far as
+the general control of Tank design and the numbers of these engines of
+war to be turned out was concerned, it seemed to me to be a case of
+"pull devil, pull baker" between the military and the civilians as to
+how far these matters were to be left entirely to the technicalist;
+but the technicalist was not perhaps getting quite so much to say in
+the matter as was reasonable. The personal factor maybe entered into
+the question.
+
+When the War Office had been reconstituted by the Esher Committee in
+1904, the Admiralty organization had been to a great extent taken as a
+model for the Army Council arrangement which the triumvirate then
+introduced. Thirteen years later the Admiralty was reorganized, and on
+this occasion the War Office system of 1904, as modified and developed
+in the light of experience in peace and in war, was taken as the model
+for the rival institution. Whigham had played a part in the carrying
+out of this important reform, lending his advice to the sailors and
+explaining the distribution of duties amongst the higher professional
+authorities on our side of Whitehall, especially in connection with
+the General Staff. The most urgently needed alteration to be sought
+after was the relieving of the First Sea Lord of a multitude of duties
+which were quite incompatible with his giving full attention to really
+vital questions in connection with employing the Royal Navy. For years
+past he had been a sort of Pooh Bah, holding a position in some
+respects analogous to that occupied by Lord Wolseley and Lord Roberts
+when they had been nominally "Commander-in-chief" of the army. Under
+the arrangements made with the assistance of the War Office in 1917,
+a post somewhat analogous to that of D.C.I.G.S. was set up at the
+Admiralty, and the First Sea Lord was thenceforward enabled to see to
+the things that really mattered as he never had been before. Although
+the amount of current work to be got through daily when acting as
+Deputy C.I.G.S. proved heavy enough during the month when I was _locum
+tenens_, it was not so heavy as to preclude my looking through the
+instructive documents dealing with this matter amongst Whigham's
+papers.
+
+The glorious uncertainty of cricket is acknowledged to be one of the
+main attractions of our national game. But the glorious uncertainty of
+cricket is as nothing compared to the glorious uncertainty which
+obtains in time of war as to what silly thing H.M. Government--or some
+of its shining lights--will be wanting to do next. At this time the
+War Cabinet, or perhaps one ought rather to say certain members of
+that body, had got it into their heads that to send round a lot of Sir
+Douglas Haig's troops (who were pretty well occupied as it was) to the
+Isonzo Front would be a capital plan, the idea being to catch the
+Central Powers no end of a "biff" in this particular quarter. That
+fairly banged Banagher. For sheer fatuity it was the absolute limit.
+
+Ever since the era of Hannibal, if not indeed since even earlier
+epochs, trampling, hope-bestirred armies have from generation to
+generation been bursting forth like a pent-up torrent from that broad
+zone of tumbled Alpine peaks which overshadows Piedmont, Lombardy and
+Venetia, to flood their smiling plains with hosts of fighting men. Who
+ever heard of an army bursting in the opposite direction? Napoleon
+tried it, and rugged, thrusting Suvorof; but they did not get much
+change out of it. The mountain region has invariably either been in
+possession of the conquerors at the start, or else it has been
+acquired by deliberate, protracted process during the course of a
+lengthy struggle, before the dramatic coup has been delivered by which
+the levels have been won. The wide belt of highlands extending from
+Switzerland to Croatia remained in the enemy's hands up to the time of
+the final collapse of the Dual Monarchy subsequent to the rout of the
+Emperor Francis' legions on the Piave. The Italians had in the summer
+of 1917 for two years been striving to force their way into these
+mountain fastnesses, and they had progressed but a very few miles.
+They had not only been fighting the soldiery of the Central Powers,
+but had also been fighting Nature. Nature often proves a yet more
+formidable foe than do swarms of warriors, even supposing these to be
+furnished with all modern requirements for prosecuting operations in
+the field.
+
+Roads are inevitably few and far between in a mountainous region. In
+such terrain, roads and railways can be destroyed particularly easily
+and particularly effectively by a retiring host. In this kind of
+theatre, troops can only quit the main lines of communications with
+difficulty, and localities abound where a very inferior force will for
+a long time stay the advance of much more imposing columns. You can no
+more cram above a given number of men on to a certain stretch of road
+when on the move, than you can get a quart into a pint pot. Even if
+your enemy simply falls back without fighting, destroying all
+viaducts, tunnels, embankments, culverts, and so forth, your army will
+take a long time to traverse the highlands--unless it be an uncommonly
+small one. Armies in these days are inevitably of somewhat bloated
+dimensions if they are to do any good. Theatrical strategy of the
+flags-on-the-map order is consequently rather at a discount in an
+arena such as the War Cabinet, or some members of that body, proposed
+to exploit. Even had there been no other obvious objections to a
+diversion of force such as they contemplated, the project ignored
+certain elementary aspects of the conduct of warlike operations which
+might be summed up in the simple expression "common-sense."
+
+But there were other obvious objections. To switch any force worth
+bothering about from northern France to the Friuli flats was bound to
+be a protracted process, because only two railways led over the Alps
+from Dauphine and Provence into the basin of the Po; and those lines
+were distinguished for their severe gradients. It was, as a matter of
+fact, incomparably easier for the enemy to mass reinforcements in the
+Julian Alps than it was for the two Western Powers to mass
+reinforcements in the low ground facing that great area of rugged
+hills. The question of a transfer of six divisions from the Western
+Front to Venetia had, however, been gone into very thoroughly by the
+General Staff in view of conceivable eventualities. An elaborate
+scheme had been drawn up by experienced officers, who had examined the
+question in consultation with the Italian military authorities, and
+had traversed the communications that would have to be brought into
+play were such a move to be carried out. What time the transfer would
+take was a matter of calculation based on close examination of the
+details. The final report came to hand while I was acting as Deputy
+C.I.G.S., although its general purport had already been communicated
+several weeks before. Two or three months later, when it suddenly
+became necessary to rush British and French troops round from northern
+France to the eastern portions of the Po basin after the singular
+_debacle_ of Caporetto, actual experience proved the forecasts made in
+this report to have been quite correct. There was not much "rushing"
+about the move. It took weeks to complete.
+
+General Pershing and his staff arrived in England just at this time,
+and I enjoyed the pleasure of meeting them and discussing many
+matters. The attitude of these distinguished soldiers, one and all,
+impressed us most agreeably. One had heard something about "Yankee
+bounce" in the past, which exists no doubt amongst some of the
+citizens of the great Republic across the water. But here we found a
+body of officers who, while manifestly knowing uncommonly well what
+they were about, were bent on learning from us everything that they
+possibly could, and who from the outset proved themselves singularly
+ready to fall in with our methods of doing business even where those
+methods differed widely from what they had been accustomed to.
+
+Some weeks later (in the capacity of War Office representative) I
+accompanied Lord Jellicoe and Admiral Sims, together with Sir I.
+Malcolm and Sir W. Wiseman of the Foreign Office, to Devonport to meet
+a large party of high officials from the United States who were coming
+over to Europe to take general charge of things in connection with the
+American share in the war. It was headed by Colonel House, and
+included the Chiefs of the Naval and Military Staffs with their
+assistants, as well as financial and other delegates. We arrived some
+time before the two cruisers conveying the party were due, so we
+proceeded to Admiralty House. While waiting there, one was afforded a
+most welcome opportunity of learning something about how the strings
+were being pulled over the great water-area which was under special
+charge of the local commander-in-chief. The whole thing was set out on
+a huge fixed map covering, I think, the billiard-table. On it were
+shown where the various convoys were at the moment, the minefields,
+the positions where German U-boats had recently been located, and
+numberless other important details. To a landsman it was absorbingly
+interesting to have all this explained, just as it had been
+interesting, a few days before, to visit General Ashmore's office at
+the Horse Guards and to learn on the map how the London anti-aircraft
+defences were controlled during an attack.
+
+Just about dusk the two cruisers were descried coming in past the
+breakwater, so it became a question of getting to the Keyham dockyard
+where they were to fetch up. Ever keen for exercise in any form, Lord
+Jellicoe decided to walk, and the commander-in-chief went with him.
+Knowing the distance and the somewhat unattractive approaches leading
+to the Keyham naval establishments, and as it, moreover, looked and
+felt uncommonly like rain, I preferred to wait and to proceed in due
+course by car, as did all the rest of our party. The flag-lieutenant
+and the naval officer who had come down with Lord Jellicoe from the
+Admiralty likewise thought that a motor was good enough for them. By
+the time that the automobile party reached the dockyard it was pitch
+dark and pouring rain, and the cruisers were already reported as
+practically alongside; but to our consternation there was no sign of
+the two flag-officers. Now, a dog who has lost his master is an
+unperturbed, torpid, contented creature compared with a
+flag-lieutenant who has lost his admiral, and there was a terrible
+to-do. All the telephones were buzzing and ringing, the dockyard
+police were eagerly interrogated, and there was already talk of
+despatching search-parties, when the two distinguished truants
+suddenly turned up, exceedingly hot, decidedly wet, and, if the truth
+must be told, looking a little muddy and bedraggled. However, there
+was no time to be lost, and we all rushed off into the night heading
+for where the vessels were to berth. How we did not break our necks
+tumbling into a dry-dock or find a watery grave tumbling into a wet
+one, I do not know. We certainly most of us barked our shins against
+anchors, chains, bollards, and every sort of pernicious litter such as
+the sister service loves to fondle, and the language would have been
+atrocious had we not been out of breath--the Foreign Office indeed
+contrived to be explosive even as it was. However, we managed to reach
+the jetty after all just as the two big warships had been warped
+alongside, winning by a nose. So all was well.
+
+Colonel House and his party had not been fortunate in their weather
+during the crossing, and they had come to the conclusion that a
+fighting ship represented an overrated form of ocean liner. More than
+one of the soldiers and civilians confided to me that if there was no
+other way of getting across the herring-pond on the way back than by
+cruiser, they would stop this side. They were all quite pleased to
+find themselves on dry land, and during the journey up to town by
+special there was plenty of time to make acquaintance and to discuss
+general questions. One point was made plain. Mr. Balfour's recently
+concluded mission to the United States had been a tremendous success.
+Junior officers who had not met him spoke of him almost with bated
+breath, and a hint that he might be at the terminus to greet the party
+caused unbounded satisfaction. When we steamed into Paddington about 1
+o'clock A.M. and his tall figure was descried on the platform, the
+whole crowd burst out of the train in a disorderly swarm, jostling
+each other in trying to get near him and have a chance of shaking his
+hand; it was quite a business getting them sorted and under control
+again so as to start them off in the waiting cars to Claridge's. We do
+not always send the right man as envoy to foreign parts, but we had
+managed it that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE NEAR EAST
+
+     The first talk about Salonika -- The railway and the port -- The
+     question of operations based on Macedonia at the end of 1914 --
+     Failure of "easterners" to realize that the Western Front was
+     Germany's weakest front -- Question whether it might not have
+     been better to go to Salonika than to go to the Dardanelles --
+     Objections to such a plan -- The problem of Bulgaria --
+     Consequences of the Russian _debacle_ -- Difficulty of the Near
+     Eastern problem in the early summer -- An example of how the
+     Dardanelles Committee approached it -- Awkwardness of the problem
+     after the failure of Sir I. Hamilton's August offensive -- The
+     Bulgarian attitude -- Entente's objection to Serbia attacking
+     Bulgaria -- I am ordered to Salonika, but order countermanded --
+     The disaster to Serbia -- Hard to say what ought to have been
+     done -- Real mistake, the failure to abandon the Dardanelles
+     enterprise in May -- The French attitude about Salonika --
+     General Sarrail -- French General Staff impressed with War Office
+     information concerning Macedonia -- Unsatisfactory situation at
+     the end of 1915 -- The Salonika business a blunder all through --
+     Eventual success does not alter this.
+
+
+"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed nought
+else," Rudyard Kipling's old soldier sings, mindful of spacious days
+along the road to Mandalay. The worst of the East, however, is that
+people hear it calling who have never been there in their lives. That
+there were individuals in high places who were subject to this
+mysterious influence, became apparent at a comparatively early stage
+of the World War.
+
+The first occasion on which, apart from a few outpost affairs over the
+Dardanelles with Mr. Churchill to which reference has already been
+made, "easternism" (as it came to be called later) raised its head to
+my knowledge to any alarming extent, was when Colonel Hankey asked me,
+one day early in December 1914, to go across to Treasury Buildings to
+meet Sir E. Grey and Mr. Lloyd George. There is not a more depressing
+structure in existence than Treasury Buildings. The arrangement of the
+interior is a miracle of inconvenience, on the most cloudless of days
+its apartments are wrapped in gloom, and no decorator has been
+permitted to pass its portals since it was declared fit for occupation
+in some forgotten age. But Mr. Lloyd George, who was Chancellor of the
+Exchequer at this time, is ever like a ray of sunshine illumining
+otherwise dark places, and on this occasion he was at his very
+brightest. He had made a discovery. He had found on a map that there
+was quite a big place--it was shown in block capitals--called
+Salonika, tucked away in a corner of the Balkans right down by the
+sea. The map furthermore indicated by means of an interminable
+centipede that a railway led from this place Salonika right away up
+into Serbia, and on from thence towards the very heart of the Dual
+Monarchy. Here was a chance of starting an absolutely new hare. The
+Chancellor, _allegro con fuoco_, was in a buoyant mood, as was indeed
+only to be expected under such circumstances, and he was geniality
+itself when I appeared in the apartment where Sir E. Grey and Hankey
+were awaiting me together with himself. We should be able to deal the
+enemy a blow from an entirely unexpected direction, the days of
+stalemate in the half-frozen morasses of Flanders would be at an end,
+we would carry the Balkans with us, it would be absolutely top-hole.
+Although obviously interested--it could hardly be otherwise when the
+words "Near East" were mentioned--the Foreign Secretary was careful
+not to give himself away. You have to make a practice of that when you
+are Foreign Secretary.
+
+Now, it so happened that I had been at Salonika more than once, and
+also that I had travelled along this very railway more than once and
+had carefully noted matters in connection with it so long as daylight
+served. Much more important than that, there were in the archives of
+my branch at the War Office very elaborate reports on the railway,
+and there was moreover full information as to the capabilities and the
+incapabilities of the port of Salonika for the discharge of what was
+animate and what was inanimate. It was a case of an extensive haven
+that provided shelter in all weathers for ocean-going ships, but
+possessing most indifferent facilities for landing merchandise, or
+animals, or persons, considering the importance of the site. And it
+was, moreover, a case of one single line of railway meandering up a
+trough-like valley which at some points narrowed into a defile, a
+railway of severe gradients with few passing stations, a railway which
+assuredly would be very short of rolling stock--although this latter
+disability could no doubt be overcome easily enough. One somehow did
+not quite picture to oneself an army of many divisions comfortably
+advancing from Belgrade on Vienna based on Salonika, and depending
+upon the Salonika-Belgrade railway for its food, for its munitions,
+and for its own means of transit from the Mediterranean to its
+launching place. Besides, there were no reserves of troops ready to
+hand for projecting into the Balkans at this juncture. Only a very few
+weeks had passed since those days of peril when Sir J. French and the
+"Old Contemptibles" had, thanks to resolute leadership and to a
+splendid heroism on the part of regimental officers and rank-and-file,
+just managed to bring the German multitudes up short as these were
+surging towards the Channel Ports. Fancy stunts seemed to be at a
+discount at the moment, and I found it hard to be encouraging.
+
+Some statesmen are ever, unconsciously perhaps but none the less
+instinctively, gravitating towards the line of least resistance, or
+towards what they imagine to be the line of least resistance. This,
+peradventure, accounts to some extent for the singular attraction
+which operations in the Near East, or Palestine, or anywhere other
+than on the Western Front, always seemed to present to certain highly
+placed men of affairs. The idea that the actual strategical position
+in those somewhat remote regions was such as to constitute any one of
+them the line of least resistance from the Entente point of view, was
+based on a complete misreading of the military situation. That theory
+was founded on the fallacy that the Western Front represented the
+enemy's strongest point. It was, on the contrary, the enemy's weakest
+point, because this front was from its geographical position the one
+where British and French troops could most easily be assembled, and it
+was the one on which a serious defeat to the enemy necessarily
+threatened that enemy with a grave, if not an irretrievable, disaster.
+It is true that for the comparatively short period during which Russia
+really counted, that is to say during the early months before Russian
+munitions gave out, the Eastern Front--the Poland Front--was a weak
+point for the Germans. But the Russian bubble had been pricked in the
+eyes of those behind the scenes long before the great advance of the
+German and Austro-Hungarian armies over the Vistula and into the heart
+of the Tsar's dominions began in the early summer of 1915.
+
+Scarcely had the Salonika venture been mooted than the Dardanelles
+venture cropped up and was actually embarked on; so that for the nonce
+the advocates of an advance through Serbia--I am not sure that there
+was more than one at the time--abandoned that project. But although
+the Serbs had succeeded early in the winter of 1914-15 in driving the
+Austro-Hungarian invading columns ignominiously back over the Save and
+the Danube, the position of this isolated Ally of ours was giving
+grounds for anxiety from an early period in 1915, and it always
+presented a serious problem for the Entente. Colonel Basil Buckley, my
+right-hand man with regard to the Near East, had it constantly in
+mind.
+
+It is always easy to be wise after the event; what in the world would
+become of the noble army of critics if it were not so? Still, looking
+back in the light of the sequel upon the political and strategical
+situation that existed in the Near East early in 1915, it does look as
+if the right course for the Western Powers to have adopted then (so
+soon as there were troops available for another theatre without
+hopelessly queering the Entente pitch on the Western Front) would have
+been to use those troops for lending Serbia a hand instead of
+despatching them to the Dardanelles. Even a weaker force than that
+with which Sir I. Hamilton embarked on the Gallipoli venture
+(nominally five Anglo-Australasian and two French divisions) would
+have proved an invaluable moral, and an effective actual, support to
+the Serbs; and its arrival on the Morava and the Save could hardly
+have failed to influence to some extent the attitude of Bulgaria and
+Roumania, and assuredly would have caused the Austro-Hungarian
+monarchy some heart-burnings. It has been said that M. Briand (who did
+not assume the premiership in France until a somewhat later date)
+advocated the despatch of Entente troops to Serbia in the spring of
+1915, and that the question was discussed between the British and
+French Governments; but I know nothing of this, only having come to be
+behind the scenes of the Near Eastern drama at a somewhat later date.
+
+Objections to such a course undoubtedly existed, even leaving out of
+account the fact that our Government was, with the approval of that of
+Paris, committing itself at the time more and more definitely to the
+Hellespont-Bosphorus-Black Sea project. In the first place, Salonika
+happened to be in the hands of neutral Greece, although that
+difficulty would probably have been got over readily enough then. In
+the second place, the despatch of a Franco-British force to Serbia in
+the spring would have been playing the enemy's game to the extent of
+virtually tying up that force and of condemning it to inactivity for
+the time being, so as to provide against a danger--hostile attack on
+Serbia--which might never materialize, and which actually did not
+materialize until the autumn. In the third place, there was always,
+with amateur strategists about, the grave risk that a measure taken
+with the object of safeguarding Serbia as far as possible, might
+translate itself into a great offensive operation against the Central
+Powers from the south, absorbing huge Anglo-French forces, conducted
+under great difficulties in respect to communications with the sea,
+and playing into the hands of the German Great General Staff by
+enabling that wide-awake body to make the very fullest use of its
+strategical assets in respect to "interior lines." Finally, we could
+not depend upon Bulgaria siding with the Entente, nor even Roumania;
+and although Italy would certainly not take up arms against us she had
+not yet declared herself an Ally.
+
+The above reference to Bulgaria introduces a question which added
+greatly to the perplexities of the Near Eastern problem then and
+afterwards, perplexities that were aggravated by the well-founded
+suspicion with which Bulgaria's monarch was on all hands regarded. The
+Bulgars coveted Macedonia. But the greater part of Macedonia happened
+as a result of the Balkan upheavals of 1912 and 1913 to belong to
+Serbia, and the rest of it belonged to Greece. Into the ethnographical
+aspect of the Macedonian problem it is not necessary to enter here.
+The cardinal fact remained that Bulgaria wanted, and practically
+demanded, this region. While we might have been ready enough to give
+away Greek territory which did not belong to us, we really could not
+give away Serbian territory which did not belong to us seeing that
+Serbia was an Ally actually embattled on our side and with a
+victorious campaign already to her credit. Macedonia at a later date
+upset the applecart.
+
+Things were already from our point of view in something of a tangle in
+the Balkans by the vernal equinox of 1915; but they had got into much
+more of a tangle by the time that spring was merging into summer. At
+that stage, the failure of our naval effort against the Dardanelles
+had been followed by our military effort coming to a disconcerting
+standstill, and the Bulgarian and Greek Governments in common with
+their military authorities made up their minds that the operation
+against the Straits was doomed. That was bad enough in all conscience,
+but worse was to follow. Because then the Russian bubble was suddenly,
+dramatically, and publicly pricked, the Tsar's stubborn soldiery,
+without ammunition and almost without weapons, could not even maintain
+themselves against the Austro-Hungarian forces, much less against the
+formidable German hosts that were suddenly turned loose upon them, and
+within the space of a very few weeks the situation on the Eastern
+Front, which at least in appearance had been favourable enough during
+the winter and the early spring, suddenly became transformed into one
+of profoundest gloom from the Entente point of view. Even a much less
+unpromising diplomatic situation than that which had existed in the
+Balkans between December and May was bound to become an untoward one
+under such conditions. Our side had come to be looked upon as the
+losing side. No amount of skill on the part of our Foreign Office nor
+of the Quai d'Orsay could compensate for the logic of disastrous
+facts. The performances of H.M. Government in connection with Bulgaria
+and Greece at this time have been the subject of much acid criticism.
+But in time of war it is the victorious battalions that count, not the
+wiles of a Talleyrand nor of a Great Elchi. The failure in the
+Dardanelles and the Russian collapse settled our hash in the Near East
+for the time being, and no amount of diplomatic juggling could have
+effectually repaired the mischief.
+
+Exactly what line the General Staff would have taken up had they been
+called upon, say at the beginning of July, to give a considered
+opinion in the form of a carefully prepared memorandum as to the
+course that ought to be followed in connection with the Dardanelles
+and Serbia, it is hard to say. That there was considerable risk of
+Serbia being assailed in force by the Central Powers before long was
+manifest. On the other hand, there we were, up to the neck in the
+Dardanelles venture, and strong reinforcements were at this time
+belatedly on their way out to Sir I. Hamilton from home. The position
+was a decidedly awkward one. To despatch further contingents to this
+part of the world, over and above those already on the way or under
+orders, was virtually out of the question, unless the Near East was to
+be accepted as the Entente's main theatre of war--which way madness
+lay. To divert the Dardanelles reinforcements to Salonika destroyed
+such hopes as remained of the Gallipoli campaign proving a success
+after all. Human nature being what it is, there would have been a sore
+temptation to adopt the attitude of "wait and see" which might perhaps
+have commended itself to Mr. Asquith, to let things take their course,
+to be governed by how Sir I. Hamilton's contemplated offensive panned
+out, and to trust to a decision in that quarter taking place before
+isolated Serbia should actually be imperilled. But in those days the
+General Staff never was asked to give a considered opinion. At the
+Dardanelles Committee which had all these matters in hand, one seldom,
+if ever, was given an opportunity of expressing views on the broader
+aspects of any question. The methods in vogue on the part of that body
+are indeed well illustrated by the following incident.
+
+One evening in August, about 7 P.M., just when I was getting to the
+end of my work for the day, Colonel Swinton, who for many months past
+had been acting as "Eye-Witness" with Sir J. French's forces, turned
+up unexpectedly in my room. My pleasure at meeting an old friend,
+recently from the hub of things in France and whom I had not seen for
+a long time, gave place to resentment when he explained what he had
+come for. It appeared that he had a short time previously arrived in
+the United Kingdom to act temporarily as Secretary of the Committee of
+Imperial Defence (which practically meant the Dardanelles Committee at
+the moment), and he had been called upon, right off the reel, to
+prepare a memorandum on the Dardanelles situation, which was to be
+ready next morning. Knowing comparatively little about the
+Dardanelles, he had come to consult me. In the first instance I
+absolutely declined to oblige. I had no authority from Lord K. or the
+C.I.G.S. to express views on this subject on paper for the benefit of
+the Committee. Furthermore--and perhaps this weighed more heavily in
+the scale than did official considerations--I was "fed up." One
+generally was by 7 P.M. at the War Office. The very idea of starting
+at this hour upon a memorandum about anything, let alone the
+Dardanelles, was infuriating.
+
+Swinton, however, eventually prevailed upon me to lend a hand on the
+distinct understanding, pressed for by me, that it remained a hidden
+hand. After all, this intrusion of his did provide some sort of
+opportunity for putting the situation plainly before the Committee,
+and for expressing a vertebrate opinion. We proceeded to the club and
+dined together, and thereafter, refreshed and my equanimity restored
+by a rest and hearing the news from across the water, we grappled with
+the subject in the C.I.D. office. "Ole Luke Oie" could be trusted to
+put a thing tersely and with vigour once he knew what to say, and the
+document did not take long to draft. We took the line that in the
+Gallipoli Peninsula it was a case of getting on or of getting out. The
+core of this memorandum is quoted in the "Final Report" of the
+Dardanelles Commission, where it is pointed out that no mention is
+made of a middle course. That was intentional. A middle course was
+regarded by us as wholly unjustifiable, although it was the one which
+the Dardanelles Committee adopted; for that body did not take our
+advice--it neither got on nor got out.
+
+The situation in the Near East as a whole became a more anxious one
+than ever after the failure of Sir I. Hamilton's August offensive,
+because by this time Russia's collapse was complete, and the legions
+of the Central Powers which had been flooding Poland, Grodno and
+Volhynia, impeded by sparsity of communications rather than by the
+resistance of the Grand Duke Nicholas's ammunitionless army, had
+become available for operations in a new direction. The portents all
+pointed to an attack upon Serbia. If Serbia was to receive effective
+aid at the hands of the Western Powers, that aid must be well in
+motion before the enemy hosts should gather on the northern and
+western frontiers of our threatened Ally, otherwise the aid would
+assuredly be late owing to the difficulty of moving troops rapidly
+from board ship in Salonika roads, up to the theatre of operations.
+Hopes still existed, on the other hand, at least in the minds of some
+of the members of the Dardanelles Committee, that by sending
+additional reinforcements to Sir I. Hamilton a success might be
+obtained even yet in that quarter. The French for a week or two
+contemplated despatching four divisions which were to operate on the
+Asiatic side of the Hellespont; but the situation on the Western Front
+put an end to this design. There were two stools, the Dardanelles and
+Salonika, and among us we contrived to sit down between them. For
+while all this was in debate the danger to Serbia grew apace, and
+intelligence sources of information now made it certain that the
+German Great General Staff had not only planned, but had already made
+nearly all the preparations for, a great stroke in the direction of
+the western Balkans.
+
+In this distressing state of affairs Bulgaria was always the uncertain
+factor. Her attitude could not be gauged with certainty, but it was
+extremely suspicious throughout. A pro-Bulgar element had for some
+months been listened to by our Foreign Office with greater respect
+than it deserved, although nobody, pro-Bulgar or anti-Bulgar,
+entertained any trust in Tsar Ferdinand's integrity. Had Serbia even
+at this late hour been willing to relinquish Macedonia, it is
+conceivable that Bulgaria might have remained neutral, and that
+Ferdinand might have broken such engagements as he had secretly
+entered into with the Central Powers. But utter distrust and bitter
+hatred of Bulgaria prevailed in Serbia. Our Ally perhaps hardly
+sufficiently realized that national aspirations ought rather to
+direct themselves towards the Adriatic and the regions inhabited by
+Serb stock under Austro-Hungarian rule, than towards districts peopled
+by mixed races on the shores of the Aegean. Be that as it may, the
+idea of delivering up Macedonia to the traditional Eastern enemy was
+scouted at Belgrade. We hoped that at the worst Greece would, in
+accordance with treaty obligations, take sides with Serbia should
+Bulgaria throw in her lot with the Central Powers against the Serbs.
+Then came the attack of the German and Austro-Hungarian forces,
+synchronizing with the mobilization of the Bulgarian army.
+
+The Nish Government--Belgrade had been quitted by this
+time--entertained no illusions whatever regarding Bulgarian
+intentions, and wished to assume the offensive promptly eastwards
+while this very suspicious mobilization was still in progress. Our
+Government--I am not sure what attitude the French, Russian, and
+Italian Governments took up--realized that Serbia's seizing the
+initiative put an end to all hopes of Greece lending a hand, and they
+virtually vetoed the project, as has already been mentioned in Chapter
+IV. That, as it turned out, was an unfortunate decision, because it
+fatally injured the Serbian prospects of preventing their territory
+being overrun before the French and we could intervene effectively,
+while it did not secure Greek adhesion. We virtually staked on King
+Constantine, and we found too late that our King was a Knave.
+
+Just at this awkward juncture Lord Kitchener instructed me to be
+prepared to proceed to Salonika, and all the necessary steps for
+starting on the journey were promptly taken; but it was not clear what
+capacity I was going in. It seemed a mistake, although one was
+naturally heartened at the prospect of activities in a new sphere,
+even if these were only to be of a temporary character. But, as it
+turned out, the Dardanelles Committee (or the War Council, I am not
+sure of the exact date when the Dardanelles Committee deceased)
+intervened, wishing me to remain at my post. In view of what
+followed, one was well out of intimate contact with the Macedonian
+imbroglio on the spot, because, as everybody knows now, the
+Franco-British forces arrived too late to save Serbia from reverses
+which amounted to an almost overwhelming disaster at the hands of the
+great hosts which the Central Powers and Bulgaria threw into the
+scale.
+
+We and the French had, judged by results, made a hideous mess of
+things between us. The Allies were late at a critical juncture--and in
+war that is the unpardonable sin. Sir E. Carson, who had for a brief
+period proved himself a tower of strength on the Dardanelles
+Committee, resigned from the Cabinet in disgust. Lord Milner,
+independent man of affairs at the time, spoke out strongly on the
+subject in the House of Lords. But although the opinion of either of
+them is well worth having on most questions, and although both know
+their own minds, I doubt whether they, either of them, had any clear
+idea then as to what ought to have been done to avert the catastrophe,
+and I doubt whether they, either of them, have a clear idea now.
+Subsequent to May we were confronted with a horribly complex military
+and political situation in the Near East (and by that time military
+forces were already committed to the Dardanelles venture); because it
+was only then that the position of affairs on the Eastern Front and in
+the Near East became transformed owing to the Russian _debacle_--a
+_debacle_ which turned out to be considerably greater than the
+available information as to our Ally's munition difficulties had led
+us to anticipate.
+
+It is easy to say now, after the event, that we ought to have come
+away from the Dardanelles in June, and to have transferred the force
+there, or part of it, to Serbia, which was obviously placed in peril
+by Russia's collapse. But in June reinforcements were already
+earmarked for the Gallipoli Peninsula, and Sir I. Hamilton was
+confident of achieving a substantial success after they should arrive.
+It is easy to say now, after the event, that, immediately the
+offensive from Anzac and Suvla in August miscarried, we ought to have
+come out of the Gallipoli Peninsula and to have transferred the force
+there, or some of it, to Serbia. But in the latter part of August the
+French were disposed to send a substantial contingent to the Asiatic
+side of the Straits, we were supposed to have troops to spare for that
+part of the world, and it was not until early September that all this
+was dropped in view of events on the Western Front. It is easy to say
+now, after the event, that the Entente ought to have foreseen that
+King Constantine would throw Serbia over in any case, and that
+therefore we ought not to have prevented the Serbs from attacking
+Bulgaria while she was still mobilizing. But we trusted a King's word,
+and we knew that M. Venizelos was heart and soul on our side. It is
+easy to say now that we ought to have insisted on Serbia buying off
+Bulgar hostility by handing over Macedonia. But Serbia might have
+refused despite our insisting, and, when all is said and done, Serbia
+has succeeded in keeping Macedonia after all. Ought we to have come
+out of the Dardanelles in September, as soon as it was decided that
+neither the French nor British would send reinforcements thither, and
+to have transferred the troops to Salonika? Assuredly we ought then to
+have come away from the Gallipoli Peninsula. But the evacuation must
+have been a ticklish business, and to have aggravated its difficulties
+by despatching its war-worn garrison simultaneously to Salonika and
+Serbia, just when great enemy contingents were gathering on the Danube
+and the Save, would have thrown a tremendous strain upon staff, upon
+troops, and upon the shipping resources of all kinds actually on the
+spot.
+
+No. Leaving out of consideration the blunder of having drifted into
+the Dardanelles enterprise at all, the real mistake lay in not
+abandoning that enterprise when it became apparent that the troops
+originally detailed could not accomplish their purpose, when it became
+apparent that gaining a footing on the Gallipoli Peninsula meant
+gaining a footing and no more and that no aid was to be expected from
+Bulgaria or from Greece. It was just at that juncture that Russia
+began to give out and that the tide turned in favour of the Central
+Powers on the eastern side of Europe. The matter was primarily one for
+H.M. Government, because the French were not deeply committed to the
+effort against the Straits; but H.M. Government at that moment
+happened to be in a state of flux. The staff at G.H.Q., St. Omer, were
+no doubt not absolutely unprejudiced judges; but I was hearing
+constantly from General H. Wilson between August 1914 and the end of
+1915, and he always wrote in the same strain about the Dardanelles
+from April onwards: "Cut your losses and come out."
+
+Some mention has already been made of M. Briand's inclination for
+Entente efforts based on Salonika. In the autumn of 1915 that eminent
+French statesman was head of the Government in Paris, and his Cabinet
+took up a very strong line indeed over this question. We all agreed
+that neither the city, linked as it was by railway with Central
+Europe, nor yet its spacious land-locked haven must fall into enemy
+hands. Our naval authorities were in full agreement with the French
+naval authorities on that point. But when it came to projects for
+planting down large military forces in this area, with the idea of
+ultimate offensive operations northward ever in the background, we of
+the General Staff at the War Office demurred, and we were, at all
+events in principle, supported by the majority of the War Council.
+Lord Kitchener left for the Aegean at this time; but both before going
+and after his return he always, as far as I know, deprecated locking
+up fighting resources in Macedonia. Our Allies across the Channel
+were, however, somewhat insistent. Two conferences took place: one, a
+military one at Chantilly at the very end of October, and a more
+authoritative one a few days later in Paris, both of which I attended.
+More will be said about these _reunions_ in Chapter XII. General
+Joffre, with some of his staff, also paid a visit to London in
+connection with the matter. The upshot was that the French practically
+forced us into the policy of maintaining a large force about Salonika.
+But H.M. Government were placed in a difficult position in the matter,
+seeing that their pet project (or at all events the pet project of the
+pre-Coalition Government), that of attacking the Dardanelles, had so
+completely failed.
+
+One could not altogether escape from the impression at the time that,
+in the determined attitude which our friends over the water adopted on
+this point, they were at least to some small extent actuated by
+anxiety to maroon General Sarrail, who had been sent off in command of
+the French troops already despatched, and also to keep him quiet by
+investing him with the supreme command in this new theatre of war--as
+was later arranged. Why the strong political support enjoyed in
+certain French quarters by this prominent, and in the opening days of
+the war highly successful, soldier should have been taken so
+seriously, it was hard for anybody on our side of the Straits of Dover
+to understand. One wonders whether M. Clemenceau might not have been
+somewhat less discomposed on the subject had he been at the head of
+affairs. But the attitude adopted on the point became extremely
+inconvenient at a later date when, after an offensive on a large scale
+undertaken on the Salonika front had miscarried completely, owing
+largely, if not entirely, to a lamentable lack of co-ordination
+between the various contingents engaged, a change in the chief command
+did not instantly follow. Unsatisfactory as was the policy of
+interning large bodies of British and French troops that were badly
+wanted at the decisive point, in a sort of cul-de-sac in the Near
+East, it was made all the more unsatisfactory by the way the military
+situation was dealt with locally for more than a year and a half.
+
+In view of certain criticisms of the General Staff to which the lack
+of information concerning the Gallipoli Peninsula when it was needed
+in 1915 has given rise, it is worth mentioning that at my suggestion
+General Joffre sent one of his trusted staff-officers over from
+Chantilly in November 1915 to put up with us for a few days,
+particularly in connection with Macedonian problems. This
+representative of the French General Staff was astonished to find that
+we possessed numbers of detailed military reports concerning that part
+of the world, with full information as to railways and communications,
+and he was most complimentary on the subject. "Your England is an
+island, my general," he remarked to me; "you have not had the eastern
+frontier always to think of like France. How could we devote attention
+to Macedonia?" It was not here a question of reconnaissance work or of
+costly backstairs methods in a carefully watched fortified area of
+prime strategical significance like the environs of the Hellespont.
+Getting information about Macedonia had merely been a matter of
+sending out experienced military observers to look about them and to
+report.
+
+When I left the General Staff at the War Office at the end of the
+year, the position of affairs at Salonika was a thoroughly
+unsatisfactory one, although the General Staff could fairly claim that
+for this it was not responsible. A great Allied army was collected in
+this quarter, inert and virtually out of the game. Our antagonists had
+very wisely abandoned all idea of attacking, and of thereby justifying
+the existence of, that great Allied army. The Bulgars had, with some
+assistance from German and Austro-Hungarian troops, secured possession
+of the mountainous region of the Balkans; and the Central Powers had
+thus acquired just that same advantageous strategical and tactical
+position on the Macedonian Front as they had for a year and a half
+been enjoying on the Italian borders--the advantageous position of
+having roped in Nature as a complaisant ally. The Entente had had an
+uncommonly difficult hand to play in the Near East, but, as things
+turned out, the Governments concerned had played it about as badly as
+was feasible.
+
+Except in the matter of equipping the Greek forces at a very much
+later date, I was not directly concerned in what followed for weary
+months on the Salonika Front. During the few weeks when I was acting
+temporarily as Deputy C.I.G.S. in 1917, things happened to be pretty
+well at a standstill in Macedonia, except that just at that time one
+British division was transferred from that theatre to Palestine, where
+there was some prospect of doing something. I remained in touch with
+the General Staff, however, until the end of the war, and throughout
+was to a great extent behind the scenes.
+
+Only one valid military excuse can be put forward for imprisoning a
+great field army for three years in the Salonika area, a plan to which
+the General Staff was consistently opposed from the outset. It enabled
+our side to employ some 150,000 Serbian and Greek troops, whom it
+might have been difficult to turn to good account elsewhere; at the
+very end the Greek contingents were, moreover, being substantially
+increased. In what was to a great extent a war of attrition this was a
+point of some importance. But that great field army was for all
+practical purposes immobilized for the whole of the three years. It
+was immobilized partly by inferior bodies of troops--mainly Bulgarian,
+whom the German Great General Staff would have found it hard to
+utilize in other theatres. It was immobilized partly by having before
+it a wide zone of rugged uplands which were in occupation of the
+enemy, and which forbade the employment of masses of men. That great
+field army never at any time pulled its weight, and its presence in
+Macedonia threw a severe and unwarranted strain upon our naval
+resources owing to the difficulty of safeguarding its communications
+against submarines in a water area exceptionally favourable for the
+operations of such craft.
+
+At the end of the three years that great field army did carry out a
+remarkably successful offensive, in which the Serbs played a gallant
+and prominent part. But, without wishing to disparage the fine work
+performed by the various contingents in that offensive of September
+1918--British, French, Italian, Serb and Greek--the fact remains that
+the Bulgars were defeated not in Macedonia but in Picardy and Artois.
+Exhausted by years of hostilities--they had been at it since
+1912--they knew that the game was up before the offensive ever
+started, knew that their side had lost the war, knew that there was no
+hope of succour from Germany. Considering the hopelessness of the
+situation from the point of view of the Central Powers, it is
+surprising that the Sofia Executive did not throw up the sponge at a
+somewhat earner date.
+
+The Macedonian side-show is a typical example of the kind of side-show
+which cannot be justified from the broad point of view of military
+policy. In the next chapter a number of other side-shows which had
+their place in the Great War will be touched upon. In it the fact will
+be pointed out that side-shows are sometimes unavoidable, and it will
+be suggested that most of those on which the British Government
+embarked between 1914 and the end of the war were justifiable, even
+when they were not absolutely unavoidable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+OTHER SIDE-SHOWS
+
+     Three categories of side-shows -- The Jackson Committee -- The
+     Admiralty's attitude -- The Pacific, Duala, Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam,
+     Oceania, the Wireless Stations -- Kiao Chao -- The Shatt-el-Arab
+     -- Egypt -- Question whether the Australasian forces ought to
+     have been kept for the East -- The East African operations -- Our
+     lack of preparation for a campaign in this quarter -- Something
+     wrong -- My own visit to Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam in 1908 -- The
+     bad start of the campaign -- Question of utilizing South African
+     troops to restore the situation -- How this was managed --
+     Reasons why this was a justifiable side-show -- Mesopotamia --
+     The War Office ought to have interfered -- The question of an
+     advance on Baghdad by General Townshend suddenly referred to the
+     General Staff -- Our mistake -- The question of Egyptian defence
+     in the latter part of 1915 -- The Alexandretta project -- A later
+     Alexandretta project propounded by the War Cabinet in 1917 -- Its
+     absurdity -- The amateur strategist on the war-path -- The
+     Palestine campaign of 1918 carried out almost entirely by troops
+     not required on the Western Front, and therefore a legitimate
+     side-show -- The same principle to some extent holds good with
+     regard to the conquest of Mesopotamia -- The Downing Street
+     project to substitute Sir W. Robertson for Sir C. Monro, a
+     miss-fire.
+
+
+"There must have been a baker's dozen of them," writes Lord Fisher in
+his _Memories_ in reference to what he calls the "wild-cat
+expeditions" on which troops were engaged while he was First Sea Lord
+in 1914-15. There were a baker's dozen of them, and more, if the
+occupation by Australasian contingents of certain islands in the
+Indian Archipelago and the Pacific are included. But a correct
+appreciation of the merits and of the demerits of our numerous
+side-shows of those and later days is not covered by ejaculatory
+generalizations. Some of the very greatest of soldiers--Marlborough,
+Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Wellington--all countenanced
+side-shows that were kept within limits.
+
+The truth about side-shows is that they may be divided up roughly into
+three categories: (1) The necessary, (2) the excusable, (3) the
+unjustifiable and mischievous. But there is no sharp dividing-line
+between the three categories. Of those for which we made ourselves
+responsible in the Great War, the majority undoubtedly come within the
+first category. Most of the remainder may, upon the whole, be classed
+as excusable. Unfortunately the small number which come under the
+third heading were just those which absorbed the greatest military
+effort, and which were the only ones that really reckoned as vital
+factors in influencing the course of the conflict as a whole. Amongst
+the necessary and unavoidable side-shows were those which were
+undertaken, at all events in the first instance, in the interests of
+sea power. Amongst the side-shows which may be regarded as
+justifiable, although not unavoidable, may be mentioned the
+continuation of the Cameroons operations after the taking of Duala,
+the continuation of the operations in "German East" after the capture
+of Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam, and the continuation of the operations in
+"German South-West" after the great wireless station had been dealt
+with; in each of these cases the forces and resources of various kinds
+absorbed were, for various reasons, of no great relative importance,
+and the conquest of the Boche territories involved was desirable. Two
+unjustifiable side-shows have already been discussed, the Dardanelles
+and Salonika; another that comes within this third category was
+Mesopotamia subsequent to the securing of the Shatt-el-Arab and the
+Karun oil-fields, and yet another is represented by the excessive
+resources which were devoted to Palestine operations during certain
+periods of the war.
+
+A special interdepartmental committee, an offshoot of the Committee of
+Imperial Defence, was set up on the outbreak of the war, virtually as
+an expansion of the already existing Colonial Defence Committee. By a
+stroke of good fortune, its chairman was Admiral Sir Henry Jackson,
+who was attached to the Admiralty for special service at the time; the
+Colonial Office and the India Office, as well as the Admiralty were
+represented on it, and I was the War Office delegate. It was on the
+recommendations of this body that the operations against Togoland, the
+Cameroons, and "German East" were initiated, that every encouragement
+was given to the projects set on foot by the Australasian Governments
+for the conquest of German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago,
+Samoa, and other localities in Oceania, and that similar encouragement
+was given to the Union Government of South Africa in respect to its
+plans for wresting "German South-West" out of the hands of its
+possessors and oppressors. The Admiralty attached extreme importance
+to Duala, and considerable importance to Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga, as
+also to some of the ports in Oceania owing to the presence of Von
+Spee's squadron of swift cruisers in the Pacific. They likewise were
+anxious that the German wireless stations of great range and power in
+Togoland, the Cameroons, "German South-West," and "German East" should
+be brought to nought.
+
+Then there was also Kiao Chao. The capture of that enemy naval
+stronghold in the Far East was regarded as eminently desirable, and
+although the Japanese were ready and willing to take the thing on
+alone it seemed expedient that we should contribute a small contingent
+to assist, very much on the same principle as the French and Italians
+liked to have small contingents fighting under the orders of General
+Allenby during his triumphant operations in Palestine and Syria. Our
+military garrisons at Tientsin and Hong-Kong could easily find a
+couple of battalions, and from our British point of view this
+contribution may be set down as coming within the category of an
+excusable, if not an unavoidable, side-show. Apart from East Africa,
+none of these minor sets of operations absorbed more than
+insignificant military forces, which in most cases were composed
+largely of Colonial coloured troops who were hardly fitted for
+fighting on the Western Front at that stage. In almost all of them,
+except "German East" and Kiao Chao, the object had been achieved
+within a few weeks of the outbreak of hostilities, and even the
+bitterest foes of the side-show in the abstract will admit that the
+end justified the means.
+
+The question of an expedition to the Shatt-el-Arab was first raised by
+the India Office. Such an undertaking could indeed hardly suggest
+itself during the first few weeks of the war, seeing that the Ottoman
+Empire did not become involved until some weeks had elapsed. The
+object of this Mesopotamia side-show, which ultimately developed into
+one of the greatest campaigns ever undertaken by a European Power in a
+region beyond the seas, was, to start with, simply the seizure of the
+water-way for the length that this is navigable by ocean-going ships
+together with the port of Basrah, and to secure the safety of the
+oil-fields of the Karun. The operation incidentally could hardly fail
+to exercise considerable political effect around the Persian Gulf,
+which was all to the good, and the project did not call for the
+employment of a large force to effect the purpose that was in view at
+the start. Most military authorities would surely class this as a
+thoroughly justifiable, if perhaps not an absolutely necessary,
+side-show.
+
+Then, thrusting itself into prominence about the same time as the
+Shatt-el-Arab affair developed, came the question of Egypt. The Turks
+would assuredly contrive a stroke at the Khedive's dominions from the
+side of the Isthmus of Suez sooner or later, the attitude of the
+tribes in the vast regions to the west of the Nile valley could not
+but give grounds for some anxiety, and there was a fair chance of
+effervescence within the Nile Delta itself. Maintaining the security
+of Egypt was hardly more a side-show than was the provision of
+garrisons for India; but the defence of Egypt at a later stage more or
+less merged into offensive operations directed against Palestine. The
+question of giving that defence a somewhat active form by undertaking
+expeditionary enterprises in the direction of the Gulf of Alexandretta
+came to be considered quite early in the war, as has already been
+mentioned in Chapter III. But during the first six months or so Egypt
+only in reality absorbed military resources which for various reasons
+could not appropriately have been utilized elsewhere. The British
+regulars were withdrawn from Cairo and Khartum and helped to form
+divisions for the Western Front, considerable bodies of Native Indian
+troops were transported to Suez from Bombay and Kurrachee, the East
+Lancashire Territorial Division was sent out from home, and the newly
+constituted contingents from the Antipodes secured a temporary
+resting-place in a region which climatically was particularly well
+suited for their purpose. Anxiety as to Egypt was as a matter of fact
+in great measure allayed in January 1915, owing to the Osmanlis
+pressing forward to the Suez Canal, sustaining a severe rebuff near
+its banks at the hands of the defending force, and disappearing
+eastwards as a beaten and disorganized rabble.
+
+The Palestine operations will be touched upon later; but there is a
+subject in connection with the contingents from the Antipodes,
+referred to above, which, although it has nothing to do with the
+principle of side-shows in the abstract, may perhaps not
+inappropriately be discussed here. Was it right ever to have employed
+those contingents on the Western Front, as they were employed from an
+early date in 1916 onwards to the end of the struggle? The result of
+their being so disposed of was that, covering a space of nearly three
+years, troops from the United Kingdom were perpetually passing
+eastwards through the Mediterranean while Australasian troops were
+perpetually passing westwards through the Mediterranean. Military
+forces belonging to the one belligerent Empire were, in fact, crossing
+each other at sea. This involved an avoidable absorption of
+ship-tonnage, it threw an avoidable strain upon the naval forces of
+the Entente, and it imposed an avoidable period of inaction upon the
+troops concerned. Look upon the Anzacs simply as counters and upon the
+Great War as a _Kriegspiel_, and such procedure becomes ridiculous.
+Whatever there is to be said for and against the Dardanelles,
+Salonika, Palestine, and Mesopotamia side-shows, they did undoubtedly
+absorb military forces in excess of those which Australia and New
+Zealand placed in the field, and they provided active work in eastern
+regions far nearer to the Antipodes than was the Western Front.
+
+This, however, entirely ignores sentiment, and sentiment can never
+justly nor safely be ignored in military matters. The Anzacs would
+have bitterly resented being relegated to theatres, of secondary
+importance so to speak. Their Governments would have protested had
+such a thing been even hinted at, and they would have protested in
+very forcible terms. No other course than that actually followed was
+in reality practicable nor, as far as I know, ever suggested. As a
+matter of fact, however, none of the Australasian mounted troops,
+apart from some quite minor exceptions, ever did proceed west of the
+Aegean. After performing brilliant service in the Gallipoli Peninsula
+acting as foot soldiers, the Anzac Horse spent the last three years of
+the war in Egypt, where they seized and made the most of opportunities
+for gaining distinction under General Allenby such as would never have
+been presented to them in France.
+
+I was a good deal concerned in the operations in East Africa during
+the first year and a half of the war, a period of scanty progress and
+of regrettable misadventures. We enjoyed the advantage, when this
+question came before Admiral Jackson's committee, of having
+Lieut.-Colonel (now Major-General Sir A. R.) Hoskins present, who at
+the time was Inspector-General of the King's African Rifles and was
+consequently well acquainted with our own territories in that part of
+the world. From the outset, Hoskins was disinclined to regard
+operations in this quarter as a sort of picnic, and the event proved
+that he was right. It was, however, settled that the whole business
+should be handed over in the main to India to carry out, and that the
+commander and staff for the contemplated offensive, as well as the
+reinforcements needed for the purpose, should come across the Indian
+Ocean from Bombay.
+
+At a very early stage it became apparent that our information
+concerning the enemy districts nearest to the frontier between German
+territory and British East Africa was defective, while information as
+to the districts on our own side was not all that might be wished, and
+I gathered from Hoskins at the time (and also later on from Colonel G.
+Thesiger, Hoskins' predecessor, who brought home his battalion of the
+Rifle Brigade from India during the winter of 1914-15 and who was
+killed when commanding a division at Loos in the autumn of 1915) that
+the prosecution of active intelligence work had received little
+encouragement from home during their terms of office. That is the
+worst of a corps like the King's African Rifles being under the
+Colonial Office instead of under the War Office, although there are
+adequate reasons for that arrangement; but I cannot help thinking that
+if the General Staff had pressed the matter, not much difficulty would
+have been encountered in altering the Colonial Office's point of view,
+and that both no doubt were to blame. It may also be remarked
+incidentally that the Colonial Office probably has no secret service
+funds at its disposal. Still, be that as it may, there was something
+amiss.
+
+Here we were, with British soil actually in contact with an extensive
+province in the hands of a potential enemy and known to be garrisoned
+by a considerable body of native troops. Everything pointed to the
+need for extensive reconnaissance work in the borderland districts
+with a view to possible eventualities. Numbers of active, intelligent,
+and adventurous young British officers, admirably fitted for
+acquiring military information, were stationed on our side of the
+frontier. And yet when the storm broke we were unprepared to meet it.
+We had plans worked out in the utmost detail for depositing the
+Expeditionary Force at its concentration points in French territory.
+Our naval policy was to all intents and purposes framed with a German
+war as its ultimate goal. The probability of a conflict with the
+Boches had for some years past virtually governed our military policy.
+But in East Africa we were in a measure caught napping.
+
+There had been lack of foresight. I had been guilty of this myself, so
+that I have the less hesitation in referring to it; for I had been at
+both Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam early in 1908. At the first-named port
+our ship only spent a few hours, so that any kind of reconnaissance
+work would have been out of the question. But we lay for four days on
+end in Dar-es-Salaam harbour, and yet it never occurred to me to
+examine the place and its immediate surroundings from the point of
+view of possible attack upon it in the future--this, moreover, after
+having just given over charge of the strategical section in the War
+Office. Even allowing for the fact that war with Germany was not
+looming ahead to the same extent in 1908 as it was from 1909 onwards,
+there was surely something wrong on that occasion.
+
+The start that was made in East Africa in 1914 can only be described
+as deplorable. Following a custom which to my mind is more honoured in
+the breach than in the observance, the mortifying results of the
+attempted maritime descent upon Tanga which ushered in the
+hostilities, were for a long time kept concealed from the public. That
+reverse constituted a grave set-back--a set-back on a small scale
+perhaps, but as decided a one as we met with during the war. Our
+troops not only lost heavily in casualties, but they also suffered
+appreciably in _moral_. For months subsequent to that untoward event
+we were virtually on the defensive in this theatre of war, although we
+unquestionably enjoyed the advantage in actual numbers, and although
+the maritime communications were open to our side and closed to that
+of the enemy. The enemy enjoyed such initiative as there was. Bodies
+of hostile troops used to cross the border from time to time and
+inflict unpleasant pin-pricks upon us. The situation was an eminently
+unsatisfactory one, but what was to be done?
+
+That "German East" was just the very place to utilize South African
+troops in, became apparent at a comparatively early stage of the
+proceedings. Even before General Botha and his men had completed his
+conquest of "German South-West," one had already begun to dream dreams
+of these same forces, or their equivalent, coming to the rescue on the
+farther side of the Dark Continent, and of their getting our Indian
+and native African contingents, with their small nucleus of British
+regulars, out of the scrape that they were in. Being in constant
+communication with General C. W. Thomson, who was in command of the
+exiguous body of British soldiers left at the Cape, I was able to
+gauge the local feeling out there fairly correctly, and became
+convinced that we should be able to rely on securing a really
+high-class contingent of improvised units for "German East" out of
+South Africa, of units composed of tough, self-reliant, experienced
+fighting men who might not be disposed to undertake service on the
+Western Front. The special character of the theatre of war in East
+Africa, the nature of the fighting which its topography imposed on the
+contending sides, its climate, its prospects for the settler, and its
+geographical position, were all such as to appeal to the dwellers on
+the veldt. But when the subject was broached once or twice to Lord K.
+during the summer of 1915 he would have nothing to do with it. Once
+bitten twice shy. The War Minister looked on side-shows with no kindly
+eye. Nor could he be persuaded that this was one which would only be
+absorbing resources that could hardly be made applicable to other
+quarters.
+
+Mr. Bonar Law, who was then Colonial Minister, was very anxious to
+have the military situation in this part of the world cleared up, and
+I rather took advantage of Lord K.'s absence in the Near East in
+November to bring the whole thing to a head. Sir A. Murray quite
+agreed that South Africa ought to be invited to step in and help. So
+it came about that the business was practically settled by the time
+that the Chief came back from the Dardanelles, and although he was by
+no means enthusiastic, he accepted the situation and he chose Sir H.
+Smith-Dorrien for the command. Whether this was, or was not, a
+justifiable side-show is no doubt a matter of opinion. But a very
+large proportion of the troops who eventually conquered "German East"
+under Generals Smuts, Hoskins and Van Deventer would scarcely have
+been available for effective operations in any other theatre, and the
+demands in respect to artillery, aircraft, and so forth were almost
+negligible as compared to the resources that were in being even so
+early as the winter of 1915-16. Perhaps the most powerful arguments
+that could be brought forward against the offensive campaign that was
+initiated by General Smuts in German East Africa were its cost and the
+amount of ship-tonnage that it absorbed. The primary object for which
+operations in this region were undertaken, the capture of Tanga and
+Dar-es-Salaam so as to deprive the enemy of their use for naval
+purposes, had rather dropped out of consideration owing to the seas
+having been cleared of enemy non-diving craft in the meantime.
+
+The Mesopotamian operations during the first year and a half were
+conducted entirely by the India Office and India, and, up till after
+Sir W. Robertson had become C.I.G.S., we had no direct responsibility
+in connection with them in the War Office. I had a subsection that
+dealt entirely with Indian matters; this kept watch, noted the
+telegrams, reports, and so forth, dealing with what was going on on
+the Shatt-el-Arab and beyond, and it could at any moment supply me
+with general information as to the situation. From time to time I used
+to ask how the operations were progressing, and, without ever going
+carefully into the matter, was disposed to look somewhat askance at
+the procedure that was being adopted of continually pressing forward
+from place to place--like the hill-climber who on reaching one crest
+ever feels himself drawn on to gain the next--far beyond the zone
+which had in the first instance been regarded as the objective of the
+Expeditionary Force. The meteor of conquest appeared to be alluring
+"D" Force too far. Without examining the position of affairs closely,
+it was obvious that the farther our troops proceeded up the Tigris the
+longer became their line of communications, the shorter became that of
+the Turks, and the greater must inevitably become the contingents put
+in the field by our side. What had started as a limited-liability and
+warrantable side-show was somehow imperceptibly developing into a
+really serious campaign in a remote region.
+
+Looking back upon those months in the light of later experience, the
+attitude which one felt disposed to assume, the attitude that as this
+was an India Office business with which the War Office had nothing to
+do it was their funeral, was a mistaken one. The War Office could not,
+of course, butt in unceremoniously. But Lord Kitchener was a member of
+the Government in an exceptionally powerful position in all things
+connected with the war, and had one represented one's doubts to him,
+he would certainly have gone into the question and might have taken up
+a strong line. I, however, have no recollection of ever speaking to
+him on the subject of Mesopotamia during the period when "D" Force was
+working right up into Irak, moving first to Amarah, then to El Gharbi,
+and then on to Kut, thus involving the Empire in a regular offensive
+campaign on an ambitious scale in the cradle of the world.
+
+Then came that farther advance of General Townshend's from Kut to
+Azizieh, the project for an advance right up to Baghdad assumed shape
+at Army Headquarters on the Tigris, in Simla, and at the India Office,
+and it was then that the General Staff, now with Sir A. Murray in
+charge, was suddenly called upon to give a considered opinion
+concerning this ambitious scheme for the information of the War
+Council. Now it is an interesting fact that just at that very same
+time we were called upon to give a considered opinion on the subject
+of the best plan of rendering Egypt secure, and that this necessarily
+raised the question whether the plan should favour an active form of
+defence involving an expedition to Alexandretta or thereabouts, or
+whether it should take a more passive form of holding positions away
+back near the Suez Canal. The two Memoranda were as a matter of fact
+printed in the one secret document.
+
+As regards Alexandretta we had no doubts whatever, although, as
+already mentioned on p. 79, Lord K. and the experts in connection with
+Egypt favoured operations in that direction. We made up our minds
+without the slightest difficulty, and pronounced dead against a
+forward policy of that kind at such a time. But in reference to
+Baghdad we all of us, I think, felt undecided and in a quandary.
+Unacquainted with General Townshend's views, assuming that the river
+transport upon which military operations up-Tigris necessarily hinged
+was in a reasonably efficient condition, ignorant of the obstacles
+which forbade a prompt start from Azizieh, we pictured to ourselves a
+bound forward at a very early date. Actually the advance did not
+materialize for more than a month, and in the meantime the Turks were
+gathering reinforcements apace. The city might have been occupied had
+General Townshend been able to push forward at once; for an army
+(favoured, it is true, by incomparably more effectual administrative
+arrangements) did sixteen months later reach the place within seven
+days of quitting Azizieh, although strongly opposed. But so exiguous
+an expeditionary force could not have maintained itself in that
+isolated situation in face of swelling hostile numbers. In falling
+back to his advanced base its leader would have been faced with
+nearly double the distance to cover that he compassed so successfully
+in his retreat from Ctesiphon. The little army would almost certainly
+have been cornered and compelled for lack of supplies to surrender in
+some advanced position in Irak five months earlier than, as it turned
+out, Kut hauled down the flag.
+
+But, be that as it may, we made ourselves to some extent responsible
+for the disaster which occurred to General Townshend's force, owing to
+our not taking a decided line on the subject and not obeying the
+elementary principle that resources must not in war be wasted upon
+unnecessary subsidiary enterprises. Whether it was or was not feasible
+to get to Baghdad at the time was a matter of some uncertainty. But
+that the whole business of all this pouring of troops into Mesopotamia
+was fundamentally unsound scarcely admitted of dispute. That ought to
+have determined our attitude on the minor Baghdad point.
+
+Egypt gave rise to little anxiety during the spring and summer of 1915
+in consequence of the signal discomfiture which the Turks had suffered
+on the Canal early in the year; the arid tract known as the Sinai
+desert indeed provided a satisfactory defence in itself during the dry
+months. But as autumn approached, the prospect of Ottoman efforts
+against the Nile Delta had to be taken into serious consideration, the
+more so that neither the Dardanelles Committee nor the War Council
+which took its place could disguise from themselves that the
+abandonment of the Dardanelles enterprise was at least on the cards,
+and that this would liberate Osmanli forces for efforts in other
+directions. There had been a school of thought in Egypt all along that
+the best defence of that region against Turkish invasion was by
+undertaking operations on the Syrian or Palestine coast, based on the
+Gulf of Iskanderun for preference, but possibly based on Beirut or
+Haifa. As the situation in the Near East grew rapidly worse during
+September, the War Council began to dream of diversions in new
+directions, quite apart from the Gallipoli Peninsula and Salonika,
+and some of them pitched upon the shores of the Gulf of Iskanderun,
+the strategical importance of which was unquestionable. A force landed
+in that quarter would give the enemy something to think about, would
+afford excellent protection to Egypt, and would indirectly assist our
+troops, which had been gradually penetrating along the Tigris right up
+into Mesopotamia.
+
+On this project the General Staff was called upon to report, as
+already mentioned in Chapter IV, and as stated above, and the General
+Staff rejected the project without hesitation. This was a very
+different scheme from that which had been regarded with approval in
+the winter of 1914-15. Then the enemy resources in these environs had
+been insignificant, the Turkish communications leading thither had
+still been interrupted by the Taurus Mountains, and there had been no
+U-boats in the Mediterranean. Now the enemy was fully prepared in this
+quarter and would be on the look-out for our troops, the tunnels
+through the Taurus had been completed, and warships and transports
+could not possibly have lain moored in the roadstead of Alexandretta
+for fear of submarines. The landing would have had to take place in
+the inner portion of the Gulf of Iskanderun, Ayas Bay, where there
+were no facilities, where the surroundings were unhealthy, and where
+it would be particularly easy for the Turks to put up a stolid
+resistance. Our view was that for any operation of this kind to be
+initiated with reasonable safety, a very large body of troops would be
+necessary, that as far as Egypt was concerned the Nile Delta could be
+rendered absolutely secure with a much smaller expenditure of force,
+and that the inevitable result of embarking on a campaign in this new
+region would be to withdraw yet more of the Entente fighting resources
+from the main theatre of war in France. It would have been a side-show
+for which very little could be said and the objections to which seemed
+to us manifest and overwhelming. The War Council took our advice and
+dropped the scheme, although Lord Kitchener, who was out in the
+Aegean, favoured it. Any anxiety that prevailed as to Egypt settled
+itself shortly afterwards owing to the Gallipoli troops, so skilfully
+withdrawn from Anzac, Suvla and Helles, all assembling in the Nile
+Delta, where they were refitted and obtained some rest after their
+terribly arduous campaign in the Thracian Chersonese. This practically
+synchronized with the time of my leaving the War Office for the time
+being and proceeding to Russia.
+
+As will be mentioned in Chapter XIV., one heard more about
+Alexandretta while out in that country. I, moreover, became indirectly
+concerned in that same old question again at a considerably later
+date. For, early in October 1917, the War Cabinet hit upon a great
+notion. On the close of the Flanders operations a portion of Sir D.
+Haig's forces were to be switched thither to succour Generals Allenby
+and Marshall in their respective campaigns, and were to be switched
+back again so as to be on hand for the opening of active work on the
+Western Front at the beginning of March 1918--a three months'
+excursion. This scheme seems to have been evolved quite _au grand
+serieux_ and not as a joke. At all events, a conference (which I was
+called in to attend as knowing more about the Dardanelles business
+from the War Office end than anybody else) assembled in the Chief of
+the Imperial General Staff's room one Sunday morning--the First Sea
+Lord and the Deputy First Sea Lord with subordinates, together with
+General Horne who happened to be over on leave from his First Army,
+and prominent members of the General Staff--and we gravely debated the
+idiotic project.
+
+Nobody but a lunatic would, after Gallipoli experiences, undertake
+serious land operations in the Alexandretta region with less than six
+divisions. To ship six divisions absorbs a million tons. There were
+United States troops at this time unable to cross the Atlantic for
+want of tonnage, and, allowing for disembarkation difficulties on the
+Syrian coast, two soldiers or animals or vehicles could be transported
+from America to French or English ports for every one soldier or
+animal or vehicle that could be shifted from Marseilles or Toulon to
+the War Cabinet's fresh theatre of operations, given the same amount
+of shipping. Our Italian allies were in sore straits over coal for
+munitions and transportation purposes, simply because sufficient
+tonnage could not be placed at their disposal. Our own food supplies
+were causing anxiety, and the maintenance of the forces at Salonika
+afforded constant proof of the insecurity of the Mediterranean as a
+sea route. But fatuous diversion of shipping represented quite a minor
+objection to this opera-bouffe proposal. For, allowing for railing
+troops from the Western Front to the Cote Azure and embarking them,
+and for the inevitable delays in landing a force of all arms on a
+beach with improvised piers, the troops at the head of the hunt would
+already have to be re-embarking in Ayas Bay by the time that those at
+the tail of the hunt came to be emptied out on the shores of the Gulf
+of Iskanderun; otherwise the wanderers would miss the venue on the
+Western Front.
+
+Had this been suggested by a brand-new Ministry--a Labour Cabinet,
+say, reviewing the military situation at its very first
+meeting--nobody could reasonably have complained. People quite new to
+the game naturally enough overlook practical questions connected with
+moving troops by land and sea, and do not realize that those questions
+govern the whole business. Any third-form boy, given a map of
+Turkey-in-Asia and told of campaigns in Palestine, and Mesopotamia,
+and Armenia, and of the bulk of enemy resources being found about
+Constantinople and in Anatolia, who did not instantly perceive how
+nice it would be to dump an army down at Alexandretta, would, it is
+earnestly to be hoped, be sent up to have his dormant intelligence
+awakened by outward applications according to plan. Quite
+knowledgeable and well-educated people call this sort of thing
+"strategy," and so in a sense it is--it is strategy in the same sense
+as the multiplication table is mathematics. If you don't know that two
+added to two makes four, and divided by two makes one, the integral
+calculus and functional equations will defeat you; if it has never
+occurred to you that by throwing your army, or part of it, across the
+route that your opponent gets his food and his ammunition and his
+reinforcements by you will cause him inconvenience, then your name is
+not likely to be handed down to posterity with those of the Great
+Captains. But the War Cabinet of October 1917 contained personages of
+light and leading who had been immersed up to the neck in the conduct
+of hostilities ever since early in 1915.
+
+The Royal Navy could always be trusted to play the game on these
+occasions. When you cannot get your own way in the army, you beslaver
+the local martial Esculapius with soft words and prevail upon him to
+back you up. "Oh, if the medical authorities pronounce it necessary,"
+thereupon declare the Solons up top who have been sticking their toes
+in, "it's of course got to be done." Similarly, when the amateur
+strategist gets out of hand, you appeal to the sailors to save the
+situation. "Just look at what these owls are after now," you say;
+"they'll upset the coach before they've done with it. _You_ won't be
+able to do your share in the business, and we----" "Not do our share
+in the business? Why not? Of course we----" "Yes, yes, I know that;
+but you really must help us. One of those unintelligible masterpieces
+of yours all about prostitution of sea-power, and periscopes and that
+sort of poppy-cock with which you always know how to bluff the
+lubbers." "Well, we'll see what we can do"--and the extinguisher is
+dexterously and effectually applied. Co-operation between the two
+great fighting services is the master-key opening every impeditive
+doorway on the path to victory.
+
+The operations which brought about the occupation of Palestine and
+Syria constituted a side-show on a very important scale indeed, and
+they at one period swallowed up contingents of British troops that
+were somewhat badly needed on the Western Front, just as the Salonika
+business did. Troops of that character, troops fit to throw against
+the Hindenburg Line, however, represented quite an insignificant
+proportion of the forces with which General Allenby achieved his
+startling triumphs in the year 1918. The urgent need of increasing our
+strength in France and Flanders during the winter of 1917-18 was fully
+realized by the General Staff at the War Office, and efforts were made
+to induce the War Cabinet to consent to withdraw some of the British
+troops from Palestine. But nothing was done in the matter until after
+the successful German offensive of March, when the enemy almost drove
+a wedge through the Allies' front near Amiens. After that the bulk of
+General Allenby's British infantry were taken from him and rushed off
+to France, native troops from India which had been created by Sir C.
+Monro since he had taken up the chief command there in 1916, together
+with some veteran Indian companies from Mesopotamia, being sent in
+their place. The brilliant offensive which carried our flag to
+Damascus and on to Aleppo after utterly defeating the Turks was
+executed with a soldiery of whom the greater part could be spared from
+the decisive theatre. The conquering army was composed almost entirely
+of mounted men for whom there was little scope in France, or of Indian
+troops. Even had the results been infinitely less satisfactory to the
+Entente in themselves than they actually were, a side-show run on such
+lines was a perfectly legitimate undertaking.
+
+The same principle to some extent holds good in respect to the
+conquest of Mesopotamia by Sir S. Maude and Sir W. Marshall. The
+troops which won such striking successes in that theatre of war
+included a considerable proportion of units which would not have been
+employed on the Western Front in any case. The army was to a large
+extent a native Indian one, and latterly it included its quota of the
+freshly organized units which General Monro had created. The fact
+remains, however, that from April 1916 (when Kut fell) until the end
+of the war, a considerable force of British white troops was
+continuously locked up in this remote region, engaged upon what can
+hardly be called a necessary side-show.
+
+In connection with the remarkably successful efforts made by the
+Commander-in-Chief in India to expand the local forces during the last
+two years of the conflict, there is a matter which may be mentioned
+here. That the victorious campaigns in Palestine and in Mesopotamia in
+1917 and 1918 were in no small degree attributable, indirectly, to
+what General Monro had accomplished by energy and administrative
+capacity, is well known to all who were behind the scenes, and has
+been cordially acknowledged by Lord Allenby and Sir W. Marshall.
+Especially was this the case in Palestine in 1918, when brand-new
+native Indian regiments took the place of British troops belatedly
+summoned to the Western Front after our line had been broken at St.
+Quentin. Nevertheless, a Downing Street intrigue was set on foot about
+the end of April 1918 to substitute Sir W. Robertson for the commander
+of the forces in India who had accomplished so much since taking over
+charge.
+
+Not that there was any desire to remove Sir C. Monro. The object of
+the shuffle was simply to get Sir W. Robertson out of the country, in
+view of the manner in which his warnings in connection with
+strengthening our forces in France had been disregarded and of his
+having proved to be right. Sir William would no doubt have made an
+excellent Commander-in-Chief in India; but if ever there was an
+example of ill-contrived swapping of horses while crossing a stream,
+this precious plot would have provided the example had it been carried
+into execution. There would have been a three months' interregnum
+while the new chief was on his way out and was picking up the strings
+after getting out--this in the middle of the final year of the war!
+The best-laid plans of politicians, however, gang aft a-gley. Sir C.
+Monro had stipulated, when reluctantly agreeing to give up command of
+his army on the Western Front in the autumn of 1916 and to proceed to
+Bombay, that this Indian appointment was to be a permanent one, and
+not a temporary one such as all other appointments came to be during
+the war. He did not feel disposed to fall in with the Downing Street
+project when this was broached. Is it to be wondered at that military
+men regard some of the personnel that is found in Government circles
+with profound suspicion?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MUNITIONS QUESTION
+
+     Mr. Asquith's Newcastle speech -- The mischief that it did -- The
+     time that must elapse before any great expansion in output of
+     munitions can begin to materialize -- The situation analogous to
+     that of a building -- The Ministry of Munitions took, and was
+     given, the credit for the expansion in output for the year
+     subsequent to its creation, which was in reality the work of the
+     War Office -- The Northcliffe Press stunt about shell shortage --
+     Its misleading character -- Sir H. Dalziel's attack upon General
+     von Donop in the House -- Mr. Lloyd George's reply -- A
+     discreditable episode -- Misapprehension on the subject of the
+     army's preparedness for war in respect to material --
+     Misunderstanding as to the machine-gun position -- Lord French's
+     attack upon the War Office with regard to munitions -- His
+     responsibility for the lack of heavy artillery -- The matter
+     taken up at the War Office before he ever raised it from G.H.Q.
+     -- His responsibility for the absence of high-explosive shell for
+     our field artillery -- A misconception, as to the role of the
+     General Staff -- The serious difficulty that arose with regard to
+     this ammunition owing to prematures -- The misstatements in
+     "_1914_" as to the amount of artillery ammunition which was sent
+     across France to the Dardanelles -- Exaggerated estimates by
+     factories as to what they would be able to turn out -- Their
+     estimates discounted as a result of later experiences -- The
+     Munitions Ministry not confined to its proper job -- The incident
+     of 400 Tanks -- Conclusion.
+
+
+Who reads the platform addresses of political personages, even the
+most eminent and the most plausible? Some people evidently do, or such
+utterances would not fill the columns of our newspapers. If one had
+ever felt tempted to peruse the reports of these harangues in the
+piping times of peace, one assuredly had neither the inclination nor
+yet the leisure to indulge in such practices during the early days of
+the Great War. To skim off the cream of the morning's news while at
+breakfast was about as much as a War Office mandarin could manage in
+the way of reading the daily papers during that super-strenuous time.
+One morning, however--it must have been the morning of the 22nd of
+April 1915--I met an assistant with a journal in his hand, as I was
+making my way along the corridor to my room in the War Office. "Seen
+this what Squiff says about the shell, general?" he asked, handing me
+the paper with his finger on the passage in the Prime Minister's
+Newcastle speech, denying that there was an ammunition shortage.
+
+The report of that discourse took one flat aback. For weeks past
+letters from G.H.Q., as also the fervent representations made by
+visitors over on duty or on leave from the front, had been harping
+upon this question. Lord Kitchener had informed the House of Lords on
+the 15th day of March that the supply of war material was "causing him
+considerable anxiety." There was not the slightest doubt, even
+allowing for the tendency of men exposed to nerve-racking experiences
+or placed in positions of anxious responsibility to find fault, that
+our army in France and Flanders was at a terrible disadvantage as
+compared to that opposed to it in the matter of artillery ammunition.
+The state of affairs was perfectly well known, not merely to the
+personnel of batteries constantly restricted in respect to
+expenditure, but also to the infantry and to other branches of the
+service deprived of adequate gun support. Into the controversies and
+recriminations which have taken place over the subject of how this
+extraordinary statement came to be made at Newcastle, it is not
+proposed to enter here. There is at all events no controversy as to
+whether the statement was true or not, in substance and in fact. It is
+common knowledge now, and it was indeed fairly common knowledge at the
+time, that the statement was in the highest degree misleading. It did
+a great deal of mischief amongst the troops in the war zone, and it
+caused serious injury to those who were responsible for the provision
+of munitions in this country.
+
+A pronouncement of that kind, published as it was in all the
+newspapers, was bound to arouse comment not merely at home, but also
+amongst officers and men confronting the enemy between Dixmude and the
+La Bassee Canal. These latter, who were only too well aware of the
+realities of the case, resented such a misstatement of facts, and they
+were also inclined to jump to the conclusion, not altogether
+unnaturally, that the serious ammunition shortage, the crying need for
+additional heavy ordnance, and so forth, were being deliberately
+ignored by those responsible for supply at home. The inferiority of
+our side in the field in respect to certain forms of munitions as
+compared to the enemy, came to be attributed to indifference and to
+mismanagement on the part of the Master-General of the Ordnance's
+department and of Lord Kitchener. Even the majority of artillery
+officers had not the slightest conception of what an expansion of
+output of munitions on a huge scale involved. Still less were staff
+officers in general and officers of other branches of the service in a
+position to interpret the situation correctly. They did not realize
+that before you can bring about any substantial increase of production
+in respect to shell, or fuses, or rifles, or machine-guns, or
+howitzers, you have to provide the machinery with which the particular
+form of war material is to be manufactured, and that you probably have
+to fashion some extensive structure to house that machinery in. It
+takes months before any tangible result can be obtained, the number of
+months to elapse varying according to the nature of the goods.
+
+Dwellers in great cities will often note what happens when some
+ancient building has been demolished by the house-breaker. The site is
+concealed by an opaque hoarding. For months, even sometimes for years,
+nothing seems to follow. The passer-by who happens to get an
+opportunity of peeping in when some gate is opened to let out a cart
+full of debris, only sees a vast crater at the bottom of which men,
+like ants, are scurrying about with barrows or are delving in the
+earth. All the time that the ground is being cleared and that the
+foundations are being laid, those out in the street know nothing of
+what is going on, and they wonder why some effort is not made to
+utilize the vacant space for building purposes. Then one day, quite
+unexpectedly, scaffolding begins to rear its head. A few weeks later
+bricklayers and their work begin to show above the hoarding; and from
+that moment things at last are obviously on the move. The edifice
+grows from day to day. Within quite a short space of time workmen are
+already putting on the roof. Then down comes the scaffolding, windows
+are put in, final touches are given to the interior, and, within what
+seems to be no time at all from the day when the scaffolding first was
+seen, the building is ready for occupation. So it is with the
+manufacture of munitions--experience in the United States in
+connection with output for us and also in connection with output for
+Russia, was exactly the same as in the United Kingdom in this respect.
+An interminable time seems to elapse before the output begins; but
+once it has fairly started it grows by leaps and bounds.
+
+At the time of the Newcastle oration, and for some months
+subsequently, the work of expansion on a colossal scale which the
+Master-General of the Ordnance had undertaken was still, speaking
+generally, rather on the footing of the building of which the
+foundations are only beginning to be laid even if the excavations have
+been completed and the debris has been cleared away. There was as yet
+comparatively little to show. The results did not begin to make
+themselves apparent until a date when the Ministry of Munitions had
+already come into being some time. That Department of State gained the
+benefit. Its Chief took the credit for work in connection with which
+it had for all practical purposes no responsibility beyond that of
+issuing what predecessors had arranged for. The full product of the
+contracts which the Master-General of the Ordnance had placed, of the
+development he had given to existing Government establishments, and of
+the setting up of entirely new ones by him, with Lord Kitchener ever
+using his driving power and his fertility of resource in support, only
+materialized in the winter of 1915-16, at a stage when the Ministry of
+Munitions had been already full six months in existence.
+
+If the army in general failed to understand the position, it is hardly
+to be wondered at that Parliament and the less well-informed section
+of the Press should not understand the position, and that the public
+should have been deceived. Very shortly after the Newcastle speech,
+and no doubt largely in consequence of it, the Northcliffe Press stunt
+of May 1915 on the subject of shell shortage was initiated. Up to a
+certain point that stunt was not only fully justified, but was
+actually advantageous to the country. It made the nation acquainted
+with the fact that our troops were suffering severely from
+insufficiency of munitions. It stirred the community up, and that in
+itself was an excellent thing. But it succeeded somehow at the same
+time in conveying the impression that this condition of affairs was
+due to neglect, and in consequence it misled public opinion and did
+grave injustice. We must assume that, owing to fundamental ignorance
+of the problems involved, to a neglect to keep touch with industrial
+conditions, and to lack of acquaintance with the technicalities of
+munitions manufacture, these newspapers (which usually contrive to be
+extremely well informed, thanks to the great financial resources at
+their back) were totally unaware that a sudden expansion of output on
+a great scale was an impossibility; to suggest that this aspect of the
+problem was deliberately suppressed would be highly improper. The
+Northcliffe Press had also maybe failed to become acquainted with the
+great increase that had taken place in the forces at the front, as
+compared to the strength of the original Expeditionary Force which had
+provided the basis of calculation for munitions in pre-war days, an
+increase for which there was no counterpart in the armies of our
+Allies or of our enemies. Or the effect that this must have in
+accentuating munitions shortage may have been overlooked, obvious as
+it was. Be that as it may, the country readily accepted the story as
+it stood, and was in consequence grievously misinformed as to the
+merits of the question. The real truth has only leaked out since the
+cessation of hostilities, and it is not generally known now.[6]
+
+                   [Footnote 6: So late as the 21st of April 1920 _The
+                   Times_ included the following passage in a leading
+                   article: "Every gunner officer on the Western Front
+                   during the winter of 1914-15 knows that there was a
+                   grave and calamitous deficiency of shells, and that
+                   no satisfactory attempt was made to rectify it
+                   until the matter was exposed in _The Times_."
+                   Dragging in the "gunner officer" at the front (who
+                   could not possibly tell what steps were being taken
+                   to rectify the deficiency) does not alter the fact
+                   that this passage amounts to an accusation that no
+                   satisfactory attempt was made to rectify the
+                   deficiency until after the Northcliffe Press stunt.
+                   _The Times_ may have been so ill-informed as to the
+                   actual facts in 1915 as to suppose that this was
+                   true. _The Times_ cannot have been so ill-informed
+                   as to the actual facts in 1920 as to suppose that
+                   it was true.]
+
+After the Government had decided to create a Munitions Ministry with
+Mr. Lloyd George at its head, one of the first incidents that occurred
+was an unsavoury one. In the course of the discussions in the House of
+Commons over the Bill setting up this new Department of State, Sir H.
+Dalziel, a newspaper proprietor and a politician of long standing,
+delivered on the 1st of July a violent diatribe directed against Sir
+S. von Donop, the Master-General of the Ordnance. The honourable
+member no doubt quite honestly believed that the lack of munitions was
+due to neglect on the part of the War Office since the beginning of
+the war. It is clear that he was totally unqualified to express an
+opinion on the subject, and that he was ignorant of the manufacturing
+aspects of the problem. He had heard stories of mistakes made here and
+there, such as was inevitable at a time of tremendous stress. He
+probably had not the slightest conception that the primary cause of
+the shell shortage was the neglect of the Government of pre-war days
+(which had recognized his party services by conferring on him the
+dignity of a Privy-Councillorship) to give support to the
+establishments for manufacturing armaments that existed in the
+country. It is not with his performance on this occasion that one
+feels a disposition to quarrel, but with that of the newly created
+Minister of Munitions.
+
+Mr. Lloyd George could not plead ignorance of the facts. He had been
+installed for a month or so. He must have known that it had been
+totally impossible to produce, within ten months of the outbreak of
+the war, the munitions that were required for an army in the field
+three or four times greater than had ever been thought of prior to
+mobilization.[7] He had actually given some pertinent information with
+regard to manufacturing difficulties when he was introducing the bill,
+which clearly demonstrated that he had grasped the general principles
+governing the problem of munitions output. But what was his attitude?
+Instead of following the honourable and chivalrous course, the course
+sanctioned by long-established precedent and practice on the part of
+Ministers of the Crown, of protecting, or trying to protect, the
+public servant who had been assailed, he contented himself with
+pointing out that the public servant ought to be given an opportunity
+of stating his side of the question--which was manifestly impossible
+in time of war--and that the onslaught was unexpected! There is not a
+man in the United Kingdom better able to protect himself, or anybody
+else, in speech and in argument in face of sudden attack than Mr.
+Lloyd George. Had he been willing to do so he could have disposed of
+Sir H. Dalziel, who in reality had no case, with the utmost ease.
+
+                   [Footnote 7: On the 1st July we had 23 divisions
+                   (exclusive of Indian divisions) in the field, and
+                   one on the water. The "Expeditionary Force"
+                   consisted of six divisions, but a vague sort of
+                   organization for a seventh had also existed on
+                   paper.]
+
+But that line apparently did not suit the book of the Minister of
+Munitions. He must have been well aware that a great improvement in
+output was already beginning to take place, and that, thanks entirely
+to the labours of the Ordnance Department of the War Office and of
+Lord Kitchener, the output would within a few months reach huge
+figures. If it were represented to the House, and through the House
+to the country, that this question of munitions had been grossly
+neglected up to the time that he took charge, and if it became
+apparent subsequently that from the hour of his becoming Munitions
+Minister a rapid improvement set in, then the thanks of the nation
+would go out to him and he would be canonized. This is the only
+explanation that I can find for a most discreditable incident. For he
+made no attempt to meet the attack, and he contrived to convey the
+impression by his remarks that the attack was fully justified. I have,
+moreover, good reason for believing that on that day there was present
+on the Treasury bench a representative of the War Office, not a
+Cabinet Minister, who was ready and willing to defend the
+Master-General of the Ordnance and who was acquainted with the facts,
+but that the Minister of Munitions, being in charge of the House,
+refused to sanction his speaking. Happily such occurrences are rare in
+the public life of this country.
+
+That reply of Mr. Lloyd George's on the 1st of July 1915--anybody can
+look it up in Hansard--left an uncommonly nasty taste in the mouth.
+The taste was made none the less nasty by his unblushing assumption on
+later occasions of the credit for the improvement in munitions output
+that took place from the summer of 1915 onwards. In my own case,
+although I was nowise concerned with munitions output then, neither
+pleasant association with Mr. Lloyd George at later dates in
+connection with various war problems, nor yet the admiration for the
+grit and courage displayed by him during the last three years of the
+great contest which is felt by us all, could wholly remove that nasty
+taste.
+
+Much misapprehension--a misapprehension fostered by reckless and
+ignorant assertions made on the subject in Parliament and in the
+Press--exists in regard to the state of preparedness of our army for
+war in the matter of armament. Rightly or wrongly--most people
+probably now think wrongly--H.M. Government of pre-war days merely
+contemplated placing in the field for offensive purposes a force of
+six, or at the outside, seven divisions, with their complement of
+mounted troops. Leaving the Germans out of consideration, our
+Expeditionary Force of six divisions was upon the whole as well
+equipped in respect to armament (apart from ammunition reserves) as
+any one of the armies that were placed in the field in August 1914. It
+only failed in respect to two items, heavy ordnance and high-explosive
+shell for the field-guns, and in respect to field-howitzers and heavy
+field-guns (the 60-pounders) it was better off than any, including the
+German forces.
+
+It will perhaps be urged that we were deplorably badly-off for
+machine-guns, and so in a sense we were. But what were the facts? The
+Expeditionary Force was better fitted out with this class of weapon
+than any one of the embattled armies at the outset of the war, with
+the exception of the German. Ex-Kaiser William's hosts enjoyed a
+tremendous advantage in respect to machine-guns, but they enjoyed that
+advantage to an even greater extent over the French and Russian
+legions than over ours. No action on the part of the German Great
+General Staff before the conflict reflects greater credit upon their
+prescience, than does their recognition in the time of peace of the
+great part that the mitrailleuse was capable of playing in
+contemporary warfare. The quantities of these weapons with which our
+principal antagonist took the field was a complete surprise to all;
+these were far in excess of the "establishment" that had been
+acknowledged and which was the same as our own. As a matter of fact we
+were better off for them, relatively, than the French, or
+Austro-Hungarians, or Russians. To say that the question of
+machine-guns had been neglected by us before the war either from the
+point of view of tactics or of supply, is almost as unfair as it would
+be to allege that the question of Tanks had been neglected by the
+Germans before the Battle of the Somme. In the course of the debate in
+the House over the Munitions Bill in the early summer of 1915, Sir F.
+Cawley stated that we were short of machine-guns at the beginning of
+the war, and that none had been provided; the first charge was made
+under a misapprehension, and the second charge was contrary to the
+fact because a number of entirely new units had been fitted out with
+the weapons. Mr. Lloyd George's statement, made a week before, that it
+takes eight or nine months to turn out a machine-gun from the time
+that the requisite new machinery is ordered, was ignored.
+
+This brings us to the question of heavy ordnance and of high-explosive
+ammunition for field-guns, and in this connection it is necessary to
+refer to the violent attacks made upon the War Office in respect to
+the supply of munitions, which find place in Lord French's "_1914_."
+The Field-Marshal has not minced matters in his references to this
+subject. He says of Mr. Lloyd George's work that it "was done in the
+face of a dead weight of senseless but powerful opposition, all of
+which he had to undermine and overcome." He speaks of the "apathy of a
+Government which had brought the Empire to the brink of disaster,"
+although his attitude towards the head of that Government hardly
+betrays this. He devotes his last chapter to "making known some of the
+efforts" that he "made to awaken both the Government and the public
+from the apathy which meant certain defeat." His book appeared in the
+summer of 1919, three and a half years after he had returned from
+France, three and a half years which had given him ample time to
+examine at home into the justice of views which he had formed during
+critical months when confronting the enemy. His attitude relieves one
+of many scruples that might have otherwise been entertained when
+discussing the statement which he has made.
+
+"_1914_," possibly unintentionally, leaves it to be inferred in
+respect to heavy howitzers and similar ordnance, that the question of
+supplying artillery of that type was first raised by Lord French
+himself during the Battle of the Aisne. For the absence of any such
+pieces from the Expeditionary Force when it started, no one, in my
+opinion, was more responsible than the Field-Marshal. Plenty of
+gunner officers were advocates of the employment of such ordnance in
+the field, although none probably fully realized the importance of the
+matter; but what evidence is there of encouragement from the
+Inspector-General of the Forces of 1907-12 and C.I.G.S. of 1912-14,
+who had been controlling the manoevres of the regular army for the
+half-dozen years preceding August 1914? The question was taken up
+within the War Office three or four weeks before the commencement of
+the Battle of the Aisne--as soon, in fact, as the effect of the German
+heavy howitzers against Liege and Namur came to be realized. I spoke
+to Sir C. Douglas on the subject myself--I believe before the retreat
+from Mons began. A Committee was set up, to which I contributed a
+member from amongst the gunners in my branch. The immediate
+construction of a very large--although not nearly large enough--number
+of 8-inch, 9.2-inch and 12-inch howitzers was recommended by this
+body. Lord Kitchener approved its recommendations on the spot, and the
+Master-General of the Ordnance started work. All this, I believe, took
+place before Sir J. French raised the question at all. But past
+neglect could not be overcome at a moment's notice. Experiments had to
+be carried out, and designs had to be approved. To construct a big
+howitzer with its mounting takes time even after you have the
+machinery available, and in 1914 the machinery had to be got together
+in the first instance. How the ex-First Member of the Army Council
+comes to be unaware of the extent to which the factor of time enters
+into the construction of armament, I do not pretend to understand.
+
+To a retired officer of artillery who had kept himself acquainted with
+military progress, it did seem strange that after the Balkan War of
+1912-13, which had clearly demonstrated the value of high-explosive
+ammunition with field-guns, the War Office should continue to depend
+entirely upon shrapnel for our 18-pounders, instead of following the
+example of all other European countries that spent any considerable
+sums on their armies. No very intimate acquaintance with technical
+details was needed to realize that there were difficulties in the way,
+and that high-explosive is awkward stuff to deal with--a gun of my own
+5-inch battery in South Africa was, shortly after I had left the unit
+to take up other work, blown to pieces by a lyddite shell detonating
+in the bore, with dire results to the detachment. To secure detonation
+is more difficult in a small, than in a big shell; but other countries
+had managed to solve the problem in the case of their field-guns
+somehow.
+
+On joining at the War Office on mobilization, and before any fighting
+had taken place, I asked about the matter, but was not wholly
+convinced that there was adequate excuse for our taking the field
+without what our antagonists and our Allies alike regarded as a
+requisite. Ever since I joined the Army in 1878--and before--there had
+been a vein of conservatism running through the upper ranks of the
+Royal Artillery. (When my battery proceeded from India to Natal to
+take part in the first Boer War in 1881, we actually had to change our
+Armstrong breech-loading field-guns for muzzle-loaders on the way,
+because breech-loaders had been abandoned at home and there was no
+ammunition for them.) Of late years a progressive school had come into
+being--technically described as "Young Turks"--who had tried hard to
+secure the introduction of four-gun batteries and other up-to-date
+reforms, but without having it all their own way by any means. Whether
+the Young Turks favoured high-explosive or not, I do not know; but its
+absence somehow did rather smack of the reactionary, and, with the
+exception of one of its members, the personnel of the Expeditionary
+Force appeared to have some grounds for complaint at its
+field-batteries having none of this form of ammunition. The one
+exception was, in my opinion, its commander-in-chief.
+
+Lord French's account of his achievements in this matter is artless to
+a degree. He informs his readers that he was always an advocate for
+the supply of high-explosive shell to our horse and field artillery,
+but that he got very little support; that such support as he got was
+lukewarm in the extreme, and, finally, we are told that the "Ordnance
+Board was not in favour of it." Here we have the Chief of the Imperial
+General Staff and First Military Member of the Army Council advocating
+the adoption in our army of what practically all other armies had
+already adopted or were adopting, the adoption of a form of munitions
+the value of which had been conclusively demonstrated in encounters of
+which the General Staff must have had full cognizance, and he is
+turned down by the "Ordnance Board"! If this represents the
+Field-Marshal's conception of the position and the duties of the
+General Staff and its head, then it is not surprising that, under
+another chief, Tanks were dismissed with ignominy by a technical
+branch of the War Office in January 1915 without the General Staff
+ever having been consulted. The pre-war C.I.G.S. was in a dominating
+position amongst the Military Members of the Army Council in virtue of
+his high rank and his distinguished antecedents. He was very much more
+than a _primus inter pares_. He was a field-marshal while the
+Master-General of the Ordnance was a colonel with temporary rank of
+major-general. Surely, if he had pressed this matter before the Army
+Council, he would have received support? I feel equally sure that,
+supposing the Army Council had refused to listen to his urgings, he
+would have received satisfaction on representing the matter to the
+Committee of Imperial Defence.
+
+As a matter of fact, it was only after more than one representation
+made by General von Donop that G.H.Q. agreed to take some
+high-explosive ammunition, and so it was introduced--in small
+quantities--very soon after fighting began, and when the urgent need
+of it had become apparent. But the output was necessarily very
+restricted for a long time, and no amount of talk and of bounce, such
+as the Minister of Munitions was wont to indulge in from the summer of
+1915 onwards for several months, would have increased it. Here was a
+case of an entirely new article, for the provision of which no steps
+had been taken before the war. There happened to be special technical
+difficulties in the way of producing the article, _e.g._ the hardness
+of the steel necessary for this type of shell, and devising a safe and
+effective fuse. There is, moreover, one matter in connection with this
+question of high-explosive for our 18-pounders which should be
+mentioned, but to which no reference finds a place in "_1914_."
+
+Some months after this ammunition first came to be used in the field
+it began to give serious trouble. Something was wrong. The shell took
+to bursting in the bore of the gun and to bulging, or wholly
+destroying, the piece, although these disasters fortunately did not
+generally involve loss of life. Between August and October 1915, no
+less than sixty-four of our 18-pounders were thus rendered
+unserviceable--very nearly double the number lost during the retreat
+from Mons, and considerably more than the complement of one of our
+divisions. We could not comfortably afford this drain upon our supply
+of field-guns at a time when New Army divisions were still in some
+cases gun-less, and when the Territorial division were still armed
+with the virtually obsolete 15-pounder. Accidents of this character,
+moreover, have a bad effect upon the personnel of batteries, for the
+soldier does not like his weapon, be it a rifle, or a hand-grenade, or
+a sabre that crumples up, to play tricks on him. The difficulty was
+not got over until elaborate experiments, immediately set on foot by
+the War Office (which still dealt with design and investigation,
+although actual manufacture was by this time in the hands of the
+Ministry of Munitions), had been carried out. But before the end of
+the year it had been established that the failures were due to faults
+in manufacture, and from that time forward these _contretemps_ became
+extremely rare in the case of the 18-pounder. The question caused
+acute anxiety at G.H.Q. and in the War Office for some weeks; the
+French had had a very similar experience, but on an even worse scale.
+The difficulty arose just after the Ministry of Munitions became
+responsible for manufacture, and I do not suggest that the destruction
+of the guns was the fault of that department, for the ammunition used
+in the field during that period and for many months later was
+ammunition ordered by the Master-General of the Ordnance. But similar
+trouble arose later in the case of the field howitzer; there were no
+less than 25 of these damaged between April and June 1916, nearly a
+year after the Munitions Ministry had been set up.
+
+It should be mentioned that some other statements regarding munitions
+which appear in "_1914_" are inaccurate. In discussing Lord
+Kitchener's memorandum written at the beginning of January 1915, which
+intimated that H.M. Government vetoed the Belgian coast project, Lord
+French declares that two or three months later, viz. in March and
+April, "large train-loads of ammunition--heavy, medium, and
+light--passed by the rear of the army in France _en route_ for
+Marseilles for shipment to the Dardanelles." The Admiralty may
+possibly have sent some ammunition by that route at that time, but it
+is extremely unlikely. As for munitions for Sir I. Hamilton's troops,
+the Dardanelles force did not land till the end of April, and its war
+material was sent by long sea from the United Kingdom; very little
+would have been gained, even in time, by adopting the route across
+France. No great quantities of ammunition were sent from the United
+Kingdom across country at any juncture to the Gallipoli Peninsula, but
+G.H.Q. in France was once called upon to sacrifice some of its
+reserve, and Lord French makes especial reference to this incident.
+
+He says that on the 9th of May--the date on which he launched his
+political intrigue--he was directed by the Secretary of State for War
+to despatch 20 per cent of his reserve supply of ammunition to the
+Dardanelles. Now, what are the facts? Sir I. Hamilton had urgently
+demanded ammunition for a contemplated offensive. A vessel that was
+loading up at Marseilles would reach the Aegean in time. To pass the
+consignment through from the United Kingdom (where a large supply had
+just come to hand from America) would mean missing the ship. G.H.Q.
+were therefore instructed to forward 20,000 field-gun rounds and 2000
+field-howitzer rounds to the Mediterranean port, and were at the same
+time assured that the rounds would straightway, over and above the
+normal nightly allowance sent across the Channel, be made good from
+home. Sent off by G.H.Q. under protest, the field-gun rounds were
+replaced _within twenty-four hours_ and the others within four days,
+but of the engagement entered into, and kept, by the War Office,
+"_1914_" says not one word. Lord French was evidently completely
+misinformed on this matter.
+
+It should be added that the amount of heavy artillery included in the
+Dardanelles Expeditionary Force was negligible, and that the amount of
+medium artillery was relatively very small. Large train-loads of
+ammunition for such pieces were never required, nor sent. Inaccurate
+statements of this kind tend to discredit much of Lord French's severe
+criticism of Lord Kitchener and the department of the Master-General
+of the Ordnance, for which there is small justification in any case.
+
+One point made in the "Ammunition" chapter in "_1914_" deserves a word
+of comment. Lord French mentions that the supply of shell received at
+the front in May proved to be less than half of the War Office
+estimate. That kind of thing went on after supply had been transferred
+from the War Office to the Ministry of Munitions. I had something to
+say to munitions at a subsequent period of the war, as will be touched
+upon later, and used to see the returns and estimates. The Munitions
+Ministry was invariably behind its estimates (although seldom, if
+ever, to the extent of over 50 per cent) right up to the end. There
+you have our old friend, the Man of Business, with his intolerable
+swank. Some old-established private factories, as well as some new
+factories set up during the war, were in the habit of promising more
+than they could possibly perform. Certain of them were, indeed, ready
+to promise almost anything. Their behaviour, I happen to know, caused
+some of our Allies who placed contracts with them and were let in,
+extreme annoyance. The names of one or two of them possibly stink in
+the nostrils of certain foreign countries to this day, although that
+sort of thing may also be common abroad. Those in authority came to
+realize in the later stages of the war how little reliance could be
+placed on promises, and they became sceptical. The Ministry of
+Munitions, one can well imagine, discounted the estimates that they
+got from their manufacturing establishments. The War Office certainly
+discounted the estimates that it got from the Ministry of Munitions.
+Commanders-in-chief in the field consequently no longer miscalculated
+what they might expect, to the same extent as Sir J. French did in May
+1915.
+
+I only became directly associated with armament questions in the
+summer of 1916, and then came for the first time into contact with the
+Ministry of Munitions. Such questions are matters of opinion, but it
+always seemed to me that this Department of State would have done
+better had it stuck to its proper job--that of providing what the Army
+and the Air Service required. The capture of design and inspection by
+the Ministry may have been unavoidable, seeing that this new
+organization was improvised actually during the course of a great war
+and under conditions of emergency; but the principle is radically
+wrong. It is for the department which wants a thing to say what it
+wants and to see that it gets it. As a matter of fact, the Munitions
+Ministry occasionally went even farther, and actually allocated goods
+required by the Army to other purposes. When a well-known and popular
+politician, after spending some three years or so at the front with
+credit to himself, took up a dignified appointment in Armament
+Buildings, the first thing that he did was to promise a trifle of 400
+tanks to the French without any reference to the military authorities
+at all. Still, who would blame him? His action, when all is said and
+done, was merely typical of that "every man for himself, and the devil
+take the hindmost" attitude assumed by latter-day neoteric Government
+institutions. But even the most phlegmatic member of the community
+will feel upset when the trousers which he has ordered are consigned
+by his tailor to somebody else, and on this occasion the War Office
+did gird up its loins and remonstrate in forcible terms.
+
+With regard to the War Office and munitions, it only remains to be
+said again in conclusion that the country was never told the truth
+about this subject until some months after the armistice, when the
+nation had ceased to care. Never was it told till then, nor were the
+forces which had been fighting in the field told, that the great
+increase in the output of guns, howitzers, machine-guns, and
+ammunition, which took place from the autumn of 1915 onwards up to
+just before the Battle of the Somme, was the achievement, not of the
+Ministry of Munitions but of the War Office. The Munitions Ministry in
+due course did splendid work. Chancellor of the Exchequer become
+lord-paramount of a great spending Department of State, its chief was
+on velvet. "Copper" turned footpad, he knew the ropes, he could flout
+the Treasury--and he did. But it is a pity that unwarrantable claims
+should have been put forward on behalf of the department in not
+irresponsible quarters at a time when they could not be denied, claims
+which have tended to bring the department as a whole into undeserved
+disrepute amongst those who know the facts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+COUNCILS, COMMITTEES, AND CABINETS
+
+     The responsibilities of experts at War Councils -- The Rt. Hon.
+     A. Fisher's views -- Discussion as to whether these meet the case
+     -- Under the War Cabinet system, the question does not arise --
+     The Committee of Imperial Defence merged in the War Council early
+     in the conflict -- The Dardanelles Committee -- Finding a formula
+     -- Mr. Churchill backs up Sir I. Hamilton -- The spirit of
+     compromise -- The Cabinet carrying on _pari passu_ with the
+     Dardanelles Committee -- Personal experiences with the Cabinet --
+     The War Council which succeeded the Dardanelles Committee -- An
+     illustration of the value of the War Cabinet system -- Some of
+     its inconveniences -- Ministers -- Mr. Henderson -- Sir E. Carson
+     -- Mr. Bonar Law -- The question of resignation of individuals --
+     Lord Curzon -- Mr. Churchill -- Mr. Lloyd George.
+
+
+Before proceeding to refer to a few personal experiences in connection
+with the Ministerial pow-wows at which the conduct of the war was
+decided, there is one matter of some public importance to which a
+reference will not be out of place. That matter is the question of
+responsibility imposed upon experts at gatherings of this kind. Are
+they to wait until they are spoken to, no matter what folly is on the
+tapis, or are they to intervene without invitation when things become
+serious? My own experience is that on these occasions Ministers have
+such a lot to say that the expert is likely to be overlooked in the
+babel unless he flings himself into the fray.
+
+The point is suggested by the "Conclusions" in the "First Report" of
+the Dardanelles Commission. The Commissioners gave it as their opinion
+that at the time of the initiation of the venture against the Straits,
+"the Naval Advisers should have expressed their views in Council,
+whether asked or not, if they considered that the project which the
+Council was about to adopt was impracticable from a naval point of
+view." The Commissioners also gave the decision on this point in other
+words, but to the same effect, in another paragraph. Mr. Fisher, who
+represented the Commonwealth of Australia on the Commission, while
+subscribing to the Report in general, emphatically demurred to the
+view taken by his brother Commissioners on this point, and Sir T.
+Mackenzie, who represented New Zealand, agreed with Mr. Fisher
+although he did not express himself quite so forcibly on the subject.
+Mr. Fisher wrote: "I dissent in the strongest terms from any
+suggestion that the departmental advisers of a Minister in his company
+at a Council meeting should express any views at all other than to the
+Minister and through him, unless specifically invited to do so. I am
+of opinion it would seal the fate of responsible government if
+servants of the State were to share the responsibility of Ministers to
+Parliament, and to the people on matters of public policy." Which view
+is the right one, that of the seven Commissioners representing the
+United Kingdom, or that of the two Commissioners representing the
+young nations afar off?
+
+The answer to the question can perhaps best be put in the form of
+another. Does the country exist for the Government, or does the
+Government exist for the country? Now, if the country merely exists
+for the Government, then Mr. Fisher's contention is unanswerable.
+Whether it receives the opinion of the expert or not, the Government
+is responsible. For a Minister to have an expert, within his own
+Department of State and therefore his subordinate, blurting out views
+contrary to his own is likely to be a sore trial to that Minister's
+dignity, and this is not altered by the fact that the expert is likely
+to be infinitely better qualified to express opinions on the subject
+than he is. Supposing that the War Council, or the Cabinet, or
+whatever the body happens to be, ignores or is unaware of the opinion
+of the experts, and that it lands the country in some hideous mess in
+consequence, it can always be called to account for the lapse. The
+doctrine of responsibility which is regarded as of such paramount
+importance will be fully upheld--and what more do you want? Gibbets
+can be erected, the Ministers who have got the country into the mess
+can be hanged in a row, and a fat lot of good that will do towards
+getting the country out of the mess.
+
+But if, on the contrary, the Government merely exists for the country,
+then in times of emergency it is the bounden duty of everybody, and
+particularly is it the duty of those who are really competent to do
+so, to help the Government and to keep it out of trouble if they can.
+One feels cold inside conjuring up the spectacle of a pack of experts
+who have been called in to be present at a meeting of the War Council
+or the Cabinet, sitting there mute and inarticulate like cataleptics
+while the members of the Government taking part in the colloquy embark
+on some course that is fraught with danger to the State. _Salus populi
+suprema lex_. Surely the security of the commonwealth is of infinitely
+greater moment than any doctrine of responsibility of Ministers,
+mortals who are here to-day and gone to-morrow. Indeed--one says it
+with all respect for a distinguished representative of one of the
+great British dominions overseas--it looks as though Mr. Fisher did
+not quite realize the position of the expert, and assumed that if the
+expert gave his advice when asked it made him responsible to the
+country. The expert is present, not in an executive, but in a
+consultative capacity. He decides nothing. The Ministers present
+decide, following his advice, ignoring his advice, failing to ask for
+his advice, or mistakenly imagining that the expert concurs with them
+as he keeps silence, according to the circumstances of the case.
+Naturally, the expert should try to induce the head of his department
+to listen to his views on the subject before the subject ever comes
+before the Cabinet or the War Council. But if the Minister takes a
+contrary view, if the matter is one of importance and if the Minister
+at the meeting fails to acquaint his colleagues that he is at variance
+with the expert, or again if the question crops up unexpectedly and
+the expert has had no opportunity of expressing an opinion, then the
+duty of the expert to the country comes first and he should say his
+say. It may be suggested that he ought to resign. Perhaps he ought
+to--afterwards. But the matter of vital importance is not whether he
+resigns, but whether he warns the Government of the danger. The
+country is the first consideration, not the Government nor yet the
+expert.
+
+One great advantage of the War Cabinet system introduced by Mr. Lloyd
+George was that there was none of this sort of flapdoodle. At a War
+Cabinet meeting the expert never hesitated to express his opinion,
+whether he was asked for it or not. The work that I was doing in the
+later stages of the war did not involve me in problems of major
+importance, but when summoned to a War Cabinet meeting I never boggled
+over giving my views as to what concerned my own job. I have heard Sir
+W. Robertson, when he thought it necessary to do so, giving his
+opinion similarly concerning questions of great moment, and nobody
+dreamt of objecting to the intervention.
+
+The Director of Military Intelligence was, more or less _ex officio_,
+a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence in pre-war days, and
+consequently I attended one meeting of this body shortly after
+mobilization. There was a huge gathering--the thing was a regular
+duma--and a prolonged discussion, which as far as I could make out led
+nowhere and which in any case dealt with matters that nowise concerned
+me, took place. Those were busy times, and, seeing that Lord Kitchener
+and Sir C. Douglas attended these meetings as a matter of course, I
+asked to be excused thenceforward. The Committee of Imperial Defence
+was obviously not a suitable assemblage to treat of the conduct of the
+war, seeing that it was only invested with consultative and not with
+executive functions, and that it bore on its books individuals such as
+Mr. Balfour and Lord Esher, who were not members of the Government,
+nor yet officials. It therefore at a comparatively early date gave
+place to the War Council, which captured its secretariat (a priceless
+asset), and which later on became transformed into the Dardanelles
+Committee. The Government did not, however, wholly lose the benefit of
+Mr. Balfour's experience and counsel. One day--it must have been in
+December--there was an informal discussion at the War Office in Lord
+Kitchener's room, he being away in France at the time, in which
+General Wolfe-Murray and I took part, and besides Mr. Lloyd George,
+Mr. Churchill and Sir E. Grey--I do not think that Mr. Asquith was
+there--Mr. Balfour was present.
+
+Up till the early days of May, I attended no War Councils. Very soon
+after that, the Coalition Government was formed, and thereupon the War
+Council, which had been quite big enough goodness knows, developed
+into the Dardanelles Committee of twelve members, of whom, excluding
+Lord Kitchener, six were members of the former Liberal Government, and
+five were Unionists. Sir E. Carson only came in in August, making the
+number of representatives from the two factions equal and raising the
+total to the lucky number of thirteen. What object was supposed to be
+fulfilled by making the War Council such a bloated institution it is
+hard to say. Almost the only members of the Cabinet who counted and
+who were not included on its roll were Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Long.
+Be that as it may, the result was virtually to constitute the
+Dardanelles Committee the Cabinet for general purposes of the war, and
+to lead to its dealing with many matters quite distinct from the
+prosecution of the campaign for the Straits. I have a vivid
+recollection of one meeting, which probably took place late in June
+(Lord Kitchener was not present), and at which the attitude to be
+assumed by us with reference to Bulgaria and Greece, particularly
+Bulgaria, was discussed. Sir E. Grey wanted a "formula" devised to
+indicate to the Sofia Government what that attitude was; as neither he
+nor anybody else knew what the attitude was, it was not easy to devise
+the formula. Formula is an odious word in any case, recalling, as it
+does, algebraical horrors of a forgotten past; but everybody present
+wrote out formulae, and dialecticians had the time of their lives. Mr.
+Balfour's version was eventually chosen as the most felicitous. But
+the worst of it was that this masterpiece of appropriate
+phrase-mongering did not bring in the Bulgars on our side. The
+triumphant campaign of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front somehow
+proved a more potent factor in deciding Tsar Ferdinand as to what
+course to pursue, than a whole libraryful of formulae could ever have
+effected.
+
+At another meeting, at which Lord Kitchener likewise was not present,
+a marked and disagreeable tendency to criticize Sir I. Hamilton for
+his ill-success made itself apparent. I was the only representative of
+the army present, and it was manifestly impossible for an officer
+miles junior to Sir Ian to butt into a discussion of that kind. But
+Mr. Churchill spoke up manfully and with excellent effect. The gist of
+his observations amounted to this: If you commit a military commander
+to the undertaking of an awkward enterprise and then refuse him the
+support that he requires, you have no business to abuse him behind his
+back if he fails. That seemed to me to fit the situation like a glove;
+it did not leave much more to be said on the point, and no more was
+said, thanks to the First Lord's timely remonstrance.
+
+There was any amount of chatter at these musters; but on the other
+hand one seldom seemed to find oneself much forrarder. That is the
+worst of getting together a swarm of thinkers who are furnished with
+the gift of the gab and are brimming over with brains. Nothing
+happens. If a decision was by any chance arrived at, it was of a
+non-committal nature. The spirit of compromise asserted itself and the
+Committee adopted a middle course, a course which no doubt fits in
+well with many of the problems with which governments in ordinary
+times have to wrestle, but which does not constitute a good way of
+conducting war.
+
+The full Cabinet of twenty-three was carrying on _pari passu_ with the
+Dardanelles Committee. It did undoubtedly take some sort of hand in
+the prosecution of the war from time to time, because one day I was
+summoned to stand by at 10 Downing Street when it was sitting, soon
+after the Coalition Government was formed and when Lord Kitchener
+happened to be away, on the chance of my being wanted. They were
+hardly likely to require my services in connection with matters other
+than military. After an interminable wait--during the luncheon hour,
+too--Mr. Arthur Henderson, who was a very recent acquisition, emerged
+stealthily from the council chamber after the manner of the
+conspirator in an Adelphi drama, and intimated that they thought that
+they would be able to get on without me. In obedience to an unwritten
+law, the last-joined member was always expected to do odd jobs of this
+kind, just as at some schools the bottom boy of the form is called
+upon by the form-master to perform certain menial offices _pro bono
+publico_.
+
+The mystery observed in connection with these Cabinet meetings was not
+unimpressive. But the accepted procedure--without a secretary present
+to keep record of what was done and with apparently no proper minutes
+kept by anybody--was the very negation of sound administration and of
+good government. Such practice would have been out of date in the days
+of the Heptarchy. Furthermore it did not fulfil its purpose in respect
+to concealment, because whenever the gathering by any accident made up
+its mind about anything that was in the least interesting, everybody
+outside knew all about it within twenty-four hours. And in spite of
+all the weird precautions, I actually was present once for a very
+brief space of time at one of these momentous sittings. It came about
+after this wise. On the rising of a Dardanelles Committee meeting, one
+of the Ministers who had attended drew me into a corner to enquire
+concerning a point that had arisen. There was movement going on in the
+room, people coming and going, but we were intent on our confabulation
+and took no notice. Suddenly there was an awe-inspiring silence and
+then Mr. Asquith was heard to lift up his voice. "Good Lord!"
+ejaculated my Minister (just like that--they are quite human when
+taken off their guard), "the Cabinet's sitting!" and until back, safe
+within the War Office portals, I almost seemed to feel a heavy hand on
+my shoulder haling me off to some oubliette, never more to be heard of
+in the outer world.
+
+A less teeming War Council than the Dardanelles Committee was
+substituted for that assemblage about October 1915, and I only
+attended one or two of its meetings. Sir A. Murray was by that time
+installed as C.I.G.S., and things were on a more promising footing
+within the War Office. It was this new form of War Council which was
+thrown over by the Cabinet with reference to the evacuation of the
+Gallipoli Peninsula, as related on pp. 103, 104. As far as one could
+judge, when more or less of an outsider in connection with the general
+conduct of operations but none the less a good deal behind the scenes,
+this type of War Council, constituted out of the Ministers who were
+directly connected with the operations, besides the Prime Minister,
+Foreign Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the First Sea
+Lord and C.I.G.S. always in attendance, worked very well during the
+greater part of 1916. But Mr. Lloyd George's plan of a War Cabinet, in
+spite of certain inevitable drawbacks to such an arrangement, was
+undoubtedly the right one for times of grave national emergency. Its
+accessibility and its readiness to deal with problems in a practical
+spirit are illustrated by the following incident within my own
+experience.
+
+We had got ourselves into a condition of chaos in [p.216] connection with
+the problem of Greek supplies at the beginning of 1918. There was an
+extremely vague agreement with the French, an unsigned agreement
+entered into in haste by representatives on our side of little
+authority, under which we were supposed to provide all sorts of things
+for the Hellenes. But the whole business was extremely irregular and
+it was in a state of hopeless confusion--it will be referred to again
+in a later chapter. In the War Office alone, several departments and
+branches were concerned, including my own up to a certain point. The
+Ministries of Munitions and Shipping were in the affair as well,
+together with the Board of Trade, the Foreign Office, and last but not
+least, the Treasury. But what was everybody's business was nobody's
+business. Each department involved declared that some other one must
+take the matter up and get things unravelled, and at last in a fit of
+exasperation, although my branch was only a 100 to 3 outsider in the
+matter, I took the bull by the horns and wrote privately to Sir M.
+Hankey, asking him to put the subject of Greek Supplies on the Agenda
+for the War Cabinet on some early date and to summon me to be on hand,
+which he did. When the matter came up, Mr. Lloyd George enquired of me
+what the trouble was. I told him that we were in a regular muddle,
+that we could not get on, that several Departments of State were in
+the thing, but that it hardly seemed a matter for the War Cabinet to
+trouble itself with. Could not one of its members take charge, get us
+together, and give us the authority we required for dealing with the
+problem? Mr. Lloyd George at once asked Lord Milner to take the
+question up, not more than five minutes of the War Cabinet's time was
+wasted, and within a very few hours Lord Milner had got the business
+on a proper footing and we all knew where we were.
+
+Now, supposing that instead of the War Cabinet it had been a case of
+that solemn, time-honoured, ineffectual council composed of all the
+principal Ministers of the Crown, gathered together in Downing Street
+to discuss matters which the majority of those present never know any
+more about than the man in the moon, what would have happened? We of
+the War Office might among us, with decent luck, have managed to prime
+our own private Secretary of State, and might have sent him off to the
+Cabinet meeting with a knowledge of his brief. But, unless the
+Ministers at the heads of the other Departments of State concerned had
+been got hold of beforehand and told what to do and to say, they would
+among the lot of them have made confusion worse confounded. If by any
+chance a decision had then been arrived at, it would almost inevitably
+have been a perfectly preposterous one, totally inapplicable to the
+question that was actually at issue.
+
+A summons to attend a War Cabinet meeting was not, however, an unmixed
+joy. There was always an agenda paper; but it was apt to turn out a
+delusion and a snare. The Secretariat did their very best to calculate
+when the different subjects down for discussion on the paper would
+come up, and they would warn one accordingly. But they often were out
+in their estimate, and they had always to be on the safe side. Some
+quite simple and apparently straightforward subject would take a
+perfectly unconscionable time to dispose of, while, on the other hand,
+an apparently extremely knotty problem might be solved within a few
+minutes and so throw the time-table out of gear. The result was that
+in the course of months one spent a good many hours, off and on,
+lurking in the antechamber in 10 Downing Street.
+
+Still, there was always a good fire in winter time, and one found
+oneself hobnobbing, while waiting, with all sorts and conditions of
+men. There would be Ministers holding high office but not included in
+the Big Five (or was it Six?), emissaries just back from some centre
+of disturbance and excitement abroad, people who dealt with wheat
+production and distribution, knights of industry called in over some
+special problem, and persons purporting to be masters of
+finance--which nobody understands, least of all the experts. Who could
+possibly, under any circumstances, be angry with Mr. Balfour? But he
+was occasionally something of a trial when one was patiently awaiting
+one's turn. Although the Agenda paper might make it plain that no
+subject was coming up with which the Foreign Office could possibly be
+in the remotest degree connected, he would be descried sloping past
+and going straight into the Council Chamber, as if he had bought the
+place. Then out would come one of the Secretary gang. The Foreign
+Minister had turned up, and was setting them an entirely unexpected
+conundrum inside; the best thing one could do was to clear out of
+that, as the point which one had been summoned to give one's views
+about had not now the slightest chance of coming before the Cabinet
+that day.
+
+At the various forms of War Council at which the prosecution of the
+war was debated, one was necessarily brought into contact with a
+number of politicians and statesmen, and was enabled to note their
+peculiarities and to watch their methods. I never to my knowledge saw
+Lord Beaconsfield; but in the late 'eighties and early 'nineties Mr.
+Gladstone was sometimes to be met in the streets, and, even if one
+thought that he ought to be boiled, one none the less felt mildly
+excited at the spectacle. That aphorism, "familiarity breeds
+contempt," does put the point a little crudely; but the fact remains
+that when you are brought into contact with people of this kind, about
+whom there is such a lot of talk in the newspapers, they turn out to
+be very much like everybody else. Needless to say, they will give
+tongue to any extent, but, apart from that, they may even be something
+of a disappointment to those who anticipate great things of them.
+Still, it is only right to acknowledge that the majority of Ministers
+met with during the Great War were sensible enough in respect to
+military matters. The amateur strategist was fortunately the exception
+in these circles, and not the rule. Most of them picked up the
+fundamental facts in connection with any situation that presented
+itself quite readily; they grasped elementary principles when these
+were explained to them and they were able to keep those principles in
+mind. But there were goats as well as sheep. You might just as well
+have started dancing jigs to a milestone as have tried to get into the
+heads of one or two of them the elementary fact that the conduct of
+war cannot be decided on small-scale maps but is a matter of stolid
+and unemotional calculation, that imagination is a deadly peril when
+unaccompanied by knowledge, and that army corps and divisions cannot
+be switched about ashore or afloat as though they were taxi-cabs or
+hydroplanes.
+
+Mr. Henderson shaped well when military matters were in debate; he
+looked portentous and he held his tongue. Then there was Sir E. Carson
+who, during the few weeks that he figured on the Dardanelles Committee,
+was an undeniable asset. His interjections of "Mr. Asquith, we really
+must make up our minds," uttered with an accent not unfamiliar to one
+who had passed youthful days in the vicinity of Dublin, and
+accompanied by a moody stare such as his victim in the witness-box
+must find rather disconcerting when under cross-examination at the
+hands of the famous K.C., had no great effect perhaps. But the motive
+was unexceptionable. He and Mr. Bonar Law used to sit together and to
+press for decisions, and it was unfortunate that Sir Edward resigned
+when he did. Mr. Bonar Law was within an ace of resigning likewise
+very shortly afterwards. He invited me to go over to the Colonial
+Office to see him and to talk over matters, and I expressed an earnest
+hope that he would stick to the ship. An artist in letter-writing (as
+was shown in his momentous epistle written on behalf of the Unionist
+leaders when Mr. Asquith's Cabinet were in two minds at the beginning
+of August 1914), his memorandum which is quoted in the "Final Report"
+of the Dardanelles Commission, and in which he insisted upon the
+advice of the military authorities with reference to the evacuation
+of the Gallipoli Peninsula being followed, indicates how fortunate it
+was that he remained at his post.
+
+The truth is that resignations of the individual Minister seldom do
+any good from the point of view of the public interest, except when
+the individual Minister concerned happens to be unfit for his
+position--and then he generally seems immune from that "unwanted
+doggie" sort of feeling from which less illustrious persons are apt to
+suffer when they are _de trop_. The cases mentioned on p. 144 in
+connection with the Army Council stood on an entirely different
+footing. When a body of officials resign, or threaten to resign, their
+action cannot be ignored; in the second case mentioned the mere threat
+sufficed. Lord Fisher paid me one of his meteoric visits on the
+morning that he submitted his resignation to Mr. Asquith, and he
+confided his reasons to me; the reasons were good, but it seemed
+doubtful whether they were quite good enough to justify the taking of
+so drastic a step.
+
+There was no more edifying and compelling personality amongst the
+party who were in the habit of taking the floor in 10 Downing Street
+in 1915 than Lord Curzon. He, Mr. Churchill, and Mr. Lloyd George
+might almost have been called rivals for the role of _prima ballerina
+assoluta_. The remarks that fell from his lips, signalized as they
+ever were by a faultless phraseology and delivered with a prunes,
+prisms and potatoes diction, seldom failed to lift the discussion on
+to a higher plane, to waft his hearers on to the serene hill-tops of
+thought, to awaken sublime sensations in all present such as the
+spectacle of some noble mountain panorama will summon up in the
+meditations of the most phlegmatic. Mr. Churchill, ever lucid, ever
+cogent, ever earnest, ever forceful, was wont to be so convincing that
+he would almost cause listeners to forget for the moment that, were
+the particular project which just then happened to be uppermost in his
+mind to be carried into execution, any small hopes which remained of
+our ever winning the war would inevitably be blotted out for good and
+all. As for Mr. Lloyd George in drab days before he became First
+Minister of the Crown in spite of his superhuman efforts to avoid that
+undesired consummation, he always loved to make his voice heard, and
+he always succeeded--just as a canary will in a roomful of chattering
+women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+SOME INTER-ALLIES CONFERENCES
+
+     The Conference with the Italians in Paris in April-May 1915 --
+     Its constitution -- Italians anxious that Allies should deliver
+     big offensive simultaneously with advance of Italian army --
+     Impossibility of giving a guarantee -- Difficulties over the
+     naval proposals -- Banquet given by M. Millerand at the War
+     Office -- A visit to the front -- Impressions -- Mr. Churchill
+     turns up unexpectedly -- A conference with General Joffre at
+     Chantilly over Salonika -- Its unsatisfactory character --
+     Admiral Gamble races "Grandpere," and suffers discomfiture -- A
+     distinguished party proceed to Paris -- A formal conference with
+     the French Government -- Messrs. Asquith, Grey and Lloyd George
+     as linguists -- The French attitude over Salonika -- Sir W.
+     Robertson gives his views -- The decision -- Dinner at the Elysee
+     -- Return to London -- Mr. Lloyd George and the soldiers on the
+     Boulogne jetty -- Points of the destroyer as a yacht -- Mr.
+     Balfour and Sir W. Robertson afloat -- A chatty dinner on our
+     side of the Channel -- Difficulty over Russian munitions owing to
+     a Chantilly conference -- A conference at the War Office -- Mr.
+     Lloyd George as chairman -- M. Mantoux.
+
+
+The first meeting of importance with representatives of the Allies at
+which I was present took place in Paris at the end of April 1915, and
+has already been referred to on p. 63. Sir H. Jackson and I were sent
+over, as representing respectively the Admiralty and the War Office,
+to take part in a secret conference that was to be held between
+French, Russian, and British naval and military delegates on the one
+side, and Italian naval and military delegates on the other side in
+connection with Italy's entry into the war as an associate of the
+Entente. That Italy was to join the Allies had already been arranged
+secretly between the four governments, and it was understood that she
+was to open hostilities in the latter part of May. The purpose of the
+Conference was to permit of the situation being discussed, and formal
+naval and military conventions were to be drawn up between the
+contracting Powers. Sir Henry and I were accompanied by small staffs,
+and we put up at the Ritz in the Place Vendome.
+
+M. Millerand, who was French War Minister at the time, presided at the
+Conference which assembled in the War Office, and he made an ideal
+chairman--the French are always admirable at managing such functions.
+The principal French military delegate was General Pelle, General
+Joffre's Chief of Staff; the Russians were represented by their
+Military Attache in Paris, Colonel Count Ignatieff, and the principal
+Italian military delegate was a colonel (whose name I cannot recall),
+a most attractive and evidently an extremely capable soldier, who
+unhappily was killed within a few months when in command of a brigade
+in one of the early fights near Gorizia. In so far as framing the
+military convention was concerned, that part of the proceedings gave
+little trouble. The Italian representatives, it is true, were anxious
+that the Allies should undertake to embark upon an offensive on the
+greatest possible scale practicable, simultaneously with the Italian
+army crossing the frontier about the Isonzo; but General Pelle and I
+could give no guarantee to that effect, the more so seeing that a
+Franco-British offensive had already, as it was, been decided upon to
+start in the Bethune-Vimy region within a few days and before the
+Italian army would be ready. One had a pretty shrewd suspicion that
+there was no opening whatever for an offensive on the Eastern Front in
+view of our Russian Allies' grave munitions difficulties, although the
+French seemed strangely unaware of the nakedness of the land in that
+quarter; still, it was no part of the game to hint at joints in our
+harness of that kind to the Italian representatives. Ignatieff, bluff
+and cheery, was careful not to commit himself on the subject. The end
+of it was that our military convention amounted to little more than an
+agreement that we were all jolly fine fellows, accompanied by
+cordial expressions of good-will and of a determination on the part of
+the four contracting Powers to do their best and to stick together.
+The naval side of the problem, on the other hand, was beset by
+pitfalls, and that part of the business was not satisfactorily
+disposed of for several days.
+
+Even to a landsman like myself, it was apparent that the Italian
+conception of war afloat in the year of grace 1915 was open to
+criticism. Our new friends contemplated employing their fleet very
+freely as an auxiliary to their army in its advance along the littoral
+towards Trieste, a theory of naval operations which came upon one with
+something of a shock at the very start. Pola and other well-sheltered
+bowers for under-water craft lie pretty handy to the maritime district
+in which King Victor's troops were going to take the field. For
+battleships and cruisers to be pottering about in those waters serving
+out succour to the soldiers on shore, succour which would in all
+probability be of no great account in any case, suggested that those
+battleships and cruisers would be transmogrified into submarines at a
+very early stage of the proceedings. One wondered if the Ministry of
+Marine away south by the Tiber had heard the tragic tale of the
+_Hogue_, the _Cressy_ and the _Aboukir_. Nor was that all. The Italian
+naval delegates put forward requests that fairly substantial
+assistance in the shape of war-craft of various types should be
+afforded them within the Adriatic by the French and ourselves.
+
+All this struck even an outsider like myself as somewhat
+unsatisfactory, and that was clearly the view which Sir H. Jackson
+took. For, in some disorder, he let slip an observation to the effect
+that it looked like the recently acquired collaborator with the
+Entente being rather a nuisance than otherwise. The rendering of this
+expression of opinion of the Admiral's into French at the hands of our
+Naval Attache in Paris (Captain Hodges) was a masterpiece of
+diplomatic camouflage. In the end the Italian sailors were obliged to
+ask for an adjournment to allow of their communicating with Rome,
+and, if I recollect aright, the principal one of them had to proceed
+home to discuss the question at headquarters. All this took up time,
+and we did not finally get the conventions signed for nearly a
+fortnight.
+
+M. Millerand gave a banquet at the War Office in honour of us
+delegates, at which we met M. Viviani, the Prime Minister, together
+with other members of the French Cabinet. I enjoyed the good fortune
+of sitting next to M. Delcasse, and so of making the acquaintance of
+one of the great Foreign Ministers of our time. Paris is at its best
+in spring, and had it not been war-time and had one not been in a
+fidget to get back to Whitehall, a few days of comparative idleness
+spent in _la ville lumiere_ after nine months of incessant office
+work, while the international sailor-men settled their differences,
+would have been not unwelcome. The pause, however, provided an
+opportunity for motoring down to St. Omer and spending a couple of
+days in the war zone--my first visit to the Front. Two points
+especially struck me on this trip. One was the wonderful way that the
+women and children of France (for scarcely an adult male was to be
+seen about in the rural districts) were keeping their end up in the
+fields. The other was the smart and soldier-like bearing of the
+rank-and-file amongst our troops, in striking contrast to the
+go-as-you-please methods which prevailed in South Africa, and to
+which, indirectly, some of the "regrettable incidents" which occurred
+on the veldt were traceable. It gave one confidence. Sir J. French and
+some of G.H.Q. were at advanced headquarters at Hazebrouck as
+offensive operations were impending, and Sir John, on the afternoon
+that I saw him, was greatly pleased at a most successful retirement of
+our line in a portion of the Ypres salient which General Plumer had
+brought off on the previous night. On getting back to Paris it
+transpired that the naval trouble was not yet settled.
+
+One morning, sitting with Admiral Gamble who was over to help Sir H.
+Jackson, in the long alley-way of the Ritz where one enjoys early
+breakfast if that meal be not partaken of in private apartments,
+Commodore Bartolome, the First Lord's "Personal Naval Assistant," was
+of a sudden descried in the offing and beating up for the Bureau.
+"Good God!" exclaimed the Admiral, horror-stricken. "Winston's come!"
+He had, so we learnt from Bartolome; but what he had come for nobody
+could make out. Telegraphic communication exists between Paris and
+London, and Sir H. Jackson was in constant touch with our Admiralty.
+However, to whatever cause the visit was to be attributed, there was
+Mr. Churchill as large as life and most anxious to get busy; and I
+personally was glad to see him, because he told me all about what had
+been going on in the Gallipoli Peninsula since the landing of a few
+days before. One did not gather that the French were any more
+delighted at his jack-in-the-box arrival, and at his interventions in
+the Conference discussions, than were our naval representatives who
+had been officially accredited for the purpose. A satisfactory
+agreement was, however, at last arrived at over the Adriatic, the
+conventions were signed with due pomp and circumstance, and our party
+returned to England. While in Paris I had paid one or two visits to
+General Graziani, who was the Chief of the General Staff at the French
+War Office; but we in Whitehall never could make out exactly what were
+the relations between the military authorities in Paris and those at
+Chantilly. The very fact that General Joffre's Chief of Staff had been
+French military representative at our Conference, and not General
+Graziani or his nominee, seemed odd.
+
+Some six months later, early in November, I again went over to France,
+this time with Sir A. Murray, to attend a discussion with General
+Joffre at Chantilly concerning Salonika. Admiralty representatives,
+including Admiral Gamble and Mr. Graeme Thomson, Director of Naval
+Transport, were of the party. Sir J. French with Sir W. Robertson, his
+Chief of the General Staff, and Sir H. Wilson came up from St. Omer.
+It was by no means a satisfactory meeting. We from the War Office in
+London desired to circumscribe British participation in this new
+side-show to the utmost, and to keep the whole business as far as
+possible within limits; but we got uncommonly little support from
+G.H.Q. Sir W. Robertson expressed no opinion, nor was he called upon
+to do so; he would have found it awkward to dissent from his
+commander-in-chief. But the result was that when a much more important
+conference over the same subject took place a few days later, this
+time between the two Governments, Sir J. French was not present while
+Sir W. Robertson was. These things do arrange themselves somehow.
+
+As the discussion took place at Chantilly late in the afternoon,
+G.H.Q. and we put up at Amiens for the night. On our discovering that
+General Joffre contemplated crossing the Channel next day to have a
+chat with our Government, the C.I.G.S. prevailed upon Admiral Gamble
+to hurry on in his motor to Boulogne next morning so as to catch the
+packet there, to cross to Folkestone, and to get up to London in time
+to warn our people of the somewhat expansive Salonika programme which
+"Grandpere" had up his sleeve. The Silent Navy, it is hardly necessary
+to say, fairly rose to the occasion, for the Admiral was off under
+forced draught in the dog-watch. Chancing things, however, when
+weathering a promontory off Montreuil, he contrived to pile up his
+craft on a shoal in a bad position, and he would have missed
+trans-shipment at Boulogne altogether had he not got himself taken off
+in a passing craft which was under charge of soldier-officers who were
+likewise making for the packet. So he got across all right in the end
+and he flashed up to town, only to find that old man Joffre had not
+played the game. "Grandpere" had slept peacefully in the train, had
+boarded a destroyer at some unearthly hour of the morning, and was
+already in Whitehall before our staunch, precipitate emissary had cast
+off from Boulogne.
+
+On the occasion of that next pow-wow mentioned [p.228] above, Messrs.
+Asquith, Balfour (now First Lord), Lloyd George and Sir Edward Grey
+crossed over as our representatives. Sir H. Jackson (now First Sea
+Lord), Sir W. Robertson, who had been summoned over to London, and I
+accompanied them, as well as Colonel Hankey and some others. We
+travelled by specials and a destroyer and took the Boulogne route. Our
+warship tied up to the _East Anglia_, hospital ship, at Boulogne, and
+as we passed across her some of us had a few words with nurses and
+wounded on board, little anticipating that she would be mined next day
+on the passage over to England, with most unfortunate loss of life.
+Eventually we arrived at the Gare du Nord about midnight, to be
+welcomed by a swarm of French Ministers and Lord Bertie, and to find
+all arrangements made for us with typical French hospitality.
+
+The Conference took place at the Foreign Office on the Quai d'Orsay,
+M. Briand presiding. Several members of the French Government were
+present, besides Generals Joffre, Gallieni and Graziani; and with our
+party, as well as interpreters, secretaries and others, there was
+quite a gathering. After M. Briand had welcomed us cordially and in
+felicitous terms, Mr. Asquith got a charming little speech in French
+off his chest; it may perhaps have had a whiff of the lamp about it
+and had probably been learnt by heart, but the P. M. undoubtedly
+managed to serve up a savoury _appetitif_, and we felt that in the
+matter of courtesy and the amenities our man had held his own. In the
+course of the discussion that followed, Sir E. Grey's minute-gun
+process of turning our host's delightful language to account afforded
+all present ample time to take in the drift of his cogent, weighty
+arguments and to appraise them at their proper worth. Had it been any
+one else, Mr. Lloyd George would have been voted an unmitigated
+nuisance on all hands. As a result of prolonged residence in the Gay
+City at a somewhat later date, the Right Honourable Gentleman is now,
+it is understood, in the habit of bandying badinage with the
+_midinettes_ in the _argot_ of the Quartier Latin. But at the time
+that I speak of his acquaintance with the Gallic tongue was strictly
+limited (although he did put forward claims to be able to understand
+"Grey's French"), and he kept from time to time insisting upon the
+proceedings being brought to a halt while a translation of something
+that had been said was furnished for his benefit, generally selecting
+some particularly unprofitable platitude which had been uttered by one
+of those present for the purpose of gaining time.
+
+The French took up a strong line over Salonika. In a sense they drove
+our side into a corner, and the responsibility for hundreds of
+thousands of French and British troops being interned in Macedonia for
+years rests with them, and it was in great measure the outcome of that
+day's debate. Sir W. Robertson was called upon to state his views. He
+knows French perfectly well, but he absolutely refused to speak
+anything but English, and his remarks were translated, sentence after
+sentence, by a young French officer with a perfect command of the
+latter tongue. After each successive sentence had been rendered into
+French, Sir William, who was sitting beside me, would murmur,
+"Infernal fellow, that's not what I said," as though repeating the
+responses, the poor interpreter having in reality done his duty like a
+man. The gist of his remarks was what might have been expected, viz.
+that the Germans were the real enemy and that the proper course for
+the Allies to pursue was to concentrate force against them and not to
+be hunting about for trouble in the uttermost parts of the earth.
+Views of that kind, enunciated bluntly and with considerable emphasis,
+were very likely not wholly palatable to M. Briand; but it seemed to
+me that they were not regarded with disfavour by General Joffre, nor
+yet by General Gallieni, although those distinguished soldiers when
+invited to give expression to their views contrived merely to say
+nothing at considerable length. The end of it all was that we were
+committed to dumping down three more divisions at Salonika in
+addition to the two already there or disembarking, and that we were,
+moreover, committed to sending them thither without delay. When they
+got there it took ages to get their impedimenta ashore owing to lack
+of landing facilities--as we had fully foreseen. The amateur
+strategist imagines that you can discharge an army out of a fleet of
+transports and freight-ships just anywhere and as easily as you can
+empty a slop-pail.
+
+We dined with the President and Mme. Poincare at the Elysee that
+night, and most of the French Cabinet, as well as Generals Joffre and
+Gallieni, were likewise invited. Our Big Four were in some doubt as to
+what garb to appear in, seeing that it was not to be a full-dress
+function, sporting trinkets; and they eventually hit upon
+dinner-jackets with black ties. So Sir W. Robertson and I decided to
+doff breeches, boots and spurs, and to don what military tailors refer
+to as "slacks" but what in non-sartorial circles are commonly called
+trousers. The French civilians all wore frock-coats, so that there was
+an agreeable lack of uniformity and formality when we assembled. I sat
+next to M. Dumergue, the Colonial Minister, and between us we disposed
+of the German Colonies in a spirit of give and take--or rather take,
+because there was none of that opera-bouffe "mandate" which has since
+then been wafted across from the Western Hemisphere, included in our
+arrangements. In the course of the evening I managed to obtain General
+Joffre's views concerning the feasibility of withdrawing from the
+Gallipoli Peninsula without encountering heavy loss, a subject that
+one had constantly in mind at that time. Pere Joffre's opinion was
+that, subject to favourable weather and to the retreat taking place at
+night, the thing could be managed, and he emphasized the fact that the
+conditions of trench warfare rather lent themselves to secret
+withdrawals of that nature.
+
+We made our way back to London on the following day, leaving Paris in
+the forenoon, and were to embark at Calais; but owing to some
+misunderstanding our special ran into Boulogne and out on to the
+jetty, where numbers of troops were assembled as a leave-boat was
+shortly to cross. This afforded me an opportunity of experiencing how
+very engaging Mr. Lloyd George can make himself when dealing with a
+somewhat critical audience. For the whole party got out, glad to
+stretch their legs, and I wandered about with the Munitions Minister.
+We got into conversation with some of the men, he was recognised, and
+a crowd speedily gathered round us. He questioned them, and it is
+hardly necessary to say that, being British soldiers, they did not
+forget to grumble; they were particularly eloquent on the subject of
+the quality and the quantity of hand-grenades. But Mr. Lloyd George
+handled them most skilfully, got a great deal of useful information
+out of them, delighted them with his cheery manner and apt chaff, and
+when we had to hurry off as our train was about to move on, the men
+cheered him to the echo. "Sure he's a great little man intoirely," I
+heard a huge lump of an Irish sergeant remark to a taciturn
+Highlander, who removed his pipe from his mouth to spit in unqualified
+acquiescence.
+
+They say that a destroyer represents an invaluable form of
+fighting-ship, and no doubt she does; but it is ridiculous to pretend
+that she makes an agreeable pleasure-boat--at all events not at night
+and with all lights out. In the first place there is nothing whatever
+to prevent your falling out of the vessel altogether, and as the
+gangways which pretend to be the deck are littered with anchors,
+chains, torpedoes, funnels, ventilators, and what not, you dare not,
+if you have been so ill-advised as to remain up top, roam about in
+pitch darkness even in harbour, let alone when the craft is jumping
+and wriggling and straining out in the open. Having tried the high-up
+portion of the ship at the front end, where the cold was perishing and
+the spray amounted to a positive outrage, on the way over, I selected
+the wardroom aft on the way back and found this much more inhabitable.
+There was a nice open stove to sit before, a pleasant book to read,
+and there was really nothing to complain about except the rattle and
+whirr of the propellers. Sir W. Robertson is a very fine soldier, but
+he does not cut much ice as a sailor; although it was as settled as
+the narrow seas can fairly be expected to be in late autumn, he lay
+perfectly flat on his back on a bunk with his hands folded across his
+chest like the effigies of departed sovereigns in Westminster Abbey,
+and he never moved an eyelid till we were inside the Dover
+breakwaters. All the same, he stayed the course, and that is more, I
+fear, than the First Lord of the Admiralty did. For the Ruler of the
+King's Navy made a bee-line for the Lieutenant-Commander's own private
+dug-out the moment he came aboard at Calais, and he remained in
+ambuscade during the voyage.
+
+There used to be a ditty sung at a pantomime or some such
+entertainment when I was at Haileybury--music-halls were less numerous
+and less aristocratic in those days than they are now--of which the
+refrain was to the effect that one must meet with the most unheard-of
+experiences ere one would "cease to love." We used to spend an
+appreciable portion of our time in form composing appropriate verses,
+as effective a mental exercise perhaps as the labours we were supposed
+to be engaged on. Mr. Goschen had recently been appointed First Lord
+of the Admiralty, and one distich in the official version ran: "May
+Goschen have a notion of the motion of the ocean, if ever I cease to
+love." It is to be apprehended that Mr. Balfour acquired a better
+notion of the motion of the ocean than he cared for, on these
+destroyer trips in which he was in the habit of indulging; for when we
+fetched up on this side of the Channel and made our way to the
+attendant dining-car, where the trained eye instantly detected the
+presence of glasses on the tables of that peculiar shape that denotes
+the advent of bubbly wine (none of your peasant drinks when the
+taxpayer is standing treat), the First Lord rolled up swathed in a
+shawl, a lamentable bundle, and disappeared like a transient and
+embarrassed phantom into a corner, to be seen no more until we
+steamed into Charing Cross.
+
+The run up to town from Dover by special was edifying and was not
+uninstructive, for it threw some light upon the mystery that is
+connected with the frequent leaking-out of matters which upon the
+whole had better be kept secret. A train composed of only a couple of
+cars makes less noise than the more usual sort, and our dining-car
+happened to be a particularly smooth-running one. The consequence was
+that almost every word that was said in the car could be heard by
+anybody who chose to listen. The Big Three (Mr. Balfour had deserted
+as we have seen) sat together at one table, whilst we lesser fry
+congregated close at hand at others. The natural resilience following
+upon the conclusion of the Conference and the happy termination of
+cross-Channel buffetings may perhaps have been somewhat stimulated by
+draughts of sparkling vintage; but, be that as it may, the Prime
+Minister and the Minister of Munitions were in their most expansive
+mood, and after a time their conversation was followed by the rest of
+us with considerable interest. To the sailors present, as also to one
+or two of the junior soldier-officers, it was probably news--and it
+must surely have been news to the waiters--to learn that Sir J. French
+was shortly to vacate command of the B.E.F. in France. Nor could we be
+other than gratified at the discussions concerning Sir D. Haig's
+qualifications as a successor; I was expecting every moment to hear
+Sir W. Robertson's suitability for the post freely canvassed; he was
+sitting back-to-back with the Munitions Minister, but with the
+half-partition usual in our English dining-cars intervening. Cabinet
+Ministers certainly are quaint people.
+
+I attended more than one Conference with the Allies on the subject of
+munitions and supplies at a later stage of the war. They had a rather
+inconvenient habit, some of them, of springing brand-new proposals
+upon one without any warning, and they would without turning a hair
+raise questions the discussion of which was wholly unforeseen and
+had not been prepared for. A good deal of trouble was, for instance,
+caused on a certain occasion owing to the question of armament for
+Russia being brought up at one of the Chantilly Conferences which used
+to take place from time to time, without our having a delegate present
+who was posted up in the actual situation with regard to this
+particular problem. The Russians had, shortly before, put forward
+requests that we should furnish them with a very big consignment
+indeed of heavy guns and howitzers--somewhere about 600 pieces of
+sorts. We had no intention of falling in with this somewhat
+extravagant demand; but we had more or less promised about 150.
+However, at a meeting of a Sub-Committee on munitions delegated by
+this particular Chantilly Conference, only General Maurice, who was
+not concerned in munitions details nor aware of the actual facts,
+represented us; and at this meeting the Russians and French mentioned
+in the course of the discussion that we had promised 600 pieces. Not
+fully acquainted with the position, General Maurice did not contradict
+the assertion. This caused some difficulty, because on later occasions
+the French and Russians would say, "But you agreed to furnish 600 at
+Chantilly," and would produce the protocol of the meeting. Similarly,
+we were regularly rushed into a Conference at Paris over Greek
+supplies in the autumn of 1917--the subject has already been mentioned
+on p. 216, and it will be referred to again farther on in this
+volume--without knowing what the business was about. Greek supplies
+and our connection with them were consequently in a shocking tangle
+for months to come.
+
+There was one of these international gatherings, one that was held in
+Mr. Lloyd George's room in the War Office about November 1916 when he
+was Secretary of State for War, of which I have a vivid recollection.
+M. Albert Thomas and General Dall' Olio, the respective Munitions
+Ministers in France and Italy, had come over, accompanied by several
+assistants; and the Russian Military Attache from Paris with several
+representatives of the special Russian Commission in England were
+present, as well as the Head of the Roumanian Military Mission in
+France. The Russians, Roumanians and Italians all, needless to say,
+wanted to get as much as they could out of us, and the French were
+quite ready to back the Russians and Roumanians up. Mr. Lloyd George
+made a tip-top chairman, conciliatory and, thanks to ignorance of
+French, always unable to understand what was said when it happened to
+be inconvenient to grasp the purport. At one juncture M. Thomas and
+General Dall' Olio came rather to loggerheads over something or other,
+steel I think. Had they been Britishers, one would have been preparing
+to slip under the table so as to be out of harm's way; but Latin
+nations are more gesticulatory than we are, and this sort of
+effervescence does not mean quite so much with them as it does when it
+shows a head amongst us frigid islanders. Just when the illustrious
+pair of Ministers were inclined to get a little out of temper, arguing
+of course in French, Mr. Lloyd George burst out laughing, threw
+himself back in his chair and ejaculated, "Now will some kind friend
+tell me what all that's about!" He had touched exactly the right note.
+Everybody beamed. The disputants burst out laughing too, harmony was
+completely restored, and the discussion was conducted thenceforward in
+friendliest fashion.
+
+By far the most interesting feature, however, about this pow-wow, and
+several others, was provided by the interventions of M. Mantoux, the
+gifted interpreter who used to come over from Paris, and of whom I
+believe great use was made at Conferences at various times at
+Versailles. His performance on such occasions was a veritable _tour de
+force_. He never took a note. He waited till the speaker had finished
+all that he wanted to say--and your statesman generally has an
+interminable lot to say--whether it was in French or in English. He
+then translated what had been said into the other language--English or
+French as the case might be--practically word for word. His memory,
+quite apart from his abnormal linguistic aptitudes, was amazing. Nor
+was that all. He somehow contrived, almost automatically it seemed, to
+imitate the very gestures and the elocution of the speakers. M. Thomas
+is troubled with a rather unruly wisp of hair which, when he gets
+wrought up in fiery moments, will tumble down over his brow into his
+eyes, to be swept back every now and again with a thrust of the hand
+accompanied by a muttered exclamation, presumably a curse. Rendering
+M. Thomas into English, M. Mantoux would sweep back an imaginary wisp
+of hair with an imprecation which I am confident was a "damn!" Then
+again, no man can turn on a more irresistibly ingratiating smile when
+he is getting the better of the other fellow than Mr. Lloyd George,
+and he has mastered a dodge of at such moments sinking his voice to a
+wheedling pitch calculated to coax the most suspicious and
+recalcitrant of listeners into reluctant concurrence. M. Mantoux would
+reproduce that smile to admiration, and his tones when translating Mr.
+Lloyd George's seductive blandishments into French were enough to
+cajole a crocodile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A FIRST MISSION TO RUSSIA
+
+     Reasons for Mission -- An effectual staff officer -- Our
+     distinguished representatives in Scandinavia -- The journey --
+     Stockholm -- Lapps -- Crossing the frontier at Haparanda --
+     Arrival at Petrograd -- Sir G. Buchanan -- Interviews with
+     General Polivanoff, Admiral Grigorovitch and M. Sazonoff --
+     Imperial vehicles -- Petrograd -- We proceed to the Stavka --
+     Improper use of the title "Tsar" -- The Imperial headquarters --
+     Meeting with the Emperor -- Two disconcerting incidents --
+     Nicholas II. -- His charm -- His admiration for Lord Kitchener's
+     work -- Conference with General Alexeieff -- Mohileff -- Service
+     in the church in honour of the Grand Duchess Tatiana's birthday
+     -- Return to Petrograd -- A rencontre with an archbishop -- The
+     nuisance of swords -- Return home.
+
+
+In spite of the _debacle_ which had taken place in the early summer of
+1915, the information coming to hand from Russia in the War Office
+later in the year was not wholly discouraging. It became apparent that
+a strenuous effort was being made to repair the mischief. Marked
+energy was being displayed locally in developing the output of
+munitions and war material of all kinds. This, coupled with the
+unequivocal confidence that was manifestly being displayed in Lord
+Kitchener by the Emperor, the Grand Duke Nicholas, and the leading
+statesmen of our great eastern Ally whether they belonged to the
+Government or not, gave promise that the vast empire, with its
+swarming population and its boundless internal resources, might yet in
+the course of time prove a tremendous asset on the side of the
+Entente.
+
+We had, however, never established a very satisfactory understanding
+with the Russian General Staff. A number of British officers of high
+rank had gone out to pay more or less complimentary visits, but
+rather more than that appeared to be needed. I had been thinking in
+the latter part of 1915 that some steps ought to be taken in this
+direction, and so, when it became known that Sir W. Robertson was
+shortly coming over to become C.I.G.S. at the War Office, which would
+assuredly mean other important changes of personnel, I wrote to him
+suggesting that I should go out and talk things over with General
+Alexeieff, the Russian Chief of the General Staff. After Sir William
+had taken over charge and had considered the matter, he agreed, and he
+gave me practically a free hand as regards making known our views,
+only stipulating that I should return promptly and report to him.
+
+One of the many active and capable members on its rolls, Captain R. F.
+Wigram, was picked out from the Director of Military Operations' staff
+to perform the functions of Staff Officer and A.D.C. He possessed the
+merit amongst many others of being young and of looking younger, and
+he lost no time in exhibiting his remarkable fitness for the post. For
+without one moment's hesitation he bereft his club in Pall Mall of the
+services of a youth of seventeen, who by some mysterious process
+became eighteen then and there, whom he converted into a private of
+Foot, whom he fitted out with a trousseau extracted from the Ordnance
+Department that a Prince of the Blood proceeding to the North Pole
+might have coveted, and who thus, as by the stroke of a magician's
+wand, became transformed into an ideal soldier-servant. We made our
+way north-eastwards via Newcastle, Bergen and Stockholm, round the
+north of the Gulf of Bothnia, and thence on through Finland to
+Petrograd. Traversing the chilly northern waters between the Tyne and
+the Norse fiords, it became possible to appreciate to some very small
+degree what months of watching for a foe who could not be induced to
+leave port on the surface must have meant to the sister service and to
+its wonderful auxiliaries drawn from the Mercantile Marine. For if
+there is a more dismal, odious, undisciplined stretch of ocean on
+the face of the globe than the North Sea, it has not been my
+ill-fortune to have had to traverse it.
+
+Our Foreign Office has served as a butt for a good deal of criticism
+of late years, some of which has perhaps not been wholly undeserved.
+But whether it was by design or was the result of some happy accident,
+Downing Street managed to be most efficiently represented at the
+courts of northern Europe during the epoch of the Great War. Sir G.
+Buchanan's outstanding services in Russia are now recognized on all
+hands--even apparently by H.M. Government. But the country also owes
+much to Sir E. Howard and to Sir M. Findlay, who represented us so
+worthily in Sweden and Norway during periods of exceptional stress and
+difficulty. It was a real pleasure when passing backwards and forwards
+through Scandinavia to meet these two strong men who were so
+successfully keeping the flag flying, to discuss with them the course
+of events, to be made acquainted with the peculiar problems that were
+constantly confronting them, to note the marked respect in which they
+were held on all hands, and to enjoy the hospitality of two typical
+English homes planted down in a foreign land. On one occasion Sir E.
+Howard was good enough to make special arrangements for me to meet the
+Russian and French Ministers at Stockholm and the French Military
+Attache at luncheon at the Legation, thereby enabling us to examine
+into a number of points of common interest.
+
+Bergen was reputed to be a regular hotbed of German spydom, and
+apparently with justice. A party of Russian officers coming over on a
+mission to this country and France some months later were taken off
+the Bergen-Newcastle packet by a U-boat. The commander of the U-boat
+had a list of their names, with ranks and everything in order, and he
+knew all about his prisoners. One officer was overlooked, and he
+brought news of the _contretemps_ to this country; he had, as it
+happened, only joined the party at the very last moment as an
+afterthought, and the Boche agents at Stockholm and Bergen had
+evidently overlooked him on the way through. An idea prevailed over
+here that the Swedes in general were decidedly hostile to the Entente;
+Stockholm, a cold spot in winter--almost as cold as, but without the
+blistering rawness of, Petrograd--was undoubtedly full of Germans, and
+the red, white and black colours were freely displayed. But partiality
+for the Central Powers seemed in the main to be confined to the upper
+classes and to the officers, and, even so, the Swedish officials were
+always civility itself. It was indeed much easier to get through the
+formalities at Haparanda on the Swedish side of the frontier, going
+and coming, than it was at Tornea on the Finnish side, although there
+we were honoured guests of the country with special arrangements made
+on our behalf. One could not but be impressed by the unmistakable
+signs of wealth in Stockholm, where hospitality was being exercised on
+the most lavish scale at the leading restaurants and at the palatial
+Grand Hotel--no bad place to stop at when you are travelling on
+Government service and can send in the bill. The good Swedes (who,
+like most other people, have an eye for the main chance) were making
+money freely out of both sides in the great contest, although they
+were always protesting against our blockading measures.
+
+Travelling is particularly comfortable alike in Norway and in Sweden,
+for the sleeping-cars are beyond reproach; owing to snowfalls, the
+time-table is, however, a little uncertain during the winter months.
+With their eternal pine-woods, Sweden and Finland are dismal enough
+regions to traverse in the cold season of the year, although on the
+Swedish side the line crosses a succession of uplands divided by deep
+valleys, which are probably very picturesque after the melting of the
+snows. It was noticeable that all the important viaducts in Sweden
+were protected by elaborate zeribas of wire entanglement although the
+country was neutral, a form of defensive measure which was much less
+noticeable in England and Russia although they were belligerents.
+Haparanda is close to the Arctic circle, and there the Lapps were very
+much _en evidence_, forming apparently the bulk of the population--the
+children astonishingly sturdy creatures, maybe owing to the amount of
+clothes that they had on. Lapps did all the heavy work in the way of
+sleigh-driving, porterage at the station, and so on; nor did they
+manifest much disposition to depreciate the value of their services
+when it came to the paying stage.
+
+To the traveller without special credentials, the short journey from
+Haparanda to the railway-car at Tornea which is to bear him onwards
+must have been almost a foretaste of the Valley of the Shadow of
+Death. Even for the members of a military mission with "red
+passports," whose advent had been announced, it was one prolonged
+agony; and it would probably have been even worse when the intervening
+estuaries were not frozen over and when one had to take the ferry. All
+the formalities had to be gone through twice over because there was an
+island, although the Russian officials were the very pink of courtesy.
+One learns a great deal of geography on journeys of this kind; we had
+not realized the extent to which Finland, with its special money, its
+special language, and its special frontier worries, was distinct from
+Russia. The train took three days and nights between Stockholm and
+Petrograd, and one was supposed to fetch up at the terminus somewhere
+about midnight; but it always took two or three hours to get through
+the frontier station between Finland and Russia at the last moment,
+with the result that one might arrive at the capital at any hour of
+the early morning. When we at last steamed into our destination we
+found awaiting us on the platform Count Zamoyski, a great Polish
+landowner and A.D.C. to the Emperor, who had been appointed to attend
+me, with Colonel Knox, our Military Attache, and we were driven off in
+Imperial carriages to the Hotel d'Europe.
+
+Our object was to reach Mohileff, where Russian General Headquarters,
+known as the "Stavka," were stationed. But the Emperor happened to be
+away from there just at the moment, so that we were obliged to wait in
+Petrograd for two or three days until His Majesty should have
+returned. Still, there was plenty to be done and seen in the capital.
+In the first place there were the official calls on the Imperial
+family to pay; that, however, was merely a case of writing names in
+the books for the purpose. Then there was the Embassy to be visited,
+to enable me to make the acquaintance of Sir G. Buchanan and the
+Embassy staff. Sir George was not in the best of health, and he
+obviously stood in need of a rest and change of air--the climate of
+Petrograd is trying, making it an undesirable place for prolonged
+residence--but the unique position that he held in the eyes of the
+Russians of all shades of opinion made it almost impossible for him to
+leave the capital. Diplomats as a class are not generally popular in
+military circles abroad, and that was perhaps more marked in Russia
+than in most countries, but our ambassador was held in extraordinary
+esteem even amongst soldiers who only knew him by name. Properly
+supported from home, he would have proved a priceless asset when
+things were going from bad to worse in the latter part of 1916 and the
+early days of 1917.
+
+I had interviews with General Polivanoff, the War Minister, Admiral
+Grigorovitch, the Minister of Marine, and M. Sazonoff, the Foreign
+Minister. General Polivanoff told me his plans, what he had already
+effected and what he still hoped to effect, confirming the favourable
+reports that we had received from General Hanbury-Williams and our
+Military Attaches as to the efforts that were being made to set the
+Russian army on its legs again; he also explained that his friendly
+relations with a number of the leading Liberal men of affairs in the
+Duma were proving of great assistance in connection with, his
+extending the manufacture of war material throughout the country, in
+which the "zemstvos" were lending willing aid. With M. Sazonoff I had
+a very long and interesting conversation, all the pleasanter owing to
+his complete command of English. Like General Polivanoff, he was
+sanguine that, given time, Russia would yet play a great role in the
+war.
+
+In the meantime we were being royally entertained and looked after.
+One had heard a great deal about Russia having "gone dry" by ukase;
+but the drought was not permitted to cast its blight over guests of
+the nation, and our presence ensured that those at the feast would be
+enabled to abandon rigid temperance for the moment, an opportunity
+which was not missed. Who, after all, ever heard of a pleasant party
+round a pump? Imperial carriages, with the servants in gorgeous yellow
+livery, all over eagles, were always at our disposal, and traffic was
+held up as we passed. This was all very well when you were heading for
+a Grand Duke's residence to leave cards, or proceeding to the Embassy;
+but you felt rather the beggar on horseback when the object of the
+drive was merely to procure a razor-strop at a big store in
+replacement of one mislaid on the journey. Your desire was to purchase
+the cheapest one that was to be had; but _noblesse oblige_, you simply
+had to buy the most expensive one there was, and it was a mercy that
+they had not got one set in brilliants. Zamoyski, most lighthearted
+and unconventional of companions, was quite happy to remain in
+Petrograd in preference to rushing off hot-foot to Mohileff, and he
+made everything extremely pleasant for us. Dining at the Yacht Club
+one night we met Admiral Phillimore, who had recently arrived on a
+naval mission; having commanded the _Inflexible_ at the Falkland
+Islands fight and afterwards in the Dardanelles (where he had spent
+some anxious hours after his ship had been holed by a drifting mine
+during the big fight of the 18th of March), few naval officers of his
+rank had enjoyed a more varied experience since the beginning of the
+war.
+
+Petrograd is, or was then, in many respects a fine city, adorned by
+numbers of imposing buildings and churches; while the view across the
+half-mile-wide Neva, with its stately bridges and the famous fortress
+of Peter and Paul on the far side, is very impressive. But its winter
+climate seemed detestable, cold and tempestuous, accompanied by
+intervals of thaw which converted even the most important streets into
+unspeakable slush, while the drip from the roofs was moistening and
+unpleasant. It has to be confessed that the exhibition of extravagance
+apparent on all hands in the capital of an empire large portions of
+which were in the hands of a foreign foe, was not altogether edifying;
+the atmosphere was so different from that of Paris. Still, there were
+not wanting encouraging signs. The soldiers in the streets were smart,
+well-set-up, stalwart fellows garbed in excellent uniforms, and the
+training carried on on the Marsova Polye (Champ de Mars) near the
+Embassy struck one as carried out on excellent lines, particularly the
+bayonet work.
+
+After three days' stay we proceeded to Mohileff, leaving at night and
+arriving on the following afternoon, to be put up at the hotel where
+Hanbury-Williams and the other foreign missions were housed. We dined
+and had luncheon at the Emperor's mess while at the Stavka, as always
+did the heads of the various foreign missions. Now that the glories of
+the House of Romanoff have suffered eclipse consequent upon the
+terrible end of Nicholas II. and his family, interest in it has no
+doubt to a great extent evaporated. But it may perhaps be mentioned
+here that our practice of referring to the Autocrat of All the Russias
+as the "Tsar" is incorrect, and the custom indeed seems to have been
+almost peculiar to this country. You never heard the terms "Tsar" and
+"Tsaritza" employed in Russia, not, at all events, in French; they
+were always spoken of as "L'Empereur" and "L'Imperatrice," and in the
+churches it was always "Imperator." On the other hand, one did hear of
+the "Tsarevitch," although he was generally spoken of in French as "Le
+Prince Heritier"--rather a mouthful. How we arrived at that
+extraordinary misspelling, "Czar" (which is unpronounceable in
+English), goodness only knows.
+
+The Emperor and his personal staff occupied a couple of fine
+provincial government buildings, which Davoust had made his
+headquarters at the time of the battle of Mohileff in 1812, standing
+in an enclosure which shut them off from the rather unattractive town
+and overlooking the Dneiper. The practice at meals was for the party
+to assemble in the antechamber; the Emperor would then come in from
+his private apartments, would go round the circle speaking a few words
+to some of those present, and would then lead the way into the
+dining-room. There, after we had partaken of the national "zakuska"
+preceded by a nip of vodka, he presided, sitting in the centre of the
+long table with General Pau, the senior foreign officer, generally on
+his right, and one of the other foreign officers taken by rote, or
+else a visitor, on his left. I understood that General Alexeieff had
+excused himself from these somewhat protracted repasts, on the ground
+that he really had not the time to devote to them; but one or two
+others of the Headquarters Staff were generally present, besides the
+Household. After the meal the Emperor would talk for a short time to
+some of those present in the antechamber, and would then retire to his
+own apartments while we of the foreign missions made our way back to
+our hotel.
+
+I was presented to him while he was making his round before dinner on
+the first night. That clicking of heels business is highly effective
+on such occasions, but it is a perilous practice when you are adorned
+with hunting spurs; they have protuberances which have a way of
+catching. There is no getting over it--to find, when conversing with
+an Emperor, that your feet have become locked together and that if you
+stir you will topple forward into his arms, does place you at a
+disadvantage. An even worse experience once befell me when on the
+staff at Devonport a good many years ago. Our general liked a certain
+amount of ceremonial to take place before the troops marched back to
+barracks of a Sunday after the parade service at the garrison church;
+a staff officer collected the reports and reported to another staff
+officer, who reported to a bigger staff officer, and so on; there was
+any amount of saluting and of reassuring prattle before the general
+was at last made aware that everything was all right. One Sunday it
+was my turn to collect the reports and to report to the D.A.A.G. In
+those days cocked hats had (and they probably still have) a ridiculous
+scrap of ribbed gold-wire lace of prehensile tendencies at their
+fore-end--at their prow, so to speak. While exchanging intimate
+confidences with the D.A.A.G., the prows of our cocked hats became
+interlocked; so there we were, almost nose to nose, afraid to move
+lest one or both of us should part with our headgear. But he never
+lost his presence of mind. "Hold your infernal hat on with your hand,
+man," he hissed, and did the same. We backed away from each other
+gingerly, came asunder, and there was no irretrievable disaster; but
+the troops (who ought all to have been looking straight to their
+front) had apparently been watching our performance with eager
+interest, because there was a fatuous grin on the face of every one of
+them, officers and all. The colonel of the Rifle Brigade said to me
+afterwards that he trusted the staff did not mean to make a hobby of
+these knock-about-turns on parade, because if they did it would
+undermine the discipline of his battalion.
+
+After dinner the Emperor summoned me into his room and we had a long
+conversation. He spoke English perfectly, almost without trace of
+foreign accent, and was most cordial, being evidently pleased at the
+possibility of a closer understanding being arrived at between his
+General Staff and ours. He expressed the hope that I would speak quite
+openly to General Alexeieff at the conference which we were to have on
+the following day. I sat next to him at dinner that next day after the
+conference and he was most anxious to hear my report of it, having
+previously seen General Alexeieff and heard what he had to say. The
+Emperor had the gift of putting one completely at one's ease on such
+occasions, and, being an admirable conversationalist, interested in
+everything and ready to talk on any subject, it was a pleasure to be
+with him. He spoke most affectionately of our Royal Family--His
+Majesty the King had been pleased to entrust me with a private letter
+to him--and, referring to the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert, he
+remarked what a fine thing it was that they were old enough to take
+their share in the Great War, whereas his boy was too young. The
+little Tsarevitch had been staying at the Stavka shortly before, and
+the foreign officers agreed that he was a bright, intelligent,
+mischievous youngster; but the Emperor told me the boy was momentarily
+in disgrace. It appeared that they had on a recent occasion been going
+to some big parade at the front. At these ceremonials the Emperor, or
+whoever is carrying out the inspection, salutes the troops on reaching
+the ground by calling out "Good day, brothers"; but the Tsarevitch had
+managed to get off before the flag fell and, slipping on in front, had
+appeared first and called out, "Good day, brothers," to which the
+troops had lustily responded. It had upset the whole business. "The
+young monkey!" said the Emperor.
+
+He expressed the utmost detestation of the Germans in consequence of
+their shameless conduct in Belgium and France, and he referred in
+indignant terms to their treatment of Russian prisoners. If I inquired
+of the Austro-Hungarian captives, of whom a number were employed on
+road-mending and similar useful labours in Mohileff, I would find, he
+said, that they were perfectly contented and were as well looked after
+in respect to accommodation and to food as were his own troops. Of
+Lord Kitchener and his work he spoke with admiration, and he asked me
+many questions about the New Armies, their equipment, their training,
+their numbers and so on. He talked with wonder of what our great War
+Minister had accomplished in the direction of transforming the United
+Kingdom into a first-class military Power in less than a year. In this
+respect he, however, merely reflected the opinion held in military
+circles right throughout Russia; one heard on all hands eulogy of the
+miracles that had been accomplished in this direction. His Imperial
+Majesty was also most appreciative of what our War Office was doing
+towards assisting the Russians in the all-important matter of war
+material, and he asked me to convey his thanks to all concerned for
+their loyalty and good offices.
+
+General Alexeieff had likewise pronounced himself most cordially with
+regard to Lord Kitchener, his achievements and his aid to Russia, at
+the conference which Hanbury-Williams and I had had with him that
+afternoon. The general was not a scion of the aristocracy, as were so
+many of the superior officers in the Emperor Nicholas's hosts; he
+could not talk French although he evidently could follow what was said
+in that language. He said he did not know German, so we had to work
+through an interpreter, an officer of the General Staff, employing
+French. Alexeieff was very pleasant to deal with, as he expressed
+himself freely, straightforwardly and even bluntly with regard to the
+various points that we touched upon. Our meeting was taking place late
+in January 1916, and at a moment when active operations on both the
+Western and the Eastern Front were virtually at a standstill; but he
+was anxious to know when we should be in a position to assume the
+offensive on a great scale, and he seemed disappointed when I said
+that, merely expressing my own personal opinion, I doubted whether we
+should be ready to do much before the summer, as so many of our New
+Army divisions were short of training and as we were still in arrear
+to some extent in the matter of munitions. As a matter of fact, the
+great German offensive against Verdun was rather to settle this
+question for us; for it kept the French on the defensive and General
+Joffre was not obliged to call upon Sir D. Haig for aid, which allowed
+our troops just that comparative leisure (apart from holding the line)
+that enabled them to prepare for the Battle of the Somme.
+
+Mohileff was reputed to be about the most Jewish township in Russia,
+and, judging by the appearance of the inhabitants, that reputation was
+not undeserved. One had heard a lot about pogroms in the past, but
+they would not appear to be of the really thoroughgoing sort. It is an
+unattractive spot in the winter-time in spite of its effective
+position, emplaced on a plateau with the Dneiper winding round two
+sides of it in a deep trough. Hanbury-Williams was a great walker,
+always anxious for exercise, and each afternoon we wandered out
+somewhere in the snow for a constitutional; the Emperor used to do the
+same, but he always motored a good way out into the country before
+starting on his tramp. The only exercise that the other foreign
+officers ever seemed to take consisted in motoring backwards and
+forwards between the hotel and the Imperial headquarters for meals. It
+is wonderful how any of them survived.
+
+The last forenoon that we spent there, a special service took place in
+the principal church in honour of the Grand Duchess Tatiana's
+birthday; and the foreign missions received a hint to go, it being
+understood that the Emperor proposed to be present in person. This,
+however, proved to be a false alarm. The service began at 10 A.M., and
+we went at 11.30 A.M. and stayed till noon; it was still going on at
+that time, and we understood that they were only in the middle of it.
+Even half an hour of this was something of an ordeal, seeing that the
+church was overheated (as Russian interiors always are), that we had
+our furs on, and that we had to choose between standing or else
+kneeling down on the stone floor. Services of the Orthodox Church are
+not unimpressive even when one cannot follow them; the Chief Priest at
+Mohileff had a real organ voice and made the very most of it; he was
+almost deafening indeed at times. The prayers appeared to be devoted
+entirely to the welfare of the Imperial family; at all events the
+names of the Emperor, of the Empress, of the Empress Marie, of the
+Tsarevitch and of the Grand Duchess herself were thundered out every
+minute or two--they were the only words that I could understand
+Listening to the priest's sonorous incantation reverberating through
+the building that morning, one little dreamt that within less than two
+years' time the winsome princess--her photograph was to be seen
+everywhere in the Petrograd streets and she seemed to be especially
+popular--whose day we were engaged in celebrating, would have been
+foully done to death by miscreants in some remote eastern spot of
+Russia.
+
+We left for Petrograd in the evening, and shortly after the train got
+under way a message came to hand to say that the Archbishop of
+Petrograd was on board and hoped that I would pay him a visit in his
+compartment. At the first hint of this, Wigram, being a man of
+resource, went to sleep in self-protection; so only Zamoyski and I
+proceeded to His Grace's lair. It turned out that the Archbishop could
+not speak French, so that conversation had to be carried on through
+Zamoyski. Our host, as is usual, sent for tea, and we spent about half
+an hour talking about the war, the Emperor, Lord Kitchener and other
+matters. His Grace, however, intimated that he was particularly
+interested in the possibility of a union being effected between the
+Orthodox and the Anglican Churches, and he expressed himself as most
+anxious to have my opinion on the subject. Now this was not a matter
+that I should have felt myself especially competent to debate at a
+moment's notice even in English; but, seeing that the discussion was
+being conducted in French, with a Pole as intermediary who happened to
+be a Roman Catholic, the perplexities of the situation were
+appreciably aggravated. A safe line to take, however, was to declare
+that a union such as was proposed would be all to the good, and the
+Archbishop pronounced himself as much gratified to find that I was
+entirely in accord with him. He said something to his secretary, who
+disappeared and turned up again presently with a beautiful little gold
+pectoral cross and chain which His Grace presented me with, Zamoyski
+receiving a smaller replica. When we got back to our own carriage and
+the Staff Officer saw what we had carried off, he intimated his
+intention of keeping awake in future when high dignitaries of the
+Church were about.
+
+Swords, it may here be mentioned, were a regular nuisance to British
+officers visiting the dominions of the Emperor Nicholas during all the
+earlier months of the war. The Russians had not, like the French,
+Belgians and Italians, copied our practice, acquired during the South
+African War, of putting away these symbols of commissioned authority
+for the time being. They were not worn actually at the front; but
+officers were supposed to appear in them elsewhere just as used to be
+the invariable practice on the Continent in pre-war days. That our
+airmen should not possess swords took the Russians quite aback, a
+sabre being about as appropriate in an aeroplane as are spurs on a
+destroyer. Transporting a sword through Sweden was apt to stamp you as
+a belligerent officer, so that all sorts of dodges had to be contrived
+to camouflage an article of baggage that, owing to its dimensions,
+refuses to lend itself to operations of concealment. Wigram's absurd
+weapon gave us away as a matter of course, although no harm befell. I
+was all right on the journey, because General Wolfe-Murray, who had
+recently been out on a visit to present decorations, had left his at
+the Embassy at Petrograd for the use of any other general who might
+come along later. It, however, was one of the full-dress,
+scimitar-shaped variety that has been affected by our general officers
+ever since one of them brought back a richly jewelled sample, the gift
+of Soliman the Magnificent or some other Grand Turk for a service at
+Belgrade. It is not a pattern of sabre designed to fit readily into
+the frog of a Sam Brown belt, and it used to be a regular business
+getting my borrowed one off and on when one went to a meal in a club
+or a restaurant in Petrograd.
+
+Most cordial invitations had been extended to us to visit the front.
+But this must have involved several days' delay. It was not always
+easy to get a move on in Russia, and no great value was set upon the
+element of time; so that, although such a trip would assuredly have
+been interesting and it might have been instructive, we were obliged
+to decline. Instructions ran that I was to return to London as soon as
+possible after visiting the Stavka. We consequently spent only
+twenty-four hours in Petrograd before taking the train back for
+Tornea, and thence via Stockholm and Christiania to Bergen; we,
+however, stayed for a few hours in each of the Scandinavian capitals.
+Since quitting Bergen about three weeks earlier a sore misfortune had
+befallen the place, for a great part of the best quarter of the town
+had been destroyed in a disastrous conflagration which had obliterated
+whole streets. But the flames fortunately had not reached the railway
+station, nor yet the quays on the side of the harbour where the
+steamers berthed, so that transit was not appreciably interfered with.
+We were back at the War Office within four weeks of setting out,
+having only passed ten days actually within the Russian Empire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A SECOND MISSION TO RUSSIA
+
+     Object of this second mission -- The general military situation
+     -- Verdun and Kut -- Baron Meyendorff -- We partially adopt
+     Russian uniform -- Stay in Petrograd -- Sir Mark Sykes --
+     Presentation of decorations at the Admiralty -- Mohileff --
+     Conference with General Alexeieff -- He raises the question of an
+     expedition to Alexandretta -- Asks for heavy artillery -- The
+     Emperor -- A conversation with him -- The dismissal of Polivanoff
+     -- Disquieting political conditions in Russia -- Nicholas II.'s
+     attitude -- The journey to Tiflis -- We emerge from the snow near
+     the Sea of Azov -- Caucasia -- Tiflis -- General Yanushkhevitch
+     -- Conference with the Grand Duke Nicholas -- Proposes that we
+     should smash Turkey -- Constantinople? -- Major Marsh -- The
+     Grand Duke -- Presenting the G.C.M.G. to General Yudenitch -- Our
+     stay at Tiflis -- Proceed to Batoum -- A day at Batoum -- Visit
+     to the hospital ship _Portugal_ -- Proceed by destroyer to Off --
+     Sinking of the _Portugal_ -- Off -- General Liakoff -- A ride to
+     the scene of a very recent fight -- A fine view -- The field
+     force dependent upon maritime communications -- Landing
+     difficulties -- Return to Tiflis -- A gala dinner at the palace
+     -- Journey to Sarikamish -- Russian pronunciation of names --
+     Kars -- Greeting the troops -- One of the forts -- Welcome at
+     Sarikamish -- General Savitzky -- Russian hospitality -- The myth
+     about Russians being good linguists -- A drive in a blizzard --
+     Colonel Maslianikoff describes his victory over the Turks in
+     December 1914, on the site of his command post -- Our visit to
+     this part of the world much appreciated -- A final interview with
+     the Grand Duke -- Proceed to Moscow -- The Kremlin -- View of
+     Moscow from the Sparrow Hills -- Visit to a hospital --
+     Observations on such visits -- A talk with our acting
+     Consul-General -- Back to Petrograd -- Conclusions drawn from
+     this journey through Russia -- Visit to Lady Sybil Grey's
+     hospital -- A youthful swashbuckler -- Return home -- We
+     encounter a battle-cruiser squadron on the move.
+
+
+We made a fresh start for Russia by the same route about three weeks
+later, the party swelled by Captain Guy MacCaw, Hanbury-Williams'
+staff officer, who had been home on leave. Sir W. Robertson wished me
+to see General Alexeieff again, and then to proceed to Tiflis to
+discuss the position of affairs with the Grand Duke Nicholas and his
+staff. H.M. the King desired that this opportunity should also be
+taken to present the G.C.M.G. to General Yudenitch, who a short time
+before had achieved a brilliant success in Armenia in the capture of
+Erzerum almost in midwinter, and also to the Minister of Marine in
+Petrograd.
+
+The general military situation was not at this time wholly reassuring.
+It was known that a great German attack upon Verdun was imminent. We
+had our own special anxieties in Asia owing to the unfortunate turn
+taken by affairs in Mesopotamia. News had come of the failure of the
+attempt to relieve Kut by an advance on the right bank of the Tigris,
+and this, following upon a similar failure some weeks earlier on the
+left bank, rendered the conditions decidedly ominous. A study of the
+large-scale maps and of the available reports at the War Office, had
+served to indicate that the prospects of saving the beleaguered
+garrison were none too hopeful, even allowing for the fact that
+General Maude's division, fresh from Egypt and the Dardanelles, was
+bringing welcome reinforcements to Sir P. Lake. Whatever plan should
+be adopted for the final effort, this must inevitably partake of the
+character of attacking formidable entrenchments with but limited
+artillery support, and of having to carry out a difficult operation of
+war against time. The Grand Duke Nicholas had expressed a readiness to
+help from the side of Persia, but little consideration was needed to
+establish the fact that effective aid from that quarter was virtually
+out of the question. Situated as the Russian forces were in the Shah's
+territories, they would be in the position of having either to advance
+in considerable strength and to be starved, or to move forward as a
+weak column and to meet with disaster at the hands of the Turks on the
+plains of Irak.
+
+One read at Stockholm on the way through of the early successes gained
+by the Germans at Verdun, the news sounding by no means encouraging;
+so that it was a great relief on arriving in Petrograd to find that
+the heroic French resistance before the fortress had brought the
+enemy's vigorous thrust practically to a standstill. We met Sir A.
+Paget at Tornea on his way back from handing, to the Emperor his baton
+of British Field-Marshal. There we also found Colonel Baron Meyendorff
+awaiting us, who had been deputed to accompany me during my travels.
+The Emperor was absent from the Stavka when we arrived at the capital,
+with the consequence that we were detained there for several days. As
+we were to make a somewhat prolonged stay in the country this time we
+fitted ourselves out with the Russian cap and flat silver-lace
+shoulder-straps; the Grand Duke Nicholas had indeed insisted, when he
+was Commander-in-Chief, upon foreign officers when at the front
+wearing these distinctive articles of Russian uniform as a protection.
+Cossacks are fine fellows, but they were apt to be hasty; their plan,
+when they came across somebody whose identity they felt doubtful
+about, was to shoot first and to make inquiries afterwards.
+
+Meyendorff, who was married to an English lady and who spoke our
+language fairly well, looked after us assiduously and provided us with
+occupation and amusement during the stay at the capital. One day he
+took us to see trotting matches, a very popular form of sport in
+Petrograd although it struck me as rather dull. We dined at different
+clubs, went to the Ballet one night, and another night were taken to
+the Opera where we occupied the Imperial box in the middle of the
+house. In those days Russian society thoroughly understood the art of
+welcoming a guest of the country, for the different national anthems
+of the Allied Powers were played through before the Second Act,
+everybody standing up, and when it came to the turn of "God save the
+King," the entire audience wheeled round to face the Imperial box, our
+national anthem was played twice over, and I received a regular
+ovation although all that those present can have known, or cared, was
+that here was a British general turned up on some official business.
+One result of wearing what amounted to a very good imitation of
+Russian uniform was that officers and rank and file all saluted,
+instead of staring at one in some surprise; it was the rule for
+non-commissioned officers and private soldiers when they met a general
+to pull up and front before saluting; this looked smart, but it was
+rather a business when one promenaded along the Nevski Prospekt which
+always swarmed with the military. It was, moreover, the custom in
+restaurants, railway dining-cars, etc., for officers who were present
+when a general came in, not only to rise to their feet (if anywhere
+near where the great man settled down), but also to crave permission
+to proceed with their meal. This was a little embarrassing until one
+realized that a gracious wave of the hand to indicate that they might
+carry on was all that was called for.
+
+The late Sir Mark Sykes had worked under me in Whitehall since an
+early date in the war; his knowledge of the Near East was so valuable
+that I had been obliged to detain him and to prevent his going to
+France in command of his Territorial battalion, much to his
+disappointment. Latterly, however, he had been acting for the Foreign
+Office, although under the aegis of the War Office as this plan was
+found convenient. He was now in Petrograd in connection with certain
+negotiations dealing with the future of Turkey in Asia, and as it was
+desirable that he should visit the Stavka and also Transcaucasia, he
+attached himself to me for the time being.
+
+One forenoon before leaving for Mohileff I proceeded, accompanied by
+our Naval Attache, Meyendorff and Wigram, to the Admiralty to present
+the G.C.M.G. to the Minister of Marine and the K.C.M.G. to the Chief
+of the Naval Staff. It seemed desirable to make as much of a ceremony
+of the business as possible--British decorations were, indeed, very
+highly prized in Russia; warning had therefore been sent that we were
+coming, and why. On arriving we were met at the gates by several
+naval officers, and were conducted to outside the door of the
+Minister's room where the presentation was to take place. One then
+assumed the simper of the diplomatist, Wigram (who always managed to
+turn pink on dramatic occasions, which had a particularly good effect)
+bore the cases containing the insignia, the door was flung open, and
+we marched solemnly in. I addressed the recipients in my best French,
+saying that His Majesty had entrusted me with the pleasant duty, and
+so on, finishing up with my personal congratulations and by handing
+over the cases. The recipients replied in suitable terms, expressing
+their gratification and their thanks; we had a few minutes'
+conversation, and were introduced to the other officers present--there
+were quite a lot--and we then cleared out, escorted to our gorgeous
+Imperial carriages by some of the junior officers. The Naval Attache
+spoilt the whole thing by remarking afterwards, "You know, general,
+those Johnnies know English just as well as you do." It was most
+inconsiderate of him, and he may not have been right; Russian naval
+officers down Black Sea way did not seem to know English or even
+French.
+
+On this second occasion we only spent twenty-four hours at Mohileff;
+the interview with General Alexeieff was successfully brought off on
+the first afternoon, MacCaw accompanying me as he understood Russian
+thoroughly, although a General Staff Officer interpreted. I told
+Alexeieff that our chances of relieving Kut appeared to be slender,
+and that he ought to be prepared for its fall although there was still
+hope. He thereupon raised the question of our sending a force to near
+Alexandretta, so as to aid the contemplated Russian campaign in
+Armenia. Such a project was totally opposed to the views of Sir W.
+Robertson and our General Staff, and it had at the moment--late in
+March--nothing to recommend it at all, apart from the point of view of
+the Armenian operations. Although Lord Kitchener and Sir J. Maxwell
+had been a little nervous about Egypt during the winter, the General
+Staff at the War Office had felt perfectly happy on the subject in
+view of the garrison assembled there after the evacuation of the
+Gallipoli Peninsula. Now that spring was at hand, any prospect of
+serious Turkish attempts across the Sinai Desert was practically at an
+end as the dry months were approaching. Troops sent to the Gulf of
+Iskanderun at this stage--to get them there must take some
+weeks--could not possibly aid Kut, even indirectly. Such side-shows
+were totally at variance with our General Staff's views concerning the
+proper conduct of the Great War. We wished the Russians well, of
+course, in their Armenian operations, and as they held the Black Sea
+there appeared to be every prospect of their achieving a considerable
+measure of success. But nothing that happened in that part of the
+world would be likely to exercise any paramount influence over the
+decision of the conflict as a whole.
+
+Alexeieff suggested our transferring troops from Salonika to
+Alexandretta. I do not think that he fully realized what that kind of
+thing meant in time, shipping, and so on; but it was pointed out to
+him that the French would disapprove of such a move owing to the
+importance they attached to the Macedonian affair, while, as for us,
+if we took away part of our forces from Salonika we would want to send
+them to France to fight the Germans, not to dissipate them on
+non-essentials. It was also pointed out that there were very serious
+naval objections to starting a brand-new campaign based on the Gulf of
+Iskanderun, that the tonnage question was beginning to arouse anxiety,
+and that Phillimore (who was at the Stavka at the time) would
+certainly endorse this contention. The Russian C.G.S. was not quite
+convinced, I am afraid. In the course of the discussion he made a
+remark, which was not translated by the interpreter but which MacCaw
+told me was to the effect that we could do what he asked perfectly
+easily if we liked. That was true enough. We could have deposited an
+army at Ayas Bay, no doubt, and could have secured its maritime
+communications while it was ashore; but we would have been playing
+entirely the wrong game, wasting military resources, and throwing a
+strain upon the Allies' sea-power without any adequate justification.
+Still, our conference was throughout most amicable. Alexeieff
+expressed confidence as regards effecting a powerful diversion on the
+Eastern Front during the summer; but he begged me to try to extract
+some of our heavy howitzers for him out of our War Office, as he was
+terribly handicapped, he said, for want of that type of artillery. It
+was the last that I was to see of this eminent soldier and patriot,
+who died some time in 1918, broken down under the exertion and anxiety
+of trying to save his country from the horrors of Bolshevik
+ascendancy.
+
+The Emperor, as I sat next to him at dinner in the evening, referred
+to Alexandretta; he had evidently seen Alexeieff in the meantime. He
+also begged me to press the question of heavy howitzers for Russia at
+home. He asked a good deal about Sir W. Robertson, and he commented on
+the fact that two soldiers who had enjoyed no special advantages such
+as are not uncommon in the commissioned ranks of most armies,
+Robertson and Alexeieff, should have been forced to the front under
+the stern pressure of war and should now be simultaneously Chiefs of
+the General Staff in England and Russia. He spoke of the possibility
+of Lord Kitchener visiting Russia now that his labours at our War
+Office were somewhat lightened. He told me that Sykes, who had had a
+long discussion with the General Staff about Armenia and Kurdistan,
+had enormously impressed those who had heard him by his knowledge of
+the geography and the people of those regions, and he asked why, when
+Wigram and I were wearing the Russian shoulder-straps, Sykes was not;
+he evidently liked our doing so. The Grand Duke Serge, who was
+Inspector-General of the Artillery, was staying with the Emperor; he
+also spoke about the urgent need of heavy howitzers, saying that he
+hoped within a few months to be on velvet as regards field-guns and
+ammunition, but that aid with the heavier natures of ordnance must
+come from outside.
+
+In conversations that we had at Mohileff, Hanbury-Williams expressed
+himself as somewhat anxious about the internal situation in Russia.
+General Polivanoff had recently been dismissed from his post as War
+Minister in spite of the good that he had effected within a very few
+months, and this was simply the result of a Court intrigue against an
+official who was known to have Liberal tendencies and was a _persona
+grata_ with leading spirits in the Duma. That kind of attitude was
+calculated to arouse dissatisfaction, not merely amongst the educated
+portion of the community in general, but also in the ranks of the
+army; for in military circles the extent to which the troops had been
+sacrificed as a result of gross misconduct in connection with the
+provision of war material was bitterly resented. The losses suffered
+by the nation in the war already amounted to a huge figure, and
+although at this time the people at large probably held no very
+pronounced views on the subject of abandoning the contest, there
+undoubtedly was discontent. Under such circumstances, statesmanship
+imperatively demanded that mutual confidence should be maintained
+between the Court and Government on the one side, and the leaders of
+popular opinion on the other side. The removal of Polivanoff, who was
+doing so well, was just the kind of act to antagonize the educated
+classes and the military. Suspicion, moreover, existed that some of
+those in high places were not uncontaminated by German influence and
+were pro-German at heart.
+
+No reasonable doubt has ever existed amongst those behind the scenes
+that the Emperor personally was heart and soul with the Allies: but
+that did not hold good, there is every ground for believing, amongst
+some of those with whom he was closely associated. No stranger brought
+into contact with Nicholas II. could help being attracted by his
+personal charm; but he was a reactionary surrounded by ultra-reactionaries
+and evil counsellors, who played upon his superstitions and his
+belief in the Divine Right of Kings and who brought him to his ruin
+together with his country. One had heard much in the past of the
+veneration in which Russians of all ranks and classes held their
+Sovereign as a matter of course. But, when brought into contact with
+Russian officers in 1916, one speedily realized that the Emperor
+Nicholas had lost his hold upon the affections of the army. Not that
+they spoke slightingly of him--they merely appeared to take no
+interest in him, which was perhaps worse. As for the Empress, there
+was little concealment in respect to her extreme unpopularity.
+Rasputin I never heard mentioned by a Russian in Russia; but one knew
+all about that sinister figure from our own people.
+
+Owing to a telegram that he received in connection with his special
+negotiations, Sykes left hurriedly that night, making straight for
+Tiflis, and I did not see him again in Russia. We, on the other hand,
+returned to Petrograd for a day or two. There were special entrances,
+with rooms attached, for the Imperial family at all the Petrograd
+stations and also at stations in important cities like Moscow and
+Rostoff; we were always conducted to and from the trains through
+these, which was much pleasanter than struggling along with the crowd.
+For the journey to Transcaucasia we were provided with a special car
+of our own. In this we lived except when actually at Tiflis--a much
+more comfortable arrangement than going to hotels at places like
+Batoum and Kars; we each had a double compartment to ourselves, and
+another was shared by our soldier-servant with one of the Imperial
+household, who accompanied us in the capacity of courier, interpreter
+and additional servant. There is no getting away from it, travelling
+under these somewhat artificial conditions has its points. As far as
+the Don we used the ordinary dining-cars; but beyond that point
+dining-cars did not run, and meals were supposed to be taken at the
+station restaurants. For us, however, cook, meal and all used to come
+aboard our car and travel along to some station farther on, where the
+cook would be shot out with the debris; it was admirably managed,
+however it was done, and was more the kind of thing one expects in
+India than in Europe. Although our soldier-servant had never been on
+parade in his life (I had taught him to salute when at Petrograd by
+making him salute himself in front of the big glass in my room, a plan
+worth any amount of raucous patter from the drill-sergeant), the very
+fact of his being in khaki seemed to turn him into a Russian scholar
+by that mysterious process adopted by British soldiers in foreign
+lands. Wigram had a grammar, and I had known a little Russian in the
+past; but in the absence of Meyendorff and the courier neither Wigram
+nor I could get what we wanted, while the soldier-servant could.
+
+Having seen nothing but everlasting dreary white expanses since
+quitting the immediate environs of Petrograd, except where the railway
+occasionally passed through some township, it was pleasant to find the
+snow gradually disappearing as one approached the Sea of Azov near
+Taganrog. Then, after crossing the Don at Rostoff, where extensive
+railway works were in progress and a fine new bridge over the great
+river was in course of construction, we found ourselves in a balmy
+spring atmosphere, although it was only the end of March. From there
+on to the Caspian the railway almost continuously traversed vast
+tracts of corn-land, the young crop just beginning to show above
+ground; at dawn the huge range of the Caucasus, its glistening summits
+clear of clouds, made a glorious spectacle. In this part of the
+country oil-fuel was entirely used on the locomotives, and at Baku,
+where the petroleum oozes out of the sides of the railway cuttings,
+and beyond that city, the whole place reeked of the stuff. If you fell
+into the error of touching anything on the outside of the car, a
+doorhandle or railing, you could not get your hand clean again any
+more than Lady Macbeth. We arrived at Tiflis late one afternoon,
+having taken within three or four hours of five complete days on the
+run from Petrograd. There we were met by a crowd of officers, and were
+conducted to a hotel.
+
+Next morning we paid a number of formal visits. General
+Yanushkhevitch, Chief of the Staff, had held that same position when
+the Grand Duke Nicholas had been commander-in-chief at the Stavka.
+Tall, handsome and debonair, he was a man whom it was a pleasure to
+meet, although he may not perhaps intellectually have been quite equal
+to the great responsibilities placed on his shoulders in the early
+days of the war. This distinguished soldier of very attractive
+personality was murdered by revolutionaries while travelling by
+railway somewhere near Petrograd in 1917. General Yudenitch, we found,
+happened to be in Tiflis, and at the call that we paid him I arranged
+to present him with his order on the following morning.
+
+I had a prolonged interview with the Grand Duke at the palace during
+the course of the day. He was not only Commander-in-Chief in
+Transcaucasia but was also Governor-General, and he told me that civil
+duties took up more of his time than military duties. Like Alexeieff,
+and probably by arrangement with the Stavka, he raised the question of
+our sending a force to near Alexandretta, and he put in a new plea for
+which I was not quite prepared. As he spoke at considerable length it,
+however, gave one time to think. He maintained that the right policy
+for the Allies to adopt was to knock the Turks out for good and to
+have done with them, expressing the opinion that it would not be
+difficult to induce them to make peace once they had undergone a good
+hammering. I replied that there appeared to be political problems
+involved in this which were quite outside my province, but that
+certain obvious factors came into the question. The prospects of
+prevailing upon the Sublime Porte to come to terms hinged upon what
+those terms were to be, and Constantinople seemed likely to prove a
+stumbling-block to an understanding. The Ottoman Government might be
+prepared to part with Erzerum and Trebizond and Basrah, and even
+possibly Syria and Palestine, but Stamboul and the Straits were quite
+a different pair of shoes. H.I.H. gripped my hand and pressed it till
+I all but squealed. It was delightful to talk to a soldier who went
+straight to the point, said he, but he dashed off on another tack,
+asking what were our military objections to the Alexandretta plan; so
+I went over much the same ground as had already been gone over at
+Mohileff, promising to let him have a memorandum on the subject.
+
+He pronounced himself as most anxious to aid us in Mesopotamia, did
+not seem satisfied with what his troops in Persia had accomplished,
+and was concerned at my rather pessimistic views with regard to Kut.
+Kut actually held out for ten days longer than I had been given to
+understand was possible at the War Office. He also conveyed to me a
+pretty clear hint that in his view Major Marsh, our Military Attache
+with him, ought to have his status improved. There I was entirely with
+him, but did not say so; there had been a misunderstanding with regard
+to rank in Russia, for which I, when D.M.O., had been in a measure
+responsible. The fact that there is no equivalent to our grade of
+major in Russia had been overlooked. The Military Secretary's
+department had all along been ready enough to give subalterns the
+temporary rank of captain, or to improve captains into majors; but
+they had invariably humped their backs against converting a major into
+a lieutenant-colonel for the time being. The consequence was that
+there were a lot of newly caught British subalterns doing special jobs
+who had been given the rank of captain, and there were a certain
+number of captains whom we called temporary majors but who were merely
+captains in Russia. Marsh was a real live major of some standing in
+the Indian army, with two or three campaigns to his credit and a Staff
+College man, and yet at Tiflis he was simply regarded as a captain.
+This was put right by the War Office on representation being made.
+
+The Grand Duke spoke confidently as to the forthcoming capture of
+Trebizond, for which the plans were nearly ready. Good progress, he
+said, was being made by the force which was working forward along the
+coast, and he promised that the necessary arrangements should be made
+for us to visit the front in that quarter. He was most cordial, and he
+made many enquiries about Lord Kitchener for whom he expressed the
+highest regard. The interview was an extremely pleasant one, for the
+Grand Duke's manner, while dignified and impressive, was at the same
+time very winning, and he made it a strong point that I should discuss
+everything with him direct although also approving of my holding
+consultations with his staff. Sykes' visit, he assured me, was highly
+appreciated both by himself and by his experts, who had been
+astonished at the knowledge of the country and the people which Sir
+Mark had displayed.
+
+Next day the presentation of the G.C.M.G. to General Yudenitch was
+successfully brought off; that brilliant soldier was more at home in
+the field than in French, and he would probably have dispensed with
+all ceremony gladly enough. Scarcely had we got back to the hotel
+after the performance when he turned up to call, arrayed in all the
+insignia except the collar. He hoped that he had not done wrong in
+omitting this, and he was anxious to know when it was supposed to be
+put on. He rather had me there, because I did not know; but it was
+easy to say that the collar was only worn on very great occasions.
+Inside the case containing the Russian order which the Emperor had
+handed me at my farewell visit to him before returning home a few
+weeks earlier, there had been instructions in French with regard to
+the wearing of the different classes of the decoration, a similar plan
+might prove useful in these days when British orders are freely
+conferred upon foreign officers.
+
+The city of Tiflis and the country around are worth seeing, and as we
+had a car at our disposal we made one or two short trips to points of
+interest. The Grand Ducal entourage and the staff did all they could
+to make our stay pleasant. No Allied general had visited Transcaucasia
+since the outbreak of hostilities, so that we were made doubly
+welcome. At luncheon at the palace we made the acquaintance of the
+Grand Duchess and of several young Grand Duchess nieces of the Grand
+Duke's, with whom Wigram proved an unqualified success; in
+conversation with these charming young ladies it was only necessary to
+mention the name of the Staff Officer and they thereupon did the rest
+of the talking. But after three or four days of comparative leisure,
+Meyendorff announced that all was ready for us to go on to Batoum, so
+we took up our residence in our railway-car again one evening after
+dinner and found ourselves by the Black Sea shore next morning.
+
+We were most hospitably entertained at Batoum by the general in
+command and his staff, our railway-car being run away into a quiet
+siding. We were driven out first to a low-lying coast battery in which
+a couple of 10-inch guns had very recently been mounted, and where we
+saw detachments at drill; it appeared that the _Breslau_ had paid a
+call some four or five months before, had fired a few projectiles into
+the harbour and the town, and had then made off; it was hoped to give
+her a warm welcome should she repeat her tricks. The emplacement
+between the two filled by the 10-inch was occupied by a huge
+range-finder, apparently on the Barr and Stroud principle, with very
+powerful lenses. We afterwards drove up to one of the forts guarding
+the town on the land side, from which a fine view was obtained over
+the surrounding country. Then we went on board the hospital ship
+_Portugal_. A Baroness Meyendorff, cousin of our Meyendorff, was found
+to be matron-in-chief, and she took us all over the vessel, which was
+to proceed during the night to pick up wounded at Off, the advanced
+base of the force which was moving on Trebizond and which we were to
+visit next day. In the afternoon we had a fine run along an
+excellently engineered road up the Tchorok valley, a deep trough in
+the mountains. The air in this part of the world seemed delightfully
+genial after the rigours of Scandinavia, Petrograd and Mohileff,
+reminding one of Algiers in spring; the vegetation was everywhere
+luxuriant on the hillsides, the ground was carpeted with wildflowers,
+and oranges abounded in the groves around the town.
+
+Up about 3 the next morning, we boarded a destroyer to make the run to
+Off, which was eighty-five miles away along the coast, and put off out
+of the harbour through the gap in the torpedo-net about dawn. It was a
+lovely morning without a breath of air; this was as well perhaps,
+because the interior of the vessel, an old-type craft making a
+tremendous fuss over going, say, 18 knots, was not particularly
+attractive. The officers on board could not speak English or French,
+which struck one as odd, but apparently the personnel of the Black Sea
+fleet rarely proceeded to other waters--to the Baltic, for instance,
+or the Far East. All went smoothly until we were within about a dozen
+miles of our destination when a wireless message was picked up
+announcing that the _Portugal_ had just been torpedoed and was sinking
+close to Off, and asking for help. We cracked on all speed, the craft
+straining and creaking as if she would tumble to pieces, and I doubt
+if we were making much more than 25 knots then; but by the time that
+we reached the scene of the disaster any of the personnel who could be
+saved were already on board other vessels and being landed. We learnt
+that several of the male personnel and two or three of the nurses,
+including the Baroness Meyendorff, had, unhappily, been drowned.
+
+The _Portugal_ was the second hospital ship that I had set foot on
+since the beginning of the war, and, like the _East Anglia_ mentioned
+on p. 228, she had gone to the bottom within twenty-four hours of my
+visit. I determined to give hospital ships a wide berth in future if
+possible--I did not bring them luck. With her Red Cross markings she
+was perfectly unmistakable; she had been attacked in broad daylight on
+an almost glassy sea, and the U-boat commander must have been
+perfectly well aware of her identity when he sank her. The tragic
+occurrence naturally cast a gloom over Off, where we landed on the
+open beach and were met by General Liakoff, commanding the Field
+Force, with a numerous staff.
+
+There had been a sharp combat by night some thirty-six hours before,
+when the Turks had delivered a most determined onset upon a portion of
+the Russian position; it had, indeed, been touch-and-go for a time.
+General Liakoff proposed to take us up to the scene of the fight; so
+the whole party mounted on wiry Cossack horses and cobs, and the
+cavalcade after crossing the little river near Off proceeded to breast
+the heights, our animals scrambling up the rugged hill-tracks like
+cats, till we reached the summit of a detached spur where the affray
+had been the most violent. The enemy had almost surrounded this spur,
+and the numerous bodies of dead Turks lying about on the slopes and in
+the gullies testified to the severity of the fight; Wigram, whose
+experiences of the battlefield had hitherto been limited to a visit to
+the Western Front on a special job, was as delighted with these grim
+relics as a dog is who has found some abomination in the road.
+Quantities of used and unused cartridges, Turkish and Russian, were
+strewed about, and it was evident that the defenders had only managed
+to hold on by the skin of their teeth. General Liakoff told me that
+his troops were especially pleased at their success, as it had
+transpired that the assailants were Turks belonging to picked corps
+recently arrived from the Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+The Russian outposts were now on the next ridge, beyond a narrow
+valley, and all was quiet at the moment. The views from the spur were
+very fine, commanding the coast-line in both directions. Trebizond,
+some fifteen miles off but looking to be nearer, glistened white in
+the midday sunshine; each patch of level was bright green with growing
+corn, the higher hills were still crowned with snow, and the littoral
+as a whole in its colouring and its features was the Riviera faced
+about and looking north. The general gave me to understand that he
+would be unable to advance for some days, as he had to make up his
+reserves of supplies; but the Grand Duke had let me know that
+considerable reinforcements were to be brought across the Black Sea
+before the final attack upon Trebizond took place.
+
+We spent the afternoon down at Off. With recollections of Afghan and
+South African accumulations of war material and condiments, one was
+struck with the very limited amount of impedimenta and stores which
+this Field Force carried with it. The advanced base of a little army
+comprising a couple of divisions, with odds and ends, scarcely
+exhibited the amount of transport and food dumps that one of our
+1901-2 mobile columns on the veldt would display when it was taking a
+rest. The weather had been particularly favourable for landing
+operations for some days, we were told, and that afternoon a small
+freight ship, with a queer elongated prow that enabled her to run her
+nose right up on to the beach, was discharging her cargo straight on
+to the foreshore. But it was obvious that, with anything like a breeze
+blowing home, landing operations at Off would be brought to a
+standstill, and that the progress of the campaign was very dependent
+upon the moods of the Black Sea. A road was, it is true, being
+constructed along the shore from Batoum, and a railway was talked of;
+but for the time being the Field Force had to rely almost entirely
+upon maritime communications. A different destroyer from the one we
+had come in took us back, several of the nurses saved from the
+_Portugal_ also being on board, and we got ashore at Batoum after 9
+P.M., to find the general and staff anxiously awaiting our arrival in
+anticipation of dinner which we travellers were more than ready for.
+We returned to Tiflis next day.
+
+We had hoped to make a trip to Erzerum, so famous in the chequered
+annals of Russo-Turkish conflicts in Asia; but the thaw had set in on
+the uplands of Armenia, the staff at Tiflis said it would be almost
+impossible to get a car through the slush for the hundred miles from
+the railhead at Sarikamish, and we had no excuse for going other than
+curiosity; so the idea was abandoned. It was arranged, however, that
+we should proceed to Kars and Sarikamish. A short time elapsed before
+we could start, and during this delay we were bidden to a gala dinner
+at the palace given in our honour, at which Marsh also was present.
+The palace is not a specially imposing building, but it has a fine
+broad staircase, and the effect of the Cossacks of the Guard lining
+this in their dark red cloaks was very striking. In his speech the
+Grand Duke expressed great satisfaction at our visit to Transcaucasia,
+as indicating that Russian efforts in this region were appreciated in
+England.
+
+From Tiflis up to Kars means a rise of over 4000 feet, and the
+locomotives on the line were specially constructed for this climbing
+work, having funnels at either end. Whatever may be the case at other
+times, Armenia when the snows are melting is a singularly dreary
+region, almost treeless and seemingly destitute of vegetation; some of
+the scenery along the line was grand enough in a rugged way, however,
+and near Alexandropol the railway traversed plateau land with outlook
+over a wide expanse of country. Studying the large-scale map, it
+looked as if one ought to be able to see Mount Ararat, eighty miles
+away to the south, but there was a tiresome hill in the way
+obstructing the view in the required direction.
+
+Mention of Alexandropol suggests a reference to the pronunciation of
+Russian names, which we always manage to get wrong in this country.
+Slavs throw the accent nearer the end of words than we are inclined to
+do. Thus in Alexandropol they put the accent on the "dro," not on the
+"and" as we should. We always put the accent on the "bas" in
+Sebastopol, but the accent properly is on the "to." In Alexeieff the
+accent is on the second "e," and in Korniloff it is on the "i." You
+will not generally go far wrong if you throw the accent one syllable
+farther from the beginning of the word than you naturally would when
+speaking English.
+
+Twenty-four hours were spent at Kars, a filthy, but on account of its
+associations and of the works being carried on, extremely interesting
+place; unfortunately, I was not familiar with the story of Sir Fenwick
+Williams' great defence of the stronghold during the Crimean War, for
+the old battlements and outworks still existed, if in a ruinous
+condition. We were taken all round the place by car, were shown the
+elaborate magazines being excavated in the heart of a mountain, and
+fetched up at one of the outlying forts in which a large garrison
+resided. By this time I was getting quite accustomed to the ceremony
+gone through when one met troops on parade or in barracks. You called
+out, "Starova bradzye?" which being interpreted apparently means "How
+are you, brothers?" There followed an agonizing little pause during
+which you had time to think that you had got the thing wrong, had made
+an ass of yourself, and were disgraced for evermore. Then they all
+sang out in unison, "Wow wow wow-wow wow"--that, at all events, is
+what it sounded like. Goodness knows what it meant. One had too much
+sense to ask, because one might have got the two sentences mixed,
+which would have meant irretrievable disaster. The effect, however,
+when there were a lot of troops on the ground was excellent, as they
+always performed their share with rare gusto. The rank and file
+particularly appreciated a foreign officer giving them the customary
+greeting.
+
+The size of the garrison of this outlying fort afforded evidence of
+the Russian wealth in man-power. There were a good many guns mounted,
+of no great value, and some machine-guns flanked the ditches; but the
+amount of personnel seemed out of all proportion to the importance of
+the work or the nature of its armament. The men were packed pretty
+tight in the casemates, arranged in a double tier, the sojourners on
+the upper tier only having the bare boards to lie on. Afterwards we
+went out to an entirely new fort which was not yet quite completed,
+situated on the plain some six miles from the town. The Russians were
+making Kars into a great place of arms on modern lines, and one rather
+wondered why.
+
+Continuing the journey in the afternoon, we were met at Sarikamish
+station by General Savitzky, commanding the Sixty-sixth Division and
+the garrison, with his staff and a swarm of officers. The place had
+been the frontier station before the war and was well laid out as an
+up-to-date cantonment, although owing to the thaw the mud was
+indescribable. The environs constituted almost an oasis in the bleak
+Armenian uplands owing to the hills being clothed in pine-woods, and
+Sarikamish had the reputation of making a pleasant summer resort,
+people coming out from Tiflis to spend a few weeks so as to escape the
+heat. We were treated with almost effusive cordiality, dined at the
+staff mess that night, and Cossacks gave an exhibition of their
+spirited dancing afterwards and sang songs. Of the large number of
+officers acting as hosts, only one, unfortunately, could speak French,
+so that Meyendorff was kept busy acting as an intermediary.
+
+The idea prevalent in this country that Russians in general are good
+linguists, it may here be observed, is a delusion. The aristocracy, no
+doubt, all speak French perfectly. In the Yacht Club in Petrograd most
+of the members appeared to be quite at home in either French or
+English, and no doubt could have chattered away in German if put to
+it; but away from the capital and Moscow it was not easy to get on
+without a knowledge of Russian. The staff at Sarikamish were anxious
+that I should meet the Turkish officer prisoners interned there, as
+they believed that a couple of them were Boches and nobody able to
+speak German had come along for months; but as it turned out, there
+was no time for a meeting.
+
+Next morning we started off in a blizzard to proceed by car some way
+in the direction of Erzerum along the high-road over the col which
+marked the frontier; the pass would be about 7600 feet above
+sea-level; as the elevation of Sarikamish was given as 6700. This
+high-road constituted the main line of communications of the Russian
+forces in the field beyond railhead, and the traffic along it was
+unceasing. With a long, stiff upward incline, there were the usual
+sights of broken-down vehicles and of dead animals on all hands; but
+the organization appeared to be good, if rough and ready, and the
+transport was serviceable enough. Getting the cars along past the
+strings of vehicles and animals was no easy job, and it proved a
+chilly drive. But the weather brightened, and on the way back we got
+out and proceeded on foot to a hill-top of historic interest known as
+the "Crow's Nest," above Sarikamish. For it had been the site of
+headquarters on the occasion of those very critical conflicts in
+December 1914, when the Ottoman commanders had made a determined
+effort to break through into Russian Transcaucasia, and when their
+plans had only been brought to nought by a most signal combination of
+war on the part of the defenders.
+
+There, on the scene of his triumph, Colonel Maslianikov of the 16th
+Caucasian Rifle Regiment described to a gathering of us fur-clad
+figures how, with his regiment and some other troops hastily scraped
+together, he had brought the leading Turkish divisions to a
+standstill, largely by pure bluff and by audacious handling of an
+inferior force, and so had prepared the way for the dramatic overthrow
+of three Osmanli army corps which transformed a situation that had
+been full of menace into one which became rich in promise. News of
+this dramatic feat of arms reached the War Office at the time, but
+without particulars. That the victor of this field, a field won by a
+masterpiece of soldiership, should remain a simple colonel, suggested
+a singular indifference on the part of authorities at the heart of the
+empire to what wardens of the marches accomplished in peace and war.
+That pow-wow in an icy blast amid the snow recalled the Grand Duke
+Nicholas's appeal to Lord Kitchener that we should make some effort
+to take pressure off his inadequate and hard-pressed forces in
+Armenia, an appeal which landed us in the Dardanelles Campaign; and it
+further recalled the fact that the colonel's feat near Sarikamish had
+put an end to all need for British intervention almost before the
+Grand Duke made his appeal. The Russian victory, the details of which
+were explained to us that day by its creator, was gained on a date
+preceding by some weeks the Allies' naval attempt to conquer the
+Straits single-handed.
+
+After a belated luncheon at the staff mess, following on this long
+programme, we had to hurry off accompanied by Savitzky and his staff
+to our railway-car. All the officers and a goodly number of the rank
+and file in Sarikamish seemed to have collected at the station to give
+us a rousing send-off, making it evident that our visit had been much
+appreciated. This was not unnatural. Here were Allies fighting in a
+region far removed from the principal theatres of war in which the
+armies of the Entente were engaged, and they were with justice
+desirous that their efforts should not remain wholly unknown. Like
+Off, Sarikamish conveyed a very favourable impression of the working
+of the Transcaucasian legions under the supreme leadership of the
+Grand Duke Nicholas, of whom officers all spoke with enthusiasm, and
+whose personality undoubtedly counted for much amongst the
+impressionable moujik soldiery. What one had seen in these forward
+situations inspired confidence in the future. Nor was that confidence
+misplaced, for the Russian forces in Armenia were to achieve great
+triumphs ere 1916 was out.
+
+We had hoped to cross the Caucasus from Tiflis to Vladikavkas by the
+great military road over the Dariel Pass, but the staff would not hear
+of it, as there was still some risk from avalanches and as the route
+was not properly open. We had a farewell luncheon at the palace, and I
+had a long talk on military questions with the Grand Duke beforehand,
+at which he entrusted me with special messages to Lord Kitchener and
+Sir W. Robertson, and expressed an earnest desire for close
+co-ordination between his forces in Persia and ours in Mesopotamia.
+News had arrived of the repulse of the Kut Relief Force at Sannaiyat
+after its having made a promising beginning at Hannah, so that there
+was no disguising the fact that little hope remained of saving
+Townshend's force. I did not know what course might be adopted by our
+Government in this discouraging theatre of war, assuming that Kut
+fell; but there could be no doubt that co-ordination was desirable, as
+we were bound to hold on to the Shatt-el-Arab and the oil-fields,
+whatever happened; it was therefore quite safe to promise that we
+would do our best. Having made our farewells, our little party
+proceeded straight from Tiflis to Moscow.
+
+In that famous city we were put up in the palace within the Kremlin,
+and we passed a couple of days mainly devoted to sight-seeing. What
+has become of all the marvels gathered together within the grim
+fortress walls in the heart of the ancient Russian capital? Of the
+jewelled ikons, of the priceless sacerdotal vestments, of the gorgeous
+semi-barbaric Byzantine temples, of the galleries of historic
+paintings, of the raiment, the boots and the camp-bed of Peter the
+Great? One wearied of wandering from basilica to basilica, from
+edifice to edifice and from room to room. Only the globe-trotting
+American keeping a diary can suffer an intensity of this sort of
+thing. But then we were taken out one of the afternoons by car to the
+Sparrow Hills ridge above the Moskva, about three miles outside the
+city and not far from where one morning in 1812 the Grand Army topped
+a rise and of a sudden beheld the goal which it had travelled so far
+to seek. From there we viewed the spectacle of a riot of gilded
+cupolas gleaming in the sun, a sight incomparably more striking in its
+majesty than that of the interiors and memorials of the past we had
+been reconnoitring at close quarters.
+
+Another afternoon we drove out to a palace in the outskirts, which
+had been converted into a military hospital and was being maintained
+by the Emperor out of his private purse. There are some writers of war
+experiences on the Western Front who have revelled in pouring ridicule
+upon the inspections that are ever proceeding at our hospitals in the
+field, although these functions furnish the humorist with just that
+opportunity which his soul craves for. My experience, however, is that
+in the military world doctors and nurses simply love to have their
+tilt-yard visited by people who have no business there. You could not
+meet with a Russian hospital-train on its journey, drawn up at some
+railway station, but you were gently, if firmly, coerced into
+traversing its corridors from end to end. When following the course of
+the Turko-Greek conflict in 1897 on the side of the Hellenes, where
+almost every known European nation had its Red Cross hospital, I was
+dragged round these establishments one and all. To have strangers
+tramping about staring at them must be an intolerable nuisance to
+wounded men who are badly in need of peace and quiet. One went through
+the "starova bradzye" game in each hospital ward visited in Russia,
+and the din of the "wow wow wow-wow wow-ings" reverberating through
+these halls seemed strangely out of place amidst surroundings of gloom
+and suffering, where many a poor fellow was nearing his end. Our
+acting Consul-General came to pay me a visit at the palace, and we had
+a long talk about the internal conditions of Russia, of which he took
+none too rosy a view; distrust and discontent were growing apace, he
+implied, for the Court was entirely out of touch with the people, and
+the Government seemed to be going the way of the Court. On the night
+that we were leaving we were taken to the ballet at the Opera House,
+and we went straight from the theatre to board the train, which left
+about midnight for Petrograd.
+
+There we found Hanbury-Williams putting up at the Astoria, and I was
+able to have several conversations with him and also with Sir G.
+Buchanan and Colonel Blair, our Assistant Military Attache. From what
+I gathered from them and observations during the trip, it would be
+safe to report to the War Office that from the military point of view
+the outlook in Russia was distinctly promising. Even if there was
+little prospect of anything of real importance being effected on the
+Eastern Front this year, we might reasonably reckon upon the immense
+forces of the empire, adequately fitted out with rifles, machine-guns,
+field-artillery and ammunition, and with some heavy guns and howitzers
+to help, performing a dominant role in the campaign of 1917. And yet
+all was not well. The political conditions, if not exactly ominous,
+gave grounds for anxiety. The dim shadow of coming events was already
+being cast before. The internal situation required watching, and it
+was on the cards that the influence of the Allies might have to be
+thrown into the scale in order to prevent a dire upheaval.
+
+While at the capital on this occasion we paid a visit to the British
+hospital, occupying a palace on the Nevski Prospekt, which was under
+the management of Lady Sybil Grey. The most interesting patient in
+this admirably appointed institution was a sturdy little lad of about
+fourteen, who had been to the front, had got hit with a bullet, and
+had been converted into a sergeant. He was evidently made much of,
+accompanying us round as a sort of assistant Master of the Ceremonies,
+and he seemed to be having a good time; but he complained, so we were
+given to understand, that the nurses would insist on kissing him. If
+that was the only inconvenience resulting from a wound, it seemed to
+me to be a form of unpleasantness that one might manage to put up
+with.
+
+When the time for departure came, Meyendorff was quite unhappy at my
+objecting to his accompanying us all the way to Tornea; but we meant
+to travel through Finland disguised as small fry and in plain clothes.
+On the occasion of our previous heading for home, our leaving had been
+advertised in all the newspapers; the Embassy had drawn the attention
+of the authorities to this, and the Press had been directed to make
+no mention in future of foreign officers starting for Scandinavia.
+Even if the enemy under-water flotilla was hardly likely to make
+special endeavours to catch us on the Bergen-Newcastle trip, there was
+no object in running unnecessary risks by letting them know that we
+were coming along.
+
+We enjoyed a rare stroke of luck on the voyage across the North Sea
+this time. Our packet was plodding peacefully along on a hazy, grey
+forenoon, about half-way to the Tyne, when the faint silhouettes of a
+brace of destroyers were descried racing athwart our course a good
+many miles ahead. We were watching them disappear far away on the
+starboard bow, when others suddenly hove in sight looming up through
+the mist, all of them going like mad in the same direction, and then
+four great shadowy battle-cruisers showed themselves steaming hard
+across our front, four or five miles away. The armada, a signal
+manifestation of vitality and power and speed, was evidently making
+for Rosyth; it had no doubt been on the prowl about the Skagerrack,
+and it presumably meant to coal at high pressure and then to get busy
+again. Such a spectacle would naturally be an everyday occurrence to
+the Sister Service; but to a landsman this assemblage of fighting
+craft going for all they were worth was tremendously impressive as a
+demonstration of British maritime might--far more impressive than
+interminable rows of warships, moored and at rest, such as one had
+seen gathered together between Southampton Water and Spithead for a
+Royal Review.
+
+What surprised one most perhaps was the wide extent of the water-area
+which this battle-cruiser squadron covered, consisting as it did of
+only a quartette of capital ships after all, with their attendant ring
+of mosquito-craft keeping guard ahead, astern and on the flanks. The
+leading pair of destroyers cannot have been much short of twenty miles
+in advance of the two scouts which came racing up at the tail of the
+hunt. Our old tub had got well within the water-area by the time that
+these latter sleuths approached, and their track passed astern of us;
+but at the last moment one of them pivoted round, just as a Canadian
+canoe will pivot round in the hands of an artist, and came tearing
+along after us--it may have been to look at us or it may merely have
+been to show off--passed us on the port hand not more than a cable's
+length off as if we were standing still, shot across our bows, and was
+off like a flash after her consort. Of those battle-cruisers that
+looked so imposing as they rushed along towards the Firth of Forth
+that forenoon, at least one was to meet her fate before many days had
+passed. The Battle of Jutland was fought about three weeks later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE RUSSIAN BUNGLE
+
+     The Russian Revolution the worst disaster which befell the
+     Entente during the Great War -- The political situation in Russia
+     before that event much less difficult to deal with than had been
+     the political situation in the Near East in 1915 -- The Allies'
+     over-estimate of Russian strength in the early months of the war
+     -- We hear first about the ammunition shortage from Japan --
+     Presumable cause of the breakdown -- The Grand Duke Nicholas's
+     difficulties in the early months -- Great improvement effected in
+     respect to munitions subsequent to the summer of 1915 -- Figures
+     -- Satisfactory outlook for the campaign of 1917 -- Political
+     situation goes from bad to worse -- Russian Mission to London; no
+     steps taken by our Government -- Our representatives in Russia --
+     Situation at the end of 1916 -- A private letter to Mr. Lloyd
+     George -- The Milner Mission to Russia -- Its failure to
+     interpret the portents -- Had Lord Kitchener got out it might
+     have made all the difference -- Some excuse for our blundering
+     subsequent to the Revolution -- The delay in respect to action in
+     Siberia and at Vladivostok.
+
+
+Incomparably the most grievous disaster met with by the Entente during
+the progress of the Great War was the Russian Revolution of March
+1917. All the other mishaps, great and small, which the Allies had to
+deplore--the occupation of Belgium and of wide areas of France by
+German hosts at the very outset, the collapse of the Emperor
+Nicholas's legions in Poland in 1915, the Dardanelles failure,
+Bulgaria's accession to the ranks of our enemies and the resultant
+overthrow of Serbia, the fall of Kut, Roumania's unhappy
+experience--sink into insignificance compared with the downfall of the
+Romanoffs and what that downfall led to.
+
+Had the cataclysmic upheaval in Russia been averted, or at least been
+delayed until hostilities were at an end, the war would have been
+brought to a successful conclusion before the close of the year 1917.
+Much loss of life would have been saved. The European belligerents,
+one and all and whichever side they fought on during the contest,
+would be in an incomparably less anxious economic position than they
+actually are in to-day. The Eastern Hemisphere would have settled its
+own affairs without intervention, other than naval and financial, from
+the farther side of the Atlantic. Peace would in consequence have been
+concluded within a very few months of the cessation of hostilities,
+instead of negotiations starting on a preposterous basis and being
+protracted for more than a year.
+
+That the Revolution could have been prevented, or at all events could
+have been deferred until subsequent to the end of the war, I firmly
+believe. Our diplomacy has been severely criticized in connection with
+Near Eastern affairs in 1915; nor will any one maintain that it was
+successful, judged by results. But the situation in the Balkans was
+one of extraordinary perplexity in any case, and the problem was
+complicated by the fact that the Allies were not all of one mind as to
+what course to pursue on almost any single occasion. The position of
+affairs during the critical months leading up to March 1917 in Russia,
+on the other hand, was no puzzle, and the political situation had
+never been a puzzle since the outbreak of war. Our French and Italian
+friends, moreover, fully realized that this country, if it chose to do
+so, possessed the means of exerting a special and controlling
+influence within the governing clique holding sway at the head of the
+empire, and they were most anxious that that influence should be
+exercised. But before touching on this question some comments on the
+military conditions within the territories of our whilom eastern Ally
+previous to, and at the time of, the catastrophe will not be out of
+place.
+
+The potentialities of Russia for carrying on a war of first-class
+magnitude had been altogether overestimated at the outset in the
+United Kingdom and in France, alike by the public and by the military
+authorities--in France perhaps even more so than in this country. The
+armies of our eastern Ally did, it is true, accomplish greater things
+in some respects than had been anticipated, because they struck an
+effective blow at an earlier date than had been believed possible, and
+they thereby relieved pressure in the West at a critical juncture even
+if their enterprising and loyal action in East Prussia was later to
+lead them into a terrible disaster. During the first two or three
+months after the outbreak of hostilities their weakness in regard to
+equipment and to munitions was not, however, known, or at all events
+was only partially known. There was much talk in the Press about the
+"steam-roller" which was going to flatten the Central Powers out. We
+at the War Office had received warnings from our very well-informed
+Military Attache, it is true; but those warnings did not convey to us
+the full gravity of the position, a gravity which was probably not
+recognized even in high places in Russia for some time. Moreover, as
+far as we could judge, Paris had no idea that anything was seriously
+amiss beyond the Vistula, in spite of the Franco-Russian alliance
+having been in force for some years.
+
+The first really alarming tidings on this subject that we received
+came to hand, oddly enough, from Japan; and it bears testimony to the
+efficiency of our Far Eastern Ally's intelligence service that the
+Island Empire should have been so intimately acquainted with the
+military conditions in a State with which it had been at war only a
+very few years before. This information reached us, I think, in
+October 1914. But as far as I recollect, that warning, inexorable as
+it was, only touched the question of ammunition. We were told plainly
+that the Russians were likely to run out of this indispensable at an
+early date; but the message did not mention rifles, although these
+already began to run short within eight months of the commencement of
+the struggle. How it came about [p.283] that there should have been so
+deplorable a breakdown in respect to war material can only be a matter
+of conjecture; but we may hazard a pretty shrewd guess that the
+collapse which was to lead to such deplorable results in the early
+summer of 1915, was attributable to graft on a Homeric scale. For the
+Russian army budgets had for several years before the war been framed
+on lavish lines; that for 1914, for instance, mounted up to
+725,000,000 roubles, which represented a higher figure than the
+corresponding budgets in either Germany or France. General
+Sukhomlinoff, the War Minister on the Neva from 1910 to 1915, was, as
+is well known, disgraced in the latter year, and he was tried for his
+life after the Revolution.
+
+The Russian victories in Galicia during the winter of 1914-15,
+followed as they were by the reduction of the important place of arms,
+Przemysl, caused unbounded satisfaction in this country. But those
+behind the scenes feared, with only too good reason, that such
+triumphs represented no more than a flash in the pan, and that, should
+the Germans decide to throw heavy forces into the scale, the Grand
+Duke Nicholas would speedily find himself obliged to abandon the
+conquests which looked so gratifying on paper. We in the War Office
+learnt, indeed, that the Russian generalissimo, who recognized that
+the munitions situation did not justify offensive operations on an
+ambitious scale, had been indisposed to undertake the capture of
+Przemysl, but that political pressure had been brought to bear on him.
+
+Lord Kitchener was constantly watching the Eastern Front with anxiety
+during the early months of 1915, fearing that in view of the Russian
+weakness some great transfer of enemy forces from East to West might
+be instituted. A strategical combination on such lines on the part of
+the German Great General Staff would under the existing circumstances
+have been a very natural one to adopt. But it is conceivable (if not
+very probable) that the higher military authorities in Berlin were
+not fully aware of the condition of their antagonists in Poland. The
+fact, moreover, remains that in their accounts of the campaign of 1915
+the numerous books on the war which have appeared in Germany ignore to
+a remarkable extent the munitions difficulties under which the Grand
+Duke Nicholas was suffering. That, however, may be attributable to a
+disinclination to admit that Hindenburg's successes were due, not to
+any outstanding brilliance in the handling of his troops nor to the
+gallantry and efficiency of those concerned in the operations under
+his orders, but simply to his opponent being almost bereft of
+armament. Be that as it may, Russia was in such evil plight for arms
+and ammunition from the summer of 1915 on to that of 1916 that she was
+wellnigh powerless, except in Armenia. She only became really
+formidable again during the period of quiescence that, as usual, set
+in during the winter of 1916-17.
+
+Shortly after returning home in May 1916, I took over charge (under
+circumstances to be mentioned in the next chapter) of the War Office
+branch which dealt with munitions and supplies for Russia, and I am
+consequently familiar with this question. To show what strides were
+made towards fitting the military forces out for a strenuous campaign
+in 1917, some output figures may be given. (I have none for dates
+prior to January 1916.) It should be mentioned that the output of
+field-artillery ammunition had already, owing to General Polivanoff's
+exertions, been greatly expanded during the latter part of 1915, and
+there was no very marked increase in this during 1916; the French
+supplied large numbers of rounds, and it had been hoped that great
+quantities would come to hand from the United States, but the influx
+from this latter source hardly materialized before the winter of
+1916-17. Seeing how greatly the Russian armies had suffered from lack
+of heavy artillery during the first year of the war, the huge increase
+in output of howitzer and 6-inch rounds is particularly worth noting.
+
+                               January 1916.         January 1917.
+
+  Rifles....                    93,000               129,000
+  Machine-guns                     712                 1,200
+  Small-arms ammunition     96,000,000 rounds    173,000,000 rounds
+  Field-guns                       169                   407
+  Field-howitzers                   33                    62
+  Field-howitzer ammunition     72,000 rounds        369,000 rounds
+  6-inch guns and howitzers          1                    17
+  6-inch gun and howitzer
+  ammunition                    32,000 rounds        230,000 rounds
+
+By the early weeks of 1917 the empire was not dependent upon its own
+resources alone. Great contracts for rifles, machine-guns, small-arms
+ammunition, and field-gun ammunition had been placed in the United
+States under arrangements made by Lord Kitchener in the summer of
+1915. The factories on the farther side of the Atlantic only began to
+produce during the summer of 1916, and they had not got into full
+swing before the latter part of the year; but by March 1917, 412,000
+rifles, 12,200 machine-guns, 240,000,000 rounds of small-arms
+ammunition, and 4,750,000 rounds of field-gun ammunition had already
+been handed over, and great part of this armament had been shipped
+(the field-gun ammunition mainly to Vladivostok across the Pacific);
+and a great output was still in progress. Over 800 howitzers and heavy
+guns, with abundant ammunition for them, had also by that time been
+despatched to Russia from the United Kingdom and France, and nearly
+6,000,000 rounds of field-gun ammunition from France. Such statistics
+could be multiplied. Suffice it to say that there was every reason to
+assume that the Emperor Nicholas's legions would be adequately
+supplied with most forms of munitions for the 1917 campaign, and that,
+thanks to the great increase in the numbers of rifles, machine-guns
+and pieces of artillery available, they would take the field in far
+stronger force numerically than at any previous period of the war.
+
+From the purely military point of view the position of affairs in the
+winter of 1916-17 was, in fact, decidedly promising. A huge force was
+under arms and was coming to be well equipped. General Brusiloff's
+successes in the summer of 1916, even if they made no appreciable
+alteration in the general strategical situation, had afforded most
+satisfactory evidence that the stubborn fighting spirit of the Russian
+troops had suffered no eclipse consequent upon disasters of the past.
+Confidence reigned at the Stavka, and competent leaders had been
+forced to the front. But the internal situation, on the other hand,
+had become ominous in the extreme.
+
+Some references were made in the last chapter to the discontent that
+was manifesting itself throughout the country even early in 1916, and
+to the attitude of marked indifference that was being displayed by the
+officers in respect to the Sovereign to whom they owed allegiance. But
+things had gone rapidly from bad to worse since that date. M.
+Sazonoff, the eminent Foreign Minister, to whose efforts before the
+war the satisfactory understanding between Great Britain and Russia
+was largely due and whose policy was uncompromisingly anti-German, had
+been got out of the way by the machinations of the Court clique. (The
+Emperor, it may be mentioned, had been almost cringingly apologetic to
+our representatives about this step, which he could not but realize
+would create a very bad impression in London and Paris.) Successive
+substitutions carried out amongst the personnel of the Executive had
+all tended towards introducing elements that were reactionary from the
+point of view of internal policy and were suspect from the point of
+view of the Entente. Dissatisfaction and loss of confidence had been
+growing apace amongst the public, and what had been merely
+indifference manifested amongst the officers towards the Autocrat at
+the head of the State was giving place to openly expressed dislike and
+even to contempt for a potentate who, however well-meaning he might
+be, was constantly affording evidence that he was in the [p.287] hands of
+mischievous counsellors and possessed no will of his own.
+
+A special Mission had come over to England from Russia in August,
+including amongst its numerous personnel the Finance Minister and the
+Chief of the General Staff at the Ministry of War. This Mission had
+obtained from us promises of financial assistance running into scores
+of millions sterling, to say nothing of an undertaking to furnish
+substantial consignments of war material. But in the understanding
+that was then arrived at, I never could detect any trace of conditions
+designed to check the dangerous policy which all who were behind the
+scenes realized the Emperor to be adopting. Who paid the piper never
+called one note of the tune. There was an ingenuousness about the
+proceedings on the part of our Government that was startling in its
+Micawberism and improvidence.
+
+Now, our Cabinet was extraordinarily fortunate in the British
+representatives within the Russian Empire upon whom they depended or
+ought to have depended. They were admirably served on the Neva, at the
+Stavka and in the field. We had an ambassador who was trusted to an
+unprecedented extent by all ranks and classes in the realm which he
+was making his temporary home. The Head of our Military Mission,
+Hanbury-Williams, was a _persona gratissima_ with the Emperor. Our
+Military Attaches--Knox, Blair, and Marsh--were masters of the Russian
+language, and, in common with several British officers especially
+accredited to the different armies, ever had their fingers on the
+pulse of military sentiment on the fighting fronts. How it came about
+that our Government--or rather Governments, because Mr. Lloyd George
+and his War Cabinet replaced Mr. Asquith and his sanhedrin of
+twenty-three just when things were becoming highly critical--shambled
+blindly along trusting to luck and did nothing, it is hard to say. But
+among them they nearly lost us the war.
+
+Towards the end of the year 1916 the situation was already becoming
+almost desperate, even if the putting away of the horrible Rasputin
+did seem for a moment to relieve the gloom. Officers high up in the
+army were imploring our military representatives for British
+intervention with their rulers. Our ambassador appears to have done
+everything that man could do, even remonstrating in set terms with the
+Emperor; but he would not seem to have been accorded the strenuous
+support from home which he had a right to look for, and which would
+have given his representations that compelling weight demanded by an
+exceedingly precarious situation.
+
+Owing to the nature of my duties in connection with supplies of all
+kinds for Russia, following upon visits to that country, I had been
+closely in touch with the situation for some months, heard from our
+military representatives from time to time, and saw Russians in an
+official position in London practically daily. By the end of the year
+the position seemed to me so fraught with peril that, on learning of
+the contemplated despatch of a special political and military Mission
+to Murmansk _en route_ for the interior, I wrote a private letter to
+Mr. Lloyd George, and this was duly acknowledged with thanks by his
+Private Secretary. This communication warned the Prime Minister that
+Russia was on the brink of revolution owing to the reactionary
+tendencies of her government; it pointed out that if a revolution were
+to break out the consequences must be disastrous to the campaign of
+1917 on the Eastern Front, as all arrangements would inevitably be
+thrown out of gear; and it proposed that we should play our trump
+card, that, backed by the express authority and enforced by the active
+intervention of the War Cabinet, we should turn to its fullest account
+the influence of our Royal House with the Emperor Nicholas. The remedy
+might not have produced the desired effect. The diagnosis at all
+events turned out to be correct.
+
+One never anticipated, needless to say, that if the revolution which
+seemed to be imminent were actually to take place, the consequences
+would be quite so terrible as those which have actually supervened.
+One never dreamt of the executive power over great part of the vast
+dominions then under the sway of the Romanoff dynasty falling into the
+hands of wretches such as Peter the Painter, Trotzky and Lenin. But,
+even assuming a more or less stable form of reasonable republican
+government to replace the existing autocracy, it could not be other
+than obvious to all who were in any way conversant with the social
+conditions holding good in this enormous area, peopled as it was by
+illiterate and profoundly ignorant peasants, that a revolution was
+bound to produce a state of affairs for the time being bordering on
+chaos. What ought to prove the decisive year of the war was at hand.
+Revolution must be staved off at all costs.
+
+The special Mission actually started for Murmansk some two or three
+weeks later. Although the list of its personnel made a good enough
+show on paper, it lacked the one element that was practically
+indispensable if its representations were to save the situation. They
+say that Lord Milner, on getting back, gave the War Cabinet to
+understand that all was going on fairly well in Russia, and that there
+was little or no fear of a _bouleversement_. This would have seemed to
+me incredible had I not met several of the members of the Mission when
+they turned up again, and had they not, one and all, appeared
+perfectly satisfied with the internal situation of the empire on which
+they had paid a call. Whom these good people saw out there, where they
+went, what steps they took to acquire knowledge in quarters other than
+official circles, how it came about that they returned to this country
+with no more idea of the state of affairs than a cassowary on the
+plains of Timbuctoo, furnishes one of those mysteries which cast such
+a recondite glamour over our public life. Why, the Babes in the Wood
+were prodigies of analysis and wizards of cunning compared with this
+carefully selected civilian and military party, which, it has to be
+acknowledged, spent a by no means idle time while sojourning in the
+territories of our eastern Ally. For among them they promised away
+any amount more munitions and war material of all kinds. They went
+into the details of the contemplated deal with meticulous care and
+consummate administrative skill. They elaborated a programme which
+would undoubtedly have proved in the highest degree advantageous to
+Russia, had the conditions not undergone a complete metamorphosis
+owing to the outbreak of the Revolution in Petrograd a very few days
+after they landed, sanguine and reassuring, in this country on their
+return journey.
+
+Had it not been for the _Hampshire_ disaster, had Lord Kitchener
+succeeded in carrying out his mission in the summer of 1916, it is
+conceivable that, in virtue of that almost uncanny intuition that he
+possessed, he would have pieced together the realities of the
+situation, and would have managed to teach his colleagues in our
+Cabinet to understand them on his return. His personal influence might
+have made all the difference in the world in Russia. He would have
+gained touch with all sorts and conditions of men while out there, and
+would have got to the back of their minds by methods all his own. The
+very fact that Russians have so much of the oriental strain in them
+would have helped him in this. But it was not to be.
+
+Of what followed after the Revolution much might be said; but, in so
+far as the blunders committed by our Government are concerned, it has
+to be admitted that the situation was no easy one to grapple with.
+When you have been such an ass as to ride your horse into a bog, there
+is a good deal of excuse for your botching getting the beast out
+again, as that is in the nature of things a difficult job. The
+mischief was done when the Revolution was allowed to occur. After that
+it became a case of groping with a bewildering, kaleidoscopic,
+intangible state of affairs. Mr. Henderson's performances have excited
+much ridicule, but against his absurd belief in M. Kerensky must be
+set his prompt recognition of his own unfitness for the position of
+representative of the British Government on the banks of the Neva. M.
+Kerensky, no doubt, may have meant well by the Allies after his own
+fashion; but as he can claim so great a share in the work of
+destroying the discipline of the Russian army, he proved the kind of
+friend who in practice is more pernicious than are open and
+undisguised enemies. One of the most singular features, indeed, in the
+epoch-making events of 1917 in Eastern Europe was the fact that a
+windbag of this sort should ever have gained power, and that, having
+gained power, he should have retained it for the space of several
+months. Only in Russia could such a thing have happened. It must be
+added that the perplexities to which the Entente Governments were a
+prey in connection with the Russian problem subsequent to March 1917
+were aggravated from the outset--and yet more so after Lenin's gaining
+the mastery--by the very divergent views which prevailed amongst them
+in connection with most of the awkward questions that arose.
+
+This was illustrated by the strange happenings concerning Siberia and
+Vladivostok of the early part of 1918. Gathered together at the
+extreme eastern doorway into Russia were enormous accumulations of war
+material and of vital commodities of all kinds--most of them, it may
+be observed incidentally, being goods which had been procured in the
+United States by British credits on behalf of pre-Bolshevist
+governments, Imperial and republican. It was imperative that these
+should not fall into the hands of Lenin's warrior rabble that was
+spreading eastwards from beyond the Ural Mountains, and it was equally
+imperative that the progress of these tumultuary Bolshevist levies
+into Siberia should be stayed at the earliest possible moment. These
+were duties which, owing to the geographical conditions, naturally
+devolved upon the United States and Japan, and, seeing that the United
+States were hurrying soldiers in hot haste to the European theatre of
+war, the duties in reality properly devolved upon Japan. But it was
+now no longer a question of reconciling the views merely of London,
+Paris, Rome, and Tokio. A disturbing factor had cropped up. President
+Wilson had entered the lists.
+
+The fact that no decision as to Siberia and Vladivostok was arrived at
+for weeks, and that when it was arrived at it was an unsatisfactory
+one, was not the fault of the British, nor of the French, nor of the
+Italian, nor yet of the Japanese Government. We have heard a good deal
+at times about "wait and see"; but Mr. Asquith is a very Rupert
+compared to the Autocrat reigning in the White House in 1918. Had
+Japan been given a free hand, with the full moral support of the
+Allies, and with some financial support and support in the shape of
+certain forms of war material, Bolshevism might have been stamped out
+even before the Central Powers were brought to their knees in 1918. It
+would surely be to the interest of the United States, as it would
+undoubtedly be to the interest of Canada and Australasia, that the
+swelling millions peopling eastern Asia should be encouraged to expand
+westwards into the rich but sparsely populated regions lying north of
+Mongolia, rather than that they should be seeking to expand across the
+Pacific Ocean. As it was, Japan received scanty encouragement, and
+only received it after procrastination had been developed to the very
+utmost.
+
+What occurred in connection with Siberia and Vladivostok on that
+occasion provided an unpleasant foretaste of the pathetic performance
+which was to go on for months and months in the following year at
+Versailles. It moreover foreshadowed and furthered that untoward
+extension of Bolshevism far and wide which has since taken place. Some
+of us would willingly have made shift to get on without a League of
+Nations could we have been saved from the disastrous consequence of
+action on the part of civilization in Siberia in 1918 having been so
+unjustifiably delayed, and its having taken so perfunctory a form.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+CATERING FOR THE ALLIES
+
+     The appointment of Colonel Ellershaw to look after Russian
+     munition supplies -- His remarkable success -- I take over his
+     branch after his death -- Gradual alteration of its functions --
+     The Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement -- Its efficiency
+     -- The despatch of goods to Russia -- Russian technical abilities
+     in advance of their organizing power -- The flame projector and
+     the Stokes mortar -- Drawings and specifications of Tanks -- An
+     early contretemps in dealing with a Russian military delegate --
+     Misadventure in connection with a 9.2-inch howitzer --
+     Difficulties at the northern Russian ports -- The American
+     contracts -- The Russian Revolution -- This transforms the whole
+     position as to supplies -- Roumania -- Statesmen in conflict --
+     Dealings with the Allies' delegates in general -- Occasional
+     difficulties -- Helpfulness of the United States representatives
+     -- The Greek muddle -- Getting it disentangled -- Great delays in
+     this country and in France in fitting out the Greeks, and their
+     consequences -- Serbian supplies -- The command in Macedonia
+     ought on administrative grounds to have been in British hands.
+
+
+One day early in the summer of 1915 Lord Kitchener sent for me to say
+that I must find him an artillery officer to take general charge of
+the arrangements that he was setting on foot for supplying the
+Russians with armament from the United States and elsewhere. I
+repaired to Colonel Malcolm Peake, who dealt with all questions of
+artillery personnel (he was killed on the Western Front very shortly
+after taking up an artillery command there), who asked what
+qualifications were needed. It was intimated that the officer must be
+something of an Admirable Crichton, must be a thoroughly up-to-date
+gunner of sufficient standing to be able to keep his end up when
+dealing with superior Russian officials, must be possessed of business
+capacity, must be gifted with tact and be a reservoir of energy, and
+ought to have a good working knowledge of French.
+
+Peake asked for time, and next day proposed Colonel W. Ellershaw for
+the appointment. Ellershaw had just been ordered home from France to
+assume charge of an important artillery school on Salisbury Plain, and
+he was duly instructed to come and report himself to me. He was by no
+means enthusiastic on his being informed of the proposal to divert him
+from the work that he had arrived to take over and which particularly
+appealed to him, and he displayed a diffidence for which, it speedily
+became apparent, there were no grounds whatever, for he proved himself
+to be absolutely made for the Russian job. As a result of his
+practical knowledge, of his genius for administration, of his driving
+power and of his personal charm, he gained the complete confidence of
+Lord Kitchener and of all Russians who were brought into contact with
+him. I kept him in a manner under my wing till the end of the year,
+although his work was not, properly speaking, General Staff work; but
+his little branch was transferred to General von Donop's department
+when Sir W. Robertson arrived and reorganised the General Staff
+arrangements at the War Office.
+
+Ellershaw formed one of the party which accompanied Lord Kitchener on
+the ill-fated expedition that terminated off the Orkneys, and he was
+drowned with his Chief. His death, like that of Colonel Fitzgerald and
+Mr. O'Beirne, was a real loss to his country, and it was greatly
+deplored by the many highly placed Russians who had had dealings with
+him and who had been enormously impressed by his work on their behalf.
+For some weeks after the _Hampshire_ catastrophe his place was not
+filled up; but General von Donop eventually asked me to take charge of
+his branch, which I agreed to by no means willingly, the work being
+entirely out of my line and my technical knowledge being virtually
+non-existent. Ellershaw, however, had everything in such good order
+and had got together such efficient assistants that the duty of
+superintendence did not, as it turned out, prove so difficult as had
+seemed likely. General Furse, on succeeding General von Donop some
+months later, objected to having under him a branch which was not a
+supply branch, but a liaison branch between the Russians on the one
+hand and his department and the Munitions Ministry on the other hand,
+so it was then settled that we should come directly under the
+Under-Secretary of State--a very appropriate arrangement.
+
+As all armament for Roumania had to pass through Russia, it became
+convenient that my branch should look after this as well, and we
+gradually came to be co-ordinating the supply of armament to all the
+Allies. Then, early in 1918, as a consequence mainly of the muddle
+that the War Office had got into over the question of supplies for
+Greece (of which armament only formed a small proportion), it was
+decided, somewhat late in the day, that we should deal with supplies
+of all kinds furnished by the War Office to the Allies. But it was
+arranged at the same time that my branch, instead of remaining under
+the Under-Secretary of State, its proper place, should be included in
+the new-fangled civilian department of the Surveyor-General of
+Supplies which had nothing to do with armament, a plan that set
+fundamental principles of administration at defiance inasmuch as the
+branch actually supplied nothing and merely acted as a go-between. It
+simultaneously acquired a title that constituted a very miracle of
+obscurantism and incongruity, warranted to bewilder everybody. Labours
+in connection with Russia and Roumania were by that time, however,
+virtually at an end, the importance of the branch had to a great
+extent lapsed, and it was afforded a not unedifying experience. For it
+became possible to compare the working of the military departments
+within the War Office with that of a department set up within that
+institution and run on the lines of the Man of Business, just as it
+had been possible before to compare the working of those military
+departments within the War Office with that of the Ministry of
+Munitions. If the military departments of the War Office came out with
+flying colours, it must in fairness be allowed that, as they were of
+the old-established and not the mushroom type, their competitors were
+giving away a lot of weight.
+
+As a matter of fact, the branch had never in principle been supposed
+to deal direct with the representatives of the Allies, although in
+practice we were in close and constant touch with them. Official
+business transactions with them were carried out, accounts kept, and
+so forth, by the "Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement," and,
+until we became entangled with the Surveyor-General of Supplies people
+and were obliged to shift quarters, we were accommodated in the
+building occupied by the "Commission," which constituted a very
+important department, nominally under the Board of Trade but for all
+practical purposes independent. This C.I.R.--departments and branches
+are always described by their initials in official life; the day would
+not be long enough nor would available stationery suffice to give them
+their full titles--was an admirably managed institution. It enjoyed
+the good fortune of being under charge of an experienced Civil
+Servant, Sir E. Wyldbore Smith, who had one or two of the same sort to
+help him, although the bulk of the staff were of the provisional type;
+and, as the various foreign delegations dealing with supplies were
+housed under the same roof, this was manifestly the proper place for
+us to be. We were in close touch with the people we actually had to
+deal with. The foreign delegates could always look in on us and could
+discuss points of detail with us on the spot, thereby avoiding
+misunderstandings and friction. Consisting, as they did, for the most
+part of officers, they liked to have officers to deal with. A foreign
+officer of junior rank will take "no" for an answer from a general and
+be perfectly happy, whereas he may jib at receiving the same answer
+from a civilian or from an officer of his own standing. Points of that
+kind are apt to be overlooked in a non-military country like ours.
+
+My branch had an extremely busy time in connection with the supply of
+the munitions which were promised to the Russians on the occasion of
+that mission of theirs which was sent to England just at the time that
+I took over charge, and which is mentioned on p. 287 in the last
+chapter. These munitions included war material of all kinds, but
+particularly field-howitzers and heavy artillery. The Russian
+delegation were quite ready to leave all the arrangements for getting
+the goods to Archangel from wherever they were turned out in this
+country, to the C.I.R. and us, working in conjunction with the Naval
+Transport Department of the Admiralty at first and afterwards with the
+Ministry of Shipping. They recognized their own administrative
+shortcomings and wisely left such matters under British control. Some
+difficulty did, however, arise in respect to the apportionment of
+tonnage space, as between the armament supplied by the War Office and
+commodities of other kinds which the delegates procured more or less
+direct from the trade through the C.I.R. Some regrettable delay
+occurred in the winter of 1916-17 in getting armament shipped which
+had been hurried from the factories to Liverpool, owing to its being
+shut out by goods of much less importance. It was imperative to get
+heavy artillery out as soon as possible in view of the coming
+campaign, and it was exasperating to have valuable howitzers idle at
+the docks which our own army in France would have welcomed. One had to
+take a high hand; but the Russians were easy to manipulate in such
+matters, and they never resented virtual dictation in the least so
+long as the iron hand remained concealed within the velvet glove.
+Relations were, indeed, always particularly pleasant.
+
+Although the average standard of education was probably lower in
+Russia than in any other State which could be called civilized, the
+country has produced many scientists of the very foremost rank, and
+the Russian artillery included many highly scientific--almost too
+scientific--officers. It used to be a little trying to find them,
+after they had received a consignment of our own pattern armament
+(which the French or the Italians or the Belgians would have jumped
+at), picking it to pieces, so to speak, criticising the details of
+high-explosive shell or of fuses from every point of view, and showing
+greater disposition to worry over such points than to get the stuff
+into the field and to kill Germans with it. The technicalist, indeed,
+almost seemed to rule the roost, although this unfortunately did not
+lead to even reasonably good care being taken of war material that
+arrived in the country. The Russians had done wonders in respect to
+developing the port of Archangel; they had performed the miracle
+actually during the war. But if they had achieved a veritable
+administrative triumph in this matter, their methods were terribly at
+fault in assembling goods as they arrived and in getting the goods
+through to their destination in good order. If they undoubtedly were
+strong on the scientific side, they were correspondingly weak on the
+practical side, as is illustrated by the following experience.
+
+I was taken down one afternoon to Hatfield Park to see a demonstration
+of a certain flame-producing arrangement, of which they had ordered
+large numbers. This was a pleasant outing, and the demonstration was
+interesting enough in itself; but the elaborate contrivance seemed to
+me totally unsuited to the conditions on the Russian front, because
+the flame was only projected eighty yards--one was quite comfortable a
+hundred and fifty yards straight in front of the projector--and the
+device was only adapted to conditions such as had existed in the
+Gallipoli Peninsula and as held good at a very few points on the
+Western Front, where the opposing trenches happened to be quite close
+together. As a matter of fact, the contrivance had been found of very
+little use when tried by us in the field. Strong recommendations came
+to hand shortly afterwards from some of our officers accredited to the
+Russian armies that a goodly supply of trench mortars should be sent
+out, and particularly of the invaluable Stokes mortars; it was
+foreseen by the applicants that, once the pattern was available, these
+could easily be constructed locally in Russia. But one encountered the
+greatest difficulty in inducing the delegation in this country to have
+anything to say to the Stokes mortar, because of its comparatively
+short range. And yet the range of the very oldest pattern of Stokes
+mortar was five times that of the flame projector, upon which material
+and time and labour and tonnage were being wasted.
+
+Then, again, there arose the question of tanks. Now a tank could not
+possibly at that time have been got along the Murmansk railway without
+squashing the whole track down for good and all into the marshes
+across which the permanent way was conveyed by precarious and
+provisional processes. Needless to say, we had no tanks to spare to be
+kept reposing idle for months at ports and congested junctions,
+awaiting transport to Vilna or Podolia. But as they could not get
+tanks, nor transport them if they were to secure some in this country,
+the Russians were anxious to procure drawings and specifications of
+these new-fangled engines of war. There was no reasonable likelihood
+of such a contraption ever being turned out in Russia owing to lack of
+raw material and to manufacturing difficulties, even supposing
+drawings and all the rest of it to be available. There were secrets in
+connection with the internals of a tank which must be zealously
+guarded. Under the circumstances, I suggested to the General Staff,
+when putting forward a request on behalf of the Commission for the
+paper stuff, that faked drawings and details should be furnished to
+keep the Russians quiet. This was done; but what was furnished would
+not have bluffed a novice in a select seminary for young ladies of
+weak intellect. So I sent the rubbish off to General Poole (who was
+representing this country out there in connection with the munitions
+that were arriving), telling him the facts of the case and leaving him
+to do as he thought fit. I was thus able to say, when pressed by the
+Commission, that this valuable documentary material had already been
+sent straight to Poole. No doubt he put it all in the wastepaper-basket.
+Sir A. Stern mentions in his book that he deemed it expedient to hand
+over a "child's drawing and incorrect details." It is satisfactory to
+find that he thought of adopting the exact course which I had proposed
+when originally putting forward the request on behalf of the Russians.
+
+That reminds me of a droll incident that occurred in connection with a
+Russian delegate quite early in the war. We had no clear understanding
+with our Allies at that date with regard to the allocation of material
+between us, nor as to the imperative necessity of preventing anything
+in the shape of competition in the British markets amongst us
+partners. The War Office had a certain article in mind that was being
+produced somewhere up north--at Manchester, I think, but anyway we
+will call it Manchester. The Russians happened to be after the same
+thing, and, without our knowing it, one of their officers who was in
+this country was about to enter into negotiations with the people up
+north with a view to securing it, and in due course he proceeded to
+Manchester with the purchase in view. But he was of an inquisitive
+disposition; he managed to get into some place or other to which he
+did not possess the entree. So, being a foreigner, he was promptly run
+in, and he spent about twenty-four hours incarcerated in some lock-up
+before he could establish his credentials. During that very
+twenty-four hours a representative of the War Office appeared in
+Manchester and snapped up what the captive was after.
+
+The Russian Military Attache came to the War Office to enter a strong
+protest at the outrage of which his brother officer had been the
+victim. He evidently meant to kick up no end of a row, and he had just
+got into his stride and was going strong and well, when he suddenly
+went off into a tempest of giggles. He saw the humour of the
+situation. He was fully persuaded that we had deliberately arrested
+his friend so as to get him out of the way while we managed to push
+the deal through ourselves, and he evidently gave us gratifying credit
+for being so wide-awake. It was not the slightest use our explaining
+that this was one of those coincidences in real life which are
+stranger than fiction, that we had been wholly unaware that the
+Russian officer was even thinking about the article that we had
+secured, that we knew nothing whatever about him or his adventures.
+The Military Attache was politeness itself; but he evidently did not
+believe a word we said--who, under the circumstances, would? Still, we
+had come out top-dog in the business, so we left it at that.
+
+It must not be supposed that things never went wrong in spite of the
+elaborate system that we were adopting for transferring war material
+to Archangel under our control. Late in the autumn of 1916 I extracted
+out of von Donop a 9.2-inch howitzer and mounting all complete--he did
+not part readily with his goods--so as to send them on ahead and to
+afford the Russians an opportunity of learning the points of this
+ordnance, in anticipation of the arrival of a regular consignment of
+the weapons which had been promised for a later date. But part of the
+concern somehow found its way into one ship and the rest of it into
+another ship, and one of the ships managed to get rid of her propeller
+in the North Sea, drifted aimlessly for a whole month, was believed to
+have foundered, and was eventually discovered and towed ignominiously
+back to one of our northern ports. She was lucky not to meet with a
+U-boat during her wanderings. The result was that the Russians
+received either a howitzer and no mounting or a mounting and no
+howitzer, I forget which, and the whole bag of tricks was not
+assembled at its destination until after part of the regular
+consignment of 9.2-inch howitzers had arrived in Petrograd about
+April.
+
+In connection with this business of shipping goods to our eastern
+Ally, it should be mentioned that the sealing up of the port of
+Archangel and of the White Sea in general from about mid-November
+until well on in May--the exact period varied in different seasons,
+and depended to some extent upon the direction of the wind--complicated
+the problem. Some forty of our ships had been embedded in ice for
+months in these waters in the winter of 1915-16, and the Admiralty
+were taking no risks this time. It was not a question merely of
+getting a vessel to its destination, but also a question of getting
+her discharged and out of the trap before it snapped-to. That a
+railway had not been constructed to Murmansk years before, illustrates
+the torpor and lack of enterprise of the ruling classes in Russia.
+Although Archangel is icebound somewhat longer, the Gulfs of Finland
+and Bothnia likewise become impassable for navigation during the
+winter; so that for some months of the year maritime communication
+between northern portions of the empire and the outer world was almost
+necessarily to a great extent cut off. And yet all the time there
+existed a fine natural harbour of great extent on the Arctic coast
+which was never frozen over, simply asking to be made use of. Not
+until a state of affairs, which ought to have been foreseen, arose in
+actual war--the Baltic and exit from the Black Sea barred by hostile
+belligerents--was anything done. A British company was trying hard to
+obtain powers to construct a railway to Murmansk at the time of the
+outbreak of hostilities; but a line was not completed till more than
+two years had elapsed and was then of the most ramshackle character.
+
+It was not only from the United Kingdom and from France that war
+material and other goods were being conveyed by sea to Russia, but
+also from America; and it was infinitely preferable for these latter
+to take the easterly route to the northern ports of the empire, than
+for them to take the westerly route across the Pacific to Vladivostok,
+involving a subsequent journey of thousands of miles along a railway
+that was very deficient in rolling stock. Matters in connection with
+Lord Kitchener's contracts in the United States were in the hands of
+Messrs. Morgan on the farther side of the Atlantic, with a
+Russo-British Commission on the spot watching developments.
+Responsibilities in connection with the transactions in this country
+had come under charge of the Ministry of Munitions. My branch noted
+progress, kept the General Staff informed, and represented the War
+Office in connection with the subject when questions arose. Experience
+of these huge American contracts fully bore out what had occurred at
+home in connection with the expansion of munitions production on the
+part of the War Office after the outbreak of war--only in a somewhat
+exaggerated form. Whereas in this country output began to intensify
+rapidly within twelve months and the credit was appropriated by Mr.
+Lloyd George, owing to intensification for which the War Office was
+solely responsible taking place after the setting up of the Munitions
+Ministry, output only began really to sprout in the United States
+about sixteen months after the start. All, however (as already
+mentioned in the last chapter), was full of promise when the crash of
+the Revolution came to nullify what had been achieved.
+
+Up to the date of that disastrous event, and even for a few weeks
+subsequently, one did one's best to accelerate the supply and the
+despatch of war material from this country to Archangel and, after the
+closing of that great port by ice, Murmansk, which was just beginning
+to serve as an avenue into the country owing to the completion--after
+a fashion--of its unstable railway. The Milner Mission had been as
+profuse in its pledges as it had been erratic in its anticipations,
+and had committed itself to somewhat comprehensive engagements in
+connection with the furnishing of further war material. So that,
+almost synchronizing with the downfall of the Romanoff dynasty and the
+setting up of a new regime, this country found itself let in for
+diverting munitions of all sorts, in addition to what had already been
+promised, to an Ally in whom trust could no longer be placed. On one
+occasion in the course of the winter I had defeated the combined
+forces of Sir W. Robertson and the Master-General of the Ordnance
+before the War Cabinet over the question of deflecting a few howitzers
+to Russia. But one's point of view underwent a transformation
+subsequent to the dire events of March in Petrograd. So far from
+pushing the claims of the revolutionary government for war material,
+it then seemed expedient to act as a drag on the wheel, and to take
+the side of the C.I.G.S. and General Furse when Lord Milner from time
+to time pressed the question of sending out armament. The War Office
+deprecated depriving our own troops of munitions for the sake of
+trying to bolster up armies that were disintegrating apace owing to
+the action of Kerensky and his like. It was very disappointing--apart
+from the threatening political situation, prospects had seemed so good
+in Russia. But all the endeavours that had been made to assist during
+the previous few months were evidently going to be to no purpose. Just
+when the despatch of what our Ally required had been got on a
+thoroughly sound footing, the organization was to prove of no avail.
+
+Still, there was always Roumania to be thought of, even if the problem
+of getting goods through to that country in face of the chaos which
+was rapidly making way in Russia was almost becoming insoluble. The
+French, like ourselves, were most anxious to afford succour to that
+stricken kingdom. Amongst other things, they requested us to send off
+to Moldavia a certain consignment (thirty, I think it was) of 6-inch
+howitzers, which M. Thomas declared Mr. Lloyd George had promised him
+for the French army. But the worst of it was, there was a difference
+of opinion in regard to this reputed undertaking. The stories of these
+two eminent public servants clashed in a very important particular,
+for our man strenuously denied ever having committed himself to the
+alleged engagement. On only one point, indeed, were the pair in full
+agreement, and this was that the discussion in connection with the
+matter had taken place after luncheon.
+
+Bearing in mind Mr. Lloyd George's irrepressible passion for pleasing,
+and taking the fact into account that generosity with what belongs to
+somebody else is in the United Kingdom recognized as the masterstroke
+of Radical statesmanship, there did seem to be just a last possibility
+of M. Thomas having right on his side. Still, expansiveness, fantasy
+and oblivion serve for epilogue to a grateful midday meal, and, when
+all is said and done, possession is nine points of the law--we had the
+howitzers, so it was for the other party to get them out of us. But we
+should, no doubt, have sent them out to our Roumanian friends in due
+course had it not become virtually impracticable to get such goods
+through from the North Russian ports by the date that the subject came
+up for final decision.
+
+It has to be confessed that all of our Continental Allies were not
+quite so well disciplined in the matter of procuring goods in this
+country as were the Russians. As time went on and raw material and
+manufactured commodities began to run short in the United Kingdom,
+_tracasseries_ would from time to time arise in connection with
+certain rules which had been laid down in the interests of us all. The
+delegations manifested a highly inconvenient bent for purchasing in
+the open market, which did not by any means suit our book, as such
+procedure tended to run up prices and to disturb equilibrium. The
+trade, moreover, was ready enough to meet them, and occasionally to
+let them have goods more quickly and even cheaper than they could be
+procured through the authorized channels. A firm attitude had to be
+taken up in regard to this, even if it led to some misunderstandings.
+In the case of one of our pals (who shall be nameless) it was like
+fly-fishing for oysters on the Horse Guards Parade to try to extract
+receipts for goods received; an embargo had, indeed, to be placed on
+further issues until overdue receipts were handed in.
+
+But the United States representatives were always particularly
+considerate and helpful. When they came to be dealing with us on at
+least as great a scale as any other Ally, their delegates appreciated
+the position that this country was in, and they took full cognizance
+of the risks that we were incurring of running out of vital
+commodities altogether unless disposal of these was kept under rigid
+control. They always fell in readily with our requirements,
+inconvenient as some of these may have proved. Still, all our friends
+were alike in one respect--they were all of them intent upon getting
+their full money's worth. As a pillar of literary culture in khaki,
+indeed, remarked to me in this connection; "They must, like Fagin in
+the 'Merchant of Venice,' have their pound of flesh." Such
+difficulties as arose could generally be smoothed over by personal
+intercourse, and the head of the Commission Internationale de
+Ravitaillement could charm the most unruly member of his flock to eat
+out of his hand by dint of tact and kindness.
+
+It was just at the time when I was acting as D.C.I.G.S. in the summer
+of 1917 that the French suddenly wired over to the War Office to
+request us to send representatives to Paris to discuss with them what
+we were prepared to let Greece have, now that the Hellenes had come
+down off the fence and were going to afford active assistance to the
+Allies in the Balkans, but stood in need of equipment and of supplies
+of all kinds. Had I been free at the time, I should have proposed to
+go even though our new friends wanted clothing, personal equipment,
+transport, animals and food--goods with which my branch had nothing to
+do--rather than munitions. As it was, a couple of senior officers went
+over who had no proper authority to act, and who hardly knew the
+ropes. The Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement was forgotten
+altogether, and as for the poor dear old Treasury, not only was that
+Department of State treated with scorn, but the Lords Commissioners
+were not even informed, when our delegates were retrieved from the Gay
+City, that a casual sort of agreement, which _inter alia_ involved
+appreciable financial obligations, had been entered into with our
+friends on the other side of the Channel. No determinate Convention
+of any kind or sort was drawn up or signed, what had been
+provisionally promised remained for a long time in a condition of
+ambiguity, and the transaction as a whole cannot be claimed as one of
+the cardinal achievements of the War Office during the course of the
+four years' conflict.
+
+The French undertook to find almost all the requisite armament; that
+we did not mean to find any was about the only point that was clearly
+laid down during the Paris negotiations, although this was altered
+later. My branch was therefore little concerned in the business until,
+as has been mentioned on p. 216, the dilemma that various departments
+were in over the affair was thrust before the War Cabinet, and steps
+were taken to get something done. Even then, it took some weeks before
+we arrived at a clear understanding with the French and the Greeks as
+to what exactly we were going to provide, and before a proper
+Convention was tabled. Much time was therefore wasted, and time must
+not be wasted in time of war.
+
+Then, when it had at last been established what goods this country was
+to provide, there was fresh and almost unaccountable dilatoriness in
+certain quarters in furnishing important commodities, although the
+military departments of the War Office grappled with their side of the
+problem and overcame serious difficulties with commendable despatch.
+General R. Reade had been sent out to Athens to look after things at
+that end, and he with his assistants kept us fully informed of
+requirements and of progress; but he had to put up with a
+procrastination at this end which was unquestionably preventible. One
+has to face uphill jobs from time to time in the army; but in
+thirty-six years of active service I never wrestled with so uphill a
+job as that of trying, in the year of grace 1918, to get our share of
+the fitting out of the Hellenic forces fulfilled. The only thing to be
+said is that the French, who had easier problems to contend with and
+less to do than we had, were almost equally behindhand. But the
+result of it all was that, of the 200,000 troops whom, entirely apart
+from reserves, the Greek Government were prepared to mass on the
+fighting front if only they could be fitted out, barely half were
+actually in the field when (fortunately for those who were responsible
+for mismanaging the despatch of the requisite supplies from this
+country and from France) the Bulgarians realized that the game of the
+Central Powers was up, and they virtually threw up the sponge.
+
+In so far as Serbia was concerned, a detailed Convention had been
+drawn up with the French in 1916, clearly indicating what the two
+respective Governments were to furnish for the service of Prince
+Alexander's war-worn troops. Under the terms of this agreement, we
+were concerned chiefly with the question of food and forage; but we
+also, needless to say, provided the bulk of the shipping on which the
+Serbian contingents depended for their existence. They, as it
+happened, came to be none too well equipped, and it was a pity perhaps
+that we had not undertaken somewhat heavier obligations in connection
+with these sorely tried Allies of ours and thereby ensured their being
+properly clothed. A fresh Convention was drawn up in London in
+September 1918, under which we accepted somewhat increased
+responsibilities, and Brigadier-General the Hon. C. G. Fortescue was
+sent out to look after matters in Macedonia in the Serbian interest.
+The end came, however, before the arrangements made could exercise any
+appreciable effect during the actual fighting; but I believe that good
+work has been done since that date.
+
+Considering the exceedingly burdensome character of our liabilities in
+connection with maintaining the associated forces of the Entente in
+Macedonia for the space of three years--for practical purposes we had
+to find pretty well all the food, and we had, moreover, to get the
+food (and almost everything else) to Salonika in our ships, which paid
+heavy toll to enemy submarines during the process--it was a faulty
+arrangement that the chief command out there was not reposed in
+British hands. To press for it would have been awkward, seeing that
+the chief command in the Dardanelles operations that had proved so
+abortive had rested with us; and it was, moreover, perfectly well
+known in Paris that the military authorities in this country looked
+askance at the whole business and that our Government entertained
+doubts on the subject. Had the operations been conducted by a British
+commander-in-chief they might not have been attended by greater
+success than they actually were, but, considering the strength of the
+mixed forces which remained locked up so long in this barren field of
+endeavour, they could hardly have proved less effective than they
+actually were for nearly three years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE PRESS
+
+     The constant newspaper attacks upon the War Office -- Often arise
+     from misunderstandings or sheer ignorance -- The mistake made
+     with regard to war correspondents at the start -- The pre-war
+     intentions of the General Staff -- How they were set on one side
+     -- Inconvenience of this from the War Office point of view -- A
+     breach of faith -- The mischievous optimism of newspapers in the
+     early days -- Tendency of the military authorities to conceal bad
+     news -- Experts at fault in the Press -- Tendency to take the
+     Press too seriously in this country -- Some of its blunders
+     during the war -- A proposal to put German officer prisoners on
+     board transports as a protection -- A silly mistake over the
+     promotion of general-officers -- Why were tanks not adopted
+     before the war! -- A paean about Sukhomlinoff -- A gross
+     misstatement -- Temporary officers and high positions in the
+     field -- A suggestion that the Press should censor itself in time
+     of war -- Its absurdity -- The Press Bureau -- Some of its
+     mistakes -- Information allowed to appear which should have been
+     censored -- Difficulties of the censors -- The case of the shell
+     shortage -- Difficulty of laying down rules for the guidance of
+     the censors -- The Press and the air-raids -- A newspaper
+     proprietor placed at the head of the Air Service -- The result --
+     The question of announcing names of units that have distinguished
+     themselves -- Conclusion.
+
+
+It is inevitable, perhaps, that a rather time-honoured War Office
+hand--thirteen years of it, covering different periods between 1887
+and 1918--should entertain somewhat mixed feelings with regard to the
+Press. As long as I can remember, practically, the War Office has
+provided a sort of Aunt Sally for the young men of Fleet Street to
+take cock-shies at when they can think of nothing else to edify their
+readers with, and uncommonly bad shots a good many of them have made.
+Assessment at the hands of the newspaper world confronts every public
+department. Nor can this in principle be objected to; healthy,
+well-informed criticism is both helpful and stimulating. But although
+many of the attacks delivered upon the War Office by the Fourth
+Estate, in the course of that perpetual guerilla warfare which is
+carried on by journalism in general against the central administration
+of the army, have been fully warranted, the fact remains that no small
+proportion of them has been based upon misapprehension, and that a
+good many of them can be put down to pure ignorance. Never has this
+been more apparent than during the progress of the Great War. But a
+reason for this suggests itself at once; many newspapers, no doubt,
+for the time being lost the services of members of their staff who
+possessed some qualification for expatiating upon military questions.
+
+It has to be acknowledged that the Press was badly treated by the War
+Office and G.H.Q. at the outset. This circumstance may have
+contributed towards setting up relations during the contest between us
+in Whitehall and the world of journalism which were not always too
+cordial. The question of correspondents in the war zone naturally
+cropped up at a very early stage, and the decision arrived at, for
+better or for worse, was that none of them were to go. The wisdom of
+the attitude taken up by the military authorities in this matter is a
+question of opinion; but my view was, and still is, that the
+newspapers were treated injudiciously and that the decision was wrong.
+I was, indeed, placed in the uncomfortable position of administering a
+policy which I disliked, and which I believed to be entirely mistaken.
+It, moreover, practically amounted to a breach of faith.
+
+The General Staff had for some years prior to 1914 always intended
+that a reasonable number of correspondents should proceed to the front
+under official aegis on the outbreak of a European war. A regular
+organization for the purpose actually took shape automatically within
+the War Office, in concert with the Press, on mobilization. A small
+staff, under charge of a staff-officer who had been especially
+designated for the job two or three years before, with clerks, cars,
+and so on, came into being _pari passu_ with G.H.Q. of the
+Expeditionary Force on the historic 5th of August. The officer, Major
+A. G. Stuart, a man of attractive personality and forceful character,
+master of his profession and an ideal holder of the post, had been in
+control of the Press representatives at Army Manoeuvres in 1912 and
+1913, and he was therefore personally acquainted with the gentlemen
+chosen to take the field. (He was unfortunately killed while serving
+on the staff in France, in the winter of 1915-16.) The General Staff
+had, moreover, gone out of their way to impress upon correspondents at
+manoeuvres that they ought to regard the operations in the light of
+instruction for themselves in duties which they would be performing in
+the event of actual hostilities. They were given confidential
+information with regard to the programme on the understanding that
+they would keep it to themselves, and they always played the game.
+
+But when war came, all this went by the board. Leave for
+correspondents to go to the front, whether under official auspices or
+any other way, was refused, and the staff and the clerks and the cars
+abode idle in London under my wing. The Press world accepted this
+development philosophically for the opening two or three weeks,
+realizing that the moment when the Expeditionary Force was being
+spirited over to France was no time for visitors in the war zone. But
+after that the Fourth Estate became decidedly restive. Enterprising
+reporters proceeded to the theatre of war without permission, while
+experienced journalists, deluded by past promises, remained patiently
+behind hoping for the best. The old hounds, in fact, were kept in the
+kennel, while the young entry ran riot with no hunt servants to rate
+them. Some unauthorized representatives of the British Press were, it
+is true, arrested by the French, and had the French dealt with them in
+vertebrate fashion--decapitated them or sent them to the Devil's
+Island--we should have known where we were. But as the culprits were
+simply dismissed with a caution the situation became ridiculous,
+because no newspaper man bothers about marching to a dungeon with
+gyves upon his wrists and tarrying there for some hours without
+sustenance. It is part of the game. So the military authorities were
+openly flouted.
+
+One result of the abrupt change of policy also was that, instead of
+the supervision of messages emanating from the front falling upon
+officers at G.H.Q. who were in a position to wrestle with them to good
+purpose, this task devolved upon the Press Bureau in London, which
+naturally could not perform the office nearly so well and which was,
+moreover, smothered under folios of journalistic matter originating in
+quarters other than the theatre of war. Furthermore, editors and
+managers and proprietors of our more prominent organs considered that
+we had broken our engagements--as, indeed, we had. At the very fall of
+the flag, the Press of the country was in my opinion gratuitously
+fitted out with a legitimate grievance. This could not but react
+hurtfully from that time forward upon the relations between the
+military authorities and British journalism as a whole.
+
+There was one direction in which the Fourth Estate did serious
+mischief in the early days of the war. As being behind the scenes
+during those strenuous, apprehensive months, when the process of
+transforming the United Kingdom into a great military nation at the
+very time when the enemy was in the gate was making none too rapid
+progress, I have no hesitation in asserting that one of the principal
+obstacles in the way was the excessive optimism of our Press. Every
+trifling success won by, or credited to, the Allies was hailed as a
+transcendent triumph and was placarded on misleading posters. When
+mishaps occurred--as they too often did--their seriousness was
+whittled down or ignored. The public took their cue only too readily
+from the newspapers, and the consequence was that a check was placed
+alike on recruiting and on the production of the war material which
+was urgently required for such troops as we could place in the field.
+
+And yet, journalists could plead in excuse that they were in some
+measure following a lead set by the authorities. It has already been
+admitted in Chapter II. that a system of official secretiveness in
+connection with reverses was adopted, and that it did no good. This
+took the form of concealing, or at any rate minimizing, sets-back when
+these occurred--an entirely new attitude for soldiers in this country
+to take up, and one which was to be deprecated. We should never have
+gathered together those swarms of volunteers in South Africa in 1900,
+volunteers drawn from the United Kingdom and from the Dominions and
+from the Colonies, had Stormberg and Magersfontein and Colenso been
+artistically camouflaged. The facts were blurted out. The Empire rose
+to the occasion. Hiding the truth in 1914-15 was a blunder from every
+point of view, because there never was the slightest fear of the
+people of this country losing heart. No doubt the incorporation of
+ordinances directed against the propagation of alarmist reports
+calculated to cause despondency, as part of the Defence of the Realm
+Act, was necessary. But one at times positively welcomed the
+appearance of well-informed jeremiads in the newspapers, as an
+antidote to the exultant cackle which was hindering a genuine,
+comprehensive, universal mobilization of our national resources in men
+and material.
+
+This excessive optimism which did so much harm was, it should be
+observed, to some extent the handiwork of "experts" whose names
+carried a certain amount of weight, who turned out several columns of
+comment weekly, and whose opinions would have been well enough worth
+having had they been better acquainted with the actual facts. For one
+thing, they did not realize that the augmentation of our military
+forces was hampered by the virtual impossibility of synchronizing
+development in output of equipment and munitions with the expansion
+of numbers in the ranks. They were, moreover, entirely unaware of the
+unfortunate condition of the Russian armies in respect to war
+material; they imagined that those hosts were far larger numerically
+than the insufficiency of armament permitted, and they consequently
+greatly overrated the potentialities of our eastern Ally in the
+conflict. To such an extent, indeed, was one of them unintentionally
+deceiving his readers as to the position of affairs in that quarter
+that I wrote to him privately giving him an inkling of the situation;
+he gave that side of Europe a wide berth for a long time afterwards.
+
+The mischief done in this matter rather influenced one against the
+Press, and perhaps made one all the more ready to take cognizance of
+its blunders and to accept its criticisms (when these were
+ill-informed) in bad part. Are we not, however, in any case rather
+disposed to take our journals too seriously, and is not one result of
+this that we have the Press that we deserve? Public men have to treat
+the journalistic world with respect, or it will undo them; but that
+does not apply to mere ordinary people. Yet we all bow the knee before
+it, submissively accept it at its own valuation, and consequently it
+fools us to the top of our bent. We believe what we see stated in our
+paper as a matter of course, unless we happen by some accident to know
+that the statement is totally contrary to the actual fact. The Fourth
+Estate is exalted into an acknowledged autocrat because it is allowed
+to have things all its own way; and your autocrat, whether he be a
+trade union official or he be a sceptred potentate or he be the
+President of a republic saddled with a paradoxical constitution, is an
+anachronism in principle and is apt to be a curse in practice.
+
+Autocracy is particularly to be deprecated in the case of the Press,
+seeing that here we have what is in reality the most widespread trade
+union in the country. Journalism harbours its internal squabbles and
+jealousies, no doubt, just as is the case with most great
+associations; but, assail it from without, and it closes up its ranks
+as a nation rent with faction will on threat from some foreign foe.
+It is generally acknowledged that in political life a formidable
+opposition in the legislature renders the government of the day all
+the more efficient. But the Press, in what may be called its corporate
+capacity, is not disciplined nor stimulated by any organized
+opposition at all, and the consequence is that it has perhaps got just
+a little too big for its boots. Judged by results in respect to its
+handling of military questions during the Great War, the Fourth Estate
+has not (taken as a whole, and lumping together journals of the meaner
+class with the representative organs which have great financial
+resources to refresh them) proved itself quite so efficient an
+institution as its protagonists claim it to be.
+
+Before the war, one was disposed to accept as gospel the pontifical
+utterances of newspapers concerning matters with which one was
+unacquainted--the law, say, or economics, or art. But never again!
+Journalists on occasion gave themselves away too badly during those
+years over warlike operations, army organization, and so forth, for
+one to let oneself be bluffed in future. Given the leisure, the
+inclination, and the necessary access to a large number of the organs
+of the Press, a libraryful of scrap-books could have been got
+together, replete with gaffes and absurdities seriously and solemnly
+set out in print. One or two examples of such blunders may be given
+for purposes of illustration.
+
+After a shameful U-boat outrage committed on a hospital ship, a London
+morning paper actually urged, in its first leader, that half a dozen
+German officers should be "sent to sea in every hospital ship _and in
+every transport_" (the italics are mine). Here was a case of an editor
+(surely editors read through the leaders which are supposed to give
+the considered opinion of the journal of which they are in charge)
+deliberately proposing that this country should play as dirty a trick
+as any Boche was ever guilty of. A belligerent has a perfect right to
+sink a transport in time of war, just as he has a perfect right to
+bomb a train full of enemy troops. The Japanese sank a Chinese
+transport at the outbreak of the war of 1894 in the Far East, causing
+serious loss of life; the vessel was conveying troops from Wei-hai-wei
+to the Korean coast. According to this newspaper, a hostile attack
+upon the flotilla of vessels of various sorts and kinds which conveyed
+our Expeditionary Force to France would have been as much an act of
+treachery and a breach of the customs of war, as would an attack upon
+the vessels covered by the Red Cross which brought the wounded back.
+
+An Army Order in April 1918, again, laid down that promotion to the
+rank of general would in future be by selection, not by seniority. A
+number of newspapers of quite good standing thereupon promptly tumbled
+head over heels into a pitfall entirely of their own creation. They
+started an attack upon the War Office for not having recognized the
+principle of advancement in the higher grades of the army by merit
+sooner, having failed to notice that the Army Order concerned the
+question of promotion to the rank of full general. Of their own
+accord, and quite gratuitously, they exposed their ignorance of the
+fact that promotions to the ranks of brigadier-general, major-general
+and lieutenant-general had been effected by selection for several
+years previously; and they also exposed their ignorance of the fact
+that, up till the time of the Great War, there had never been any
+special importance attached to the rank of full general. In the South
+African War, when we had a far larger military force on active service
+than ever previously in our history, only three general officers of
+higher rank than lieutenant-general were employed--Lord Roberts, Sir
+R. Buller, and Lord Kitchener--and, although all three were in the
+field together, Lord Roberts was a field-marshal; when, later, Lord
+Kitchener was in supreme command he had no full general under him.
+
+The Great War produced an entirely new condition of things, because we
+then came to have operating in the field, not merely one army but
+several armies, each consisting of several army corps, and each of
+those army corps commanded by a lieutenant-general. It was therefore
+convenient that the armies should be commanded by full generals, and
+the rank of full general suddenly assumed a real instead of merely a
+nominal importance. It thus became necessary to effect promotion to
+full general by selection instead of by seniority. Nobody expects
+editors to know details of this kind; but it surely is their duty to
+investigate before starting on a crusade. In the case of people who
+knew the facts, this particular blunder merely made the newspapers
+that committed it look ridiculous; but the majority of those who read
+the drivel in all probability had no idea of the facts, and were led
+to imagine that promotions to the various ranks of general officer had
+hitherto all been a matter of seniority. It is an example of the way
+in which the public have been misled about the War Office by the Press
+for years past.
+
+A year or so after the Armistice, one of the London evening papers,
+when criticizing the disinclination of the War Office to adopt new
+ideas in respect to devices for use in the field (a fair enough
+subject of discussion in itself), gave itself away by complaining that
+"tanks were not adopted before the war"! In that case the absurdity
+was so obvious that its effect upon most readers of the article
+probably was to make them regard the whole of it as rubbish, which was
+not correct. One wonders whether the following passage, which appeared
+in the very early days of the war in one of our foremost newspapers,
+may not have had something to do with that entirely unwarranted
+confidence in the "steam-roller" on the Eastern Front which prevailed
+in England between August 1914 and May 1915: "I refer to General
+Sukhomlinoff, the Russian Kitchener, who is reorganizing the Russian
+armies. Thanks to him, the Tsar's armies are irreproachably equipped."
+Compare p. 283.
+
+An article appeared in a leading Sunday newspaper in the spring of
+1919, signalized by this amazing travesty of the actual facts. In a
+reference to our land forces of the early days of the struggle, the
+writer spoke of "armies sent to war lacking almost every modern
+requisite." Now, the Press generally manages to avoid grossly false
+statements of that kind when referring to individuals; if it does fall
+into such an error, the sequel is either an abject apology or else an
+uphill fight in the law courts followed by the payment of heavy
+damages. It is quite conceivable that the author of this unpardonable
+misrepresentation imagined himself to be telling the truth and that he
+erred out of sheer ignorance; but, if so, that merely serves to
+indicate how badly informed journalists often are of the matters which
+they are dealing with, when the question at issue happens to concern
+military subjects.
+
+The expediency of affording greater opportunities to that great body
+of temporary officers who had joined up (many of them men of marked
+ability and advanced education), for occupying superior positions on
+the staff or for holding high command, was taken up warmly by a number
+of newspapers at the beginning of 1918. It is not proposed to discuss
+the theme on its merits--there was a good deal to be said for the
+contention. The matter is merely referred to because of the manner in
+which it was handled by the organs that were pressing it upon the
+notice of the public. Reference was very properly made to brains. But
+not one word was said about knowledge. Now, brains without knowledge
+may make an efficient Pressman--one is sometimes tempted to assume
+that the battalions of journalism are to some extent recruited from
+this source of supply. But brains without knowledge will no more make
+a superior staff officer who can be trusted, nor a commander of troops
+of all arms who will be able to make the most of them in face of the
+enemy, than will they make a successful physician or a proficient
+electrical engineer. It was also completely overlooked by the
+propagandists of this particular stunt that the experience which on
+every front, other than the Mesopotamian, temporary officers had been
+gaining was for practical purposes confined to trench warfare, and
+that, if a decision was ever going to be reached at all, it would be
+brought about under profoundly different tactical conditions from
+those which had been prevailing. The whole question hinged upon
+whether the requisite knowledge could be acquired, and upon what steps
+would be necessary to bring that desirable result about. The writers
+who dealt with the point perhaps recognized that brains were merely a
+means to the end, and not the end. But if they did, why did they fail
+ever even to mention the pinion upon which the whole question in
+reality hinged?
+
+Journalists, when complaining of the censorship, have put forward the
+suggestion that this sort of thing ought to be left to the patriotism
+and honour of newspapers, that, if such a plan were adopted, the Press
+would of its own accord refrain from publishing any information that
+might be of value to the enemy in time of war, and that there would
+then be no need for any special official department dealing with this
+matter. That sounds plausible, but it will not stand examination for a
+moment. Granted that the great majority of editors and their staffs
+would never dream of wittingly disclosing information injurious to
+their country during hostilities, the fact remains that a chain is no
+stronger than its weakest link. If one journal, in its eagerness to
+attract, prints what ought to have been kept secret, the reticence of
+the remainder is of no avail. Nor is this merely a question of honour
+and patriotism. It is also a question of competence. Censorship
+responsibilities demand knowledge and call for certain qualifications
+which the personnel of the Press in general does not possess. A few
+editors, no doubt, could be trusted to do the work efficiently; but
+that claim to omniscience which is unobtrusively, but none the less
+insistently, put forward by the Fourth Estate has no solid foundation.
+One of the lessons of the Great War has been that censorship is an
+extremely difficult operation to carry out even when in the hands of
+individuals well versed in the conditions that arise in times of
+national emergency. The idea that the Press could censor itself is
+ridiculous. That such a theory should ever have been put forward
+argues a strange inability to understand the essentials of the
+subject, and sets up a doctrine of infallibility in the world of
+journalism for which there is no justification.
+
+The Press Bureau which was established at the commencement of the war
+was a civil department, entirely independent of the Admiralty and the
+War Office although it was in close touch with those institutions, as
+also with the Foreign Office, the Board of Trade and other branches of
+the Government. In so far as the War Office was concerned, the Bureau
+dealt with the Operations Directorate, which was responsible for
+watching the censorship of newspapers in general, just as it was
+responsible for actually controlling the censorship of cables and
+foreign correspondence. As the primary _raison d'etre_ of newspapers
+is to provide their readers with news, it was inevitable that
+restrictions placed upon publication of information, however necessary
+they might be in the interest of the State, would hamper the
+activities of those in charge and be regarded as a nuisance. It was
+natural that the Press should chafe at the restraint and should be
+disposed to exaggerate the inconvenience to which it was put. But the
+public, it must be remembered, have heard only one side of the story.
+The country has derived its information concerning the Press
+censorship from the Press itself--in other words, from what is to all
+intents and purposes a tainted source. The nation has had to decide on
+a subject of general interest on one-sided evidence.
+
+In so far as the military share of the Press censorship was concerned,
+some of the groans of its victims were, no doubt, well justified.
+Delays were inevitable. But cases of unnecessary delay no doubt
+occurred. Instances could be mentioned of one censor sanctioning the
+publication of a given item of news while another forbade mention
+thereof. It is human to err, and individual censors were guilty of
+errors of judgment on occasion. Examples of information, which might
+have been given to the world with perfect propriety, being withheld,
+could easily be brought to light. How the humorists of the Fourth
+Estate did gloat over "the Captains and the Kings"! There was at least
+one instance early in the conflict of an official _communique_ that
+had been issued by the French military authorities in Paris being
+bowdlerized before publication on this side of the Channel.
+
+Few of the detractors of the military Press Censorship, on the other
+hand, gave evidence of possessing more than a shadowy conception of
+the difficult and delicate nature of the duties which that institution
+was called upon to carry out. There is little evidence to indicate
+that the critics had the slightest idea of the value of the services
+which it performed. Nor would they appear to be aware that the
+blunders committed by the censors, such as they were, were by no means
+confined to malapert blue-pencilling of items of information that
+might have appeared without disclosing anything whatever to the enemy.
+As a matter of fact, cases occurred of intelligence slipping through
+the meshes which ought not on any account to have been made public
+property.
+
+When, for example, one particular London newspaper twice over during
+the very critical opening weeks of the struggle divulged movements of
+troops in France, the peccant passage was, on each occasion, found on
+investigation to have been acquiesced in by a censor--lapses on the
+part of overworked and weary men poring over sheaves of proof-slips
+late at night. Nearly all our newspapers published a Reuter's message
+which stated the exact strength of the Third Belgian Division when it
+got back by sea to Ostend--not a very important piece of information,
+but one that obviously ought not to have been allowed to appear. At a
+somewhat later date, a journal, in reporting His Majesty's farewell
+visit to the troops, contrived to acquaint all whom it might concern
+that the Twenty-eighth Division, made up of regular battalions brought
+from overseas, was about to cross the Channel.
+
+It will readily be understood that incidents of this kind--those
+quoted are merely samples--worried the officials charged with
+supervision, and tended to make them almost over-fastidious. Soldiers
+of experience, as the censors were, remembered Nelson's complaint that
+his plans were disclosed by a Gibraltar print, Wellington's
+remonstrances during the Peninsular War, the details as to the
+siege-works before Sebastopol that were given away to the enemy by
+_The Times_, and the information conveyed to the Germans by a Paris
+newspaper of MacMahon's movement on Sedan. They were, moreover, aware
+that indignant representations with reference to the untoward
+communicativeness of certain of our prominent journals were being made
+by the French and Belgians. So the Press Bureau took to sending
+doubtful passages across for our decision--a procedure which
+necessarily created delay and caused inconvenience to editors.
+Publication, it may be mentioned, was approved in quite four cases out
+of five when such references were made. One rather wondered at times,
+indeed, where the difficulty came in.
+
+But a verdict was called for in one case which imposed an
+uncomfortable responsibility upon me. This was when a telegram from
+the Military Correspondent of _The Times_ from the front, revealing
+the shell shortage from which our troops were suffering, was submitted
+from Printing House Square to the Press Bureau in the middle of May
+1915, and was transmitted by the Press Bureau to us for adjudication.
+It was about three weeks after Mr. Asquith's unfortunate reference to
+this subject in his Newcastle speech. Publication of the message could
+at the worst only be confirmatory to the enemy of information already
+fully known, and national interests did seem to demand that the people
+of the country should be made aware how this particular matter stood,
+seeing that the labour world had not yet fully risen to its
+responsibilities in connection with the prosecution of the war which
+depended to so great an extent upon our factories. Choice of three
+alternatives presented itself to me--leave might be refused, higher
+authority might be referred to, publication might be sanctioned then
+and there. The third alternative was adopted, although one or two
+minor details in regard to particular types of ordnance were excised.
+It seems to be generally acknowledged that publication of the truth
+about the shell shortage was of service to the cause; but for some of
+the attacks upon the War Office to which the publication of the truth
+gave rise there was no justification whatever. The attacks, indeed,
+took the form of a conspiracy, which has only been exposed since
+mouths that had to remain closed during the war have been opened.
+
+For the General Staff at the War Office to have formulated apposite,
+hard-and-fast regulations for the guidance of the Press Bureau
+covering all questions likely to arise, would, it may be observed,
+have been virtually impracticable, or at all events would not have
+really solved the problem. Sir S. Buckmaster, when in charge of the
+Bureau, pressed me as regards this subject more than once, but there
+were serious objections to hard-and-fast rules. Everything must
+necessarily depend upon the interpretation placed on such ordinances
+by the individuals who were to be guided by them. Thus a rigorous
+enactment governing any particular type of subject, if strictly
+interpreted by harassed censors, would prevent any tidings as to that
+subject leaking out at all; while an indulgent enactment, if loosely
+interpreted by the staff of the Bureau, might well lead to most
+undesirable disclosures being made in the columns of the Press.
+Censors planted down in London could not, furthermore, be kept fully
+acquainted with the position of affairs at the front--a factor which
+greatly aggravated the perplexities of their task. We of the General
+Staff in Whitehall were in this respect very differently situated
+from G.H.Q. Over on the other side, where the situation of our own
+troops and of the French and the Belgians was known from hour to hour,
+newspaper representatives could always have been instructed by the
+bear-leaders in charge of them as to exactly what they might, and what
+they might not, touch upon in reference to any operations in progress.
+
+Matters in connection with the air service and the anti-aircraft
+service--the two things to a great extent go together--are primarily
+problems for experts; but it seemed to me, as an outsider, that
+certain powerful organs of the Press made themselves so great a
+nuisance over the subject of air-raids at one time that they
+constituted an actual danger. Ridicule was poured upon the plan of
+darkening the streets of the metropolis until an attack took place;
+the first Zeppelin visit put an end to that. Then, when the threat of
+raids became a serious reality, the demand for retaliation was loudest
+from a combination of journals which happens to be extremely well
+informed, although it was almost a matter of common knowledge that
+anything of the kind was impracticable at the time because we had not
+got the requisite long-distance machines. It was even contended that
+the physical difficulties to be overcome in an attack upon the
+Westphalian cities were far less than those which an enemy faced when
+flying to London from the Belgian coast, although the distance to be
+traversed over territory in the antagonist's hands was three or four
+times as great in the former case as in the latter. (Not one reader in
+fifty will look at the atlas in a case like this and learn, at a
+glance, that he is being made a fool of.) This Press campaign did
+grave mischief. Dwellers in the East End, who were suffering seriously
+from the raids and were almost in a condition of panic, were induced
+to believe that pro-German influence in high places was at the bottom
+of our failure to resort to retaliatory counter-measures.
+
+When the Prime Minister placed a newspaper proprietor in charge of
+the Air Service, he made in some respects a clever move. Press
+criticism practically ceased, and what there was of it mainly took the
+form of demands for a separate Ministry of Air. It would have been far
+better, however, if no decision had been arrived at on this subject
+until after the war was over, when the question could have been gone
+into carefully, and when a newspaper man would not have been actually
+in charge.
+
+It may be remarked in conclusion that, had procedure within the War
+Office subsequent to mobilization more nearly followed the lines
+contemplated before the war, and which were only resumed some months
+later, there would probably have been less friction with the Press.
+The question of the war correspondents which has been mentioned above
+is a case in point. Then, again, a branch like mine which possessed an
+adequate staff, had it been given a freer hand, had it been allowed
+the requisite responsibility, and had it been kept better informed of
+what was actually going on in respect to operations, could have
+furnished newspapers with useful hints on many subjects. Take, for
+instance, that incessant outcry during the first two years or so of
+the war over the services of individual corps in action not being made
+known. As far as I am aware, journalists were never informed that the
+chief grounds for reticence in this matter arose from a simple sense
+of fairness. Everybody who has had to deal with history of military
+operations knows how hard it is to discover the actual facts in
+connection with any tactical event, and what careful weighing of
+different reports is necessary before the truth can be established. In
+these days of electric communications, official reports are sent off
+at very short notice and before details can possibly be known. If some
+unit is especially singled out for praise, injustice is likely to have
+been done; some other unit, or units, may in reality have done better
+without the full story having come to hand when the report was
+despatched.
+
+In matters of this kind, the Press might advantageously have received
+greater assistance from the War Office. At all events that was so
+during the earlier portion of the time when the branch, which in
+pre-war days had been supposed to control such subjects, was under me,
+but only held restricted powers. The foregoing paragraphs have not
+been intended for one moment to suggest that British journalism did
+not, take it all round, behave admirably during the war. Newspapers
+almost always fell in readily with the wishes of the military
+authorities. On many occasions they were of the utmost assistance in
+making things known which it was desirable from the military point of
+view should be known. But there is no such thing as perfection in this
+world, and, even supposing the Press to be conscious of certain
+foibles of which it has been guilty, it can hardly be expected to
+advertise them itself. So an attempt has been made in this chapter to
+indicate certain directions in which it was occasionally at fault. The
+most important point of all, however, is that, when journalism and
+officialism happen to come into collision, the public in practice only
+hears the Fourth Estate's side of the story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SOME CRITICISMS, SUGGESTIONS, AND GENERALITIES
+
+     Post-war extravagance -- The Office of Works lavish all through
+     -- The Treasury -- Its unpopularity in the spending departments
+     -- The Finance Branch of the War Office -- Suggestions -- The
+     change made with regard to saluting -- Red tabs and red cap-bands
+     -- A Staff dandy in the West -- The age of general-officers --
+     Position of the General Staff in the War Office -- The project of
+     a Defence Ministry -- No excuse for it except with regard to the
+     air services, and that not a sufficient excuse -- Confusion
+     between the question of a Defence Ministry and that of the
+     Imperial General Staff -- The time which must elapse before newly
+     constituted units can be fully depended upon, one of the most
+     important lessons of the war for the public to realize -- This
+     proved to be the case in almost every theatre and in the military
+     forces of almost every belligerent -- Misapprehensions about
+     South Africa -- Improvised units could not have done what the
+     "Old Contemptibles" did -- Conclusion.
+
+
+My period of service on the active list closed a very few days before
+the Armistice of the 11th of November, so that no claim can be put
+forward to have formed one of that band of dug-outs who became
+dug-ins, and who continued to serve their country for extended periods
+with self-sacrificing devotion although the enemy was no longer in the
+gate. But even in the disguises of private life a craftsman, fully
+initiated into the mysteries by long practice, could appraise the
+proceedings of the central administration of the Army from the
+standpoint of inner knowledge, could watch its post-war proceedings
+with detachment, and could note that amongst the numberless Government
+institutions which took "it's never too late to spend" for their motto
+after the conclusion of hostilities, the War Office was not absolutely
+the most backward. Only by such formidable competitors as the
+Munitions Ministry, the Air Ministry, and, last but not least, the
+Office of Works did it apparently allow itself to be outpaced.
+
+For relative prodigality during the course of the great emergency and
+after it was over, the Office of Works perhaps, upon the whole, took
+precedence over all rivals. Its prodigality was, to do it justice,
+tempered by extortion. Did the system of commandeering hotels and
+mammoth blocks of offices create new Departments of State? Or did the
+creation of new Departments of State precede the commandeering of the
+hotels and blocks of offices? Were the owners and occupiers of the
+blocks of offices paid for them, or were they bilked like the hotel
+proprietors? We know that householders were not only paid, but that
+they were in many cases preposterously overpaid. And the worst of it
+was that the Office of Works was not one of those _parvenu_
+institutions, set on foot by Men of Business, which welled up so
+irrepressibly on all sides. It was not one of those _macedoines_ of
+friends of Men of Business, and of fish-out-of-water swashbucklers in
+khaki, and of comatose messengers, and of incompletely dressed
+representatives of the fair sex perpetually engaged in absorbing
+sweets. It was an old-established portion of the structure of State. A
+nomad offshoot of the War Office, such as that I was in charge of for
+the last two years of the war, which after quitting the parent
+building shifted its home three times within the space of twelve
+months, enjoyed somewhat unusual opportunities for sizing up the
+Office of Works.
+
+In the matter of numerical establishment of its personnel, one
+Department of State with which I was brought a good deal into contact
+during the war, the Treasury, almost seemed to go into the opposite
+extreme from that which found favour in most limbs of the public
+service. If the guardians of the nation's purse-strings practically
+let the strings go during the early months of the contest, this may
+have been due to the effervescent personality of the then Chancellor
+of the Exchequer. But they took an uncommonly long time to recover
+possession of the strings. Was this in any way attributable to
+insufficiency of staff in times of great pressure? There was none of
+that cheery bustle within the portals of Treasury Buildings such as
+prevailed in the caravanseries of Northumberland Avenue after the
+Munitions Ministry had seized them; typewriters were not to be heard
+clicking frantically, no bewitching flappers flitted about, the place
+always seemed as uninhabited as a railway terminus when the N.U.R.
+takes a holiday.
+
+The Treasury has ever, rightly or wrongly, been anathema to the
+professional side of the War Office. The same sentiments would appear
+to prevail amongst the sea-dogs who lurk in the Admiralty; for after
+my having a slight difference of opinion with the Treasury
+representative at a meeting of the War Cabinet one day, an Admiral who
+happened to be present came up to me full of congratulations as we
+withdrew from the battlefield. "I don't know from Adam what it was all
+about," he declared, "but I longed to torpedo the blighter under the
+table." But when one had direct dealings with the Treasury its
+officials always were quite ready to see both sides of any question,
+to take a common-sense view, and to give way if a good case could be
+put to them; moreover, when they stuck their toes in and got their
+ears back, they generally had some right on their side. Such feeling
+of hostility as exists in the case of the War Office towards the
+controllers of national expenditure housed on the farther side of
+Whitehall is perhaps to some extent a result of unsatisfactory
+internal administration on its own side of the street.
+
+It is the manifest duty of the Finance Branch of the War Office to
+keep down expenditure where possible, to examine any new proposal
+involving outlay with meticulous care and critically, and to intimate
+what the effect will be in terms of pounds, shillings and pence
+supposing that some new policy which is under consideration should
+come to be adopted. But, once a point has been decided by the Army
+Council (the Finance Branch having had its say), that branch should
+fight the War Office corner "all out," and should regard itself as the
+champion, not of the Treasury but of the Department of State of which
+it itself forms a part. The Treasury, it should be mentioned, is
+treated entirely differently as a matter of routine from other outside
+institutions. Letters to it have to emanate from the Finance Branch,
+while letters to other Departments of State--the Colonial Office, say,
+or the Board of Trade--can be drafted and, after signature by the
+Secretary, despatched by any branch of the War Office concerned. This
+rule might perhaps be modified. A regulation should also exist that
+the Finance Branch must not despatch a letter to the Treasury
+concerning some matter in which another branch is interested, without
+that branch having been given an opportunity of concurring in the
+terms of the draft.
+
+But no officials in any State Department probably were set a harder
+and a more thankless task during the war than were the staff of the
+Finance Branch of the War Office, and in spite of this its members
+were always approachable and ready to meet one half-way in an amicable
+discussion. They are also entitled to sympathy, in that the close of
+hostilities in their case has probably brought them little or no
+relief in respect to length of office hours and to weight of work. To
+revert to normal conditions in their case will probably take years.
+The grievance of the military side is that under existing conditions
+the financial experts are too much in the position of autocrats, when
+they happen to be recalcitrant on any point.
+
+Who can that caitiff have been who abolished the plan of the soldier
+saluting with the hand away from the individual saluted? Travelling on
+the Continent before the war one was struck with one point in which
+our methods were superior to those abroad--in many foreign countries
+private soldiers had to salute non-commissioned officers in the
+streets, which must have been an intolerable nuisance to all
+concerned, and in all of them the soldier always saluted with the
+right hand instead of adopting the obvious and convenient procedure of
+saluting with the outer hand. There at least we showed common sense.
+The Army Council were, no doubt, responsible in their corporate
+capacity for abolishing the left-hand salute, but there must have been
+some busybody who put them up to it. Whoever he was, I wish that he
+had had to walk daily along the Strand for months (as I had)
+constantly expecting to be hit in the face or to have his cap knocked
+off by some well-intentioned N.C.O. or private trying to salute with
+the hand next to him in a crowd. Their contortions were painful to
+see. Had the War Office been guilty of such _betises_ when dealing
+with the things that really mattered during the struggle, they would
+have lost us the war. The reform was so inconvenient to all concerned
+that it may have helped to produce those untoward post-war conditions
+under which the men, if not belonging to the Guards, virtually
+abandoned the practice of saluting officers altogether in the streets
+of London.
+
+Then, how about those red tabs? The expression "red tabs" is, however,
+employed rather as a shibboleth; staff-officers must be distinguished
+somehow when they are not wearing armlets, and were the tabs less
+conspicuous there would be no special harm in them. It is the red band
+round the cap that is so utterly inappropriate when imposed upon
+service dress. It ought to have been abolished within six months of
+the beginning of the war. General-officers and staff-officers who came
+under fire had to adopt a khaki valance to conceal their cap-band;
+they were to be seen going about in this get-up in the Metropolis when
+over on duty or on leave, and yet no steps were taken officially to
+assimilate their headgear to that of the ordinary officer. But for the
+red band and its distinctive effect, it is open to question whether
+officers performing every kind of special duty would have been so
+perpetually clamouring to be allowed to wear the red tabs. The
+practice of glorifying the staff-officer in his dress as compared
+with regimental officers is to be deprecated, although his turn-out
+should of course be, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion--to which I
+remember an exception when making first acquaintance with a staff I
+had come to join.
+
+On reporting myself at headquarters at Devonport in the morning after
+arriving to take up an appointment a good many years ago, I learnt
+that there was to be no end of a pageant that afternoon. The British
+Association, or some such body, had descended upon Plymouth for a
+palaver. There was to be a review in Saltram Park on the farther side
+of the Three Towns so as to make sport for the visitors. The general
+was very keen on mustering as many cocked hats around him for the
+performance as could be got together, and he pressed me to borrow a
+horse somehow and to put in an appearance, proposing that I should
+ride out with him and the A.D.C. as, being a stranger, I would not
+know the way. So a crock was procured, saddlery was fished out of its
+case and polished up in frantic haste, and in due course we jogged out
+to the venue. On arriving in the park we found the garrison,
+reinforced by a substantial Naval Brigade which had been extracted
+from H.M. ships in harbour, drawn up and looking very imposing, while
+people from round about had gathered in swarms and their best clothes
+to witness the spectacle. As we rode on to the ground the
+Assistant-Adjutant-General came cantering up. "The parade's all ready
+for you, sir," he reported, "and everything's all correct--except the
+Assistant-Quartermaster-General. He, sir, is _in rags_." He was.
+
+There was one broad principle, the truth of which was brought out very
+clearly during the course of our British campaigns between 1914 and
+1919--the principle that commanders of brigades and divisions require
+to be young and active men. There were exceptions, no doubt; but the
+exceptions only proved what came to be a generally accepted rule. The
+old methods of promotion in the Army, methods which hinged partly on
+the purchase system and partly on the prizes of the service going by
+interest and by favour, were highly objectionable; but those methods
+did have the advantage that commanders in the field, whether they
+turned out to be efficient or to be inefficient, were at least fairly
+young in years as a rule. Wellington himself, and all his principal
+subordinates other than Graham and Picton, were well under fifty years
+of age at the end of the Peninsular War; Wellington was forty-five,
+Beresford was forty-six, Hill was forty-two, Lowry Cole was forty-two.
+Wolfe, again, and Clive, Amherst and Granby, the most distinguished
+British commanders of the eighteenth century except Marlborough, were
+all comparatively young men at the time when they made their mark. It
+was only in the course of the long peace that followed Waterloo that
+our general-officers as a body came to be well on in life--Lord Raglan
+at the beginning of the Crimean War was sixty-six, Brown was
+sixty-four, Cathcart was sixty--even if at a somewhat later date a
+prolonged course of small wars did produce a sufficiency of young
+commanders to go round for minor campaigns. It would seem advisable to
+reduce the limit of age for promotion to the grade of major-general
+from fifty-seven to fifty, and that for the grade of lieutenant-general
+from sixty-two to fifty-seven. The great obstacle in the way of a
+reform of this kind, as a rule, arises from the fact that the decision
+rests to a large extent in the hands of comparatively old officers,
+who do not always quite realize that they are past the age for work in
+the field. That is not so much the case now, so that it seems to be
+the right time to act.
+
+The position of the General Staff within the War Office appears to be
+pretty well assured now. But it also appeared to be pretty well
+assured before the war; and yet there were those incidents of the
+non-existence of the high-explosive shell for our field artillery
+which nearly all foreign field artilleries possessed, and of Colonel
+Swinton's Tank projects being dealt with by a technical branch and the
+General Staff never hearing of it, which have been mentioned in this
+volume. The military technicalist, be he an expert in ballistics or in
+explosives or in metallurgy or in electrical communications or in any
+other form of scientific knowledge, is a very valuable member of the
+martial community. But he is a little inclined to get into a groove.
+He stood in some need of being stirred up from outside during the
+Great War, and he must learn that he is subordinate to the General
+Staff.
+
+The old project of instituting a Ministry of Defence has cropped up
+again, very largely owing to the importance that aeronautics have
+assumed in war and to the anomalous position of affairs which the
+creation of an Air Ministry has brought about. Could aviation in its
+various forms be left entirely out of consideration in connection with
+defence problems, no case whatever could be put forward for setting up
+such a central Department of State. The relations between the sea
+service and the land service are on a totally different basis now from
+what they were when Lord Randolph Churchill, thirty years ago,
+proposed the establishment of a Ministry which would link together the
+Admiralty and the War Office, each of which was under his plan to be
+controlled by a professional head. It was in many respects an
+attractive scheme in those days. The departments that were
+respectively administering the Royal Navy and the Army were not then
+in close touch, as they are now; they badly required association in
+some form or other. But it has been found possible to secure the
+needed collaboration and concert between them without resorting to
+heroic measures such as Lord Randolph contemplated. The sea service
+and the land service generally worked in perfect harmony during the
+Great War--except in the one matter of their respective air
+departments. There was a certain amount of unwholesome competition
+between them over aeronautical material up to the time when one single
+air department was established late in 1917.
+
+Aeronautics do unquestionably constitute a difficulty, and a
+difficulty which did not make itself apparent during the late
+conflict in quite the same form as it might in future wars. The Navy
+and the Army must both have air services absolutely under their
+control in peace and in war; but there is also, no doubt, immense
+scope for independent aeronautical establishments, kept separate from
+the righting forces on the sea and on land. Three more or less
+distinct air services, in fact, seem to be needed, and the question of
+equitable distribution of material between them at once crops up.
+Supposing all three to be administered, from the supply point of view,
+by an Air Ministry, this institution may show itself disposed to look
+better after its own child, the independent air service, than after
+its stepchildren, the naval and military air services. Were a Minister
+of Defence to be set up as overlord, he could act as impartial
+referee. But this one phase of our defence problems as a whole can
+surely be dealt with effectively without creating an entirely new
+Ministry, for the establishment of which no other good excuse can be
+put forward. The problem of preventing competition and rivalry in
+respect to material between the three branches of combatant
+aeronautics ought not to be an insuperable one, if firmly handled.
+
+In this connection it may be observed that a certain confusion of
+ideas appears to exist in some quarters between a Defence Ministry
+co-ordinating naval, military and aeronautical questions, and an
+Imperial General Staff concerning itself with the sea, the land and
+the air. The two things are, and must always be, totally distinct. A
+Defence Ministry would in the nature of things be an executive
+institution. In the Empire as it is now constituted, an Imperial
+General Staff can only be a consultative institution. A General Staff
+in the ordinary meaning of the term is executive as well as
+consultative; it issues orders with regard to certain matters, and it
+administers certain military departments and branches. But so long as
+the Empire comprises a number of self-governing Dominions and has no
+common budget for defence purposes, the Imperial General Staff can
+only make recommendations and tender advice; it can order nothing.
+
+Amongst the innumerable professional lessons taught by the experiences
+of the Great War, there is one which professional soldiers had learnt
+before it began, but which the public require to learn. This is that
+newly organized troops or troops of the militia type such as our
+Territorials of pre-war days, who necessarily have undergone little
+training previous to the outbreak of hostilities, do not make really
+effective instruments in the hands of a commander for a considerable
+period after embodiment. The course of events proved, it is true, that
+the individual soldier and officer can be adequately prepared for the
+ordeal in a shorter space of time than had generally been believed
+necessary by military men, and that they can be incorporated in drafts
+for the front within a very few months of their joining the colours.
+But that does not hold good with individual units. Still less does it
+hold good with collections of individual units such as brigades and
+divisions.
+
+The records of the New Army, of the Territorials, of the improvised
+formations sent to fight by the great Dominions oversea, all go to
+show that such troops need to be broken in gradually after they take
+the field before they can safely be regarded as fully equal to serious
+operations. Our Allies' and our enemies' experiences were similar. We
+know from enemy works that, although the German "Reserve Corps" fought
+gallantly during the early months, they achieved less and suffered
+more heavily in casualties than would have been the case had Regular
+Corps been given corresponding tasks to carry out. It was the same
+with the French Territorial Divisions. The American troops proved fine
+fighters from the outset, but owing to lack of experience and of
+cohesion they took a considerable time before they pulled their
+weight; moreover, the larger the bodies in which they fought
+independently of French and British command, the more noticeable this
+was.
+
+Certain regiments hastily got together on the spot from men who could
+shoot and ride and who knew the Boers and their ways, performed most
+distinguished service during the South African War, so much so,
+indeed, that an idea got abroad amongst civilians at that time that
+the need for the elaborate and prolonged training, which professional
+soldiers always insisted upon, was merely a question of prejudice.
+Happily those who were responsible for our Army organization and for
+its preparation for war knew better, and August 1914 proved that they
+were right. It was not merely due to the stubborn grit of their
+personnel that the "Old Contemptibles" carried out their retreat from
+Mons in face of greatly superior hostile forces with what was in
+reality comparatively small loss, and that they were ready to advance
+and fight again as soon as they got the word. It was also due to rank
+and file and regimental officers and staff knowing their business
+thoroughly. Had those five divisions been, say, New Army divisions
+just arrived at the front, or divisions such as landed under General
+Birdwood's orders at Anzac on the 25th of April, they would have been
+swept back in hopeless confusion. They would not have known enough
+about the niceties of the game to play it successfully under such
+adverse conditions. The framework would not have stood the strain.
+
+The sedentary type of operations which for three years played so big a
+part in most theatres was, it must be remembered, particularly
+favourable to newly created formations. Mobile warfare imposes a much
+more violent test. When really active work is being carried on in the
+field by partially trained troops, the platoon may do capitally, the
+company fairly well, the battalion not altogether badly; but the
+brigade will be all over the place, and the division will be in a
+state of chaos. Whatever conditions future campaigns may bring forth,
+trench warfare is unlikely to supervene immediately, nor to be brought
+about until something fairly important has happened; and it will not
+continue to the end unless the result of the conflict is to be
+indecisive. In 1918 there was nothing to choose between British
+divisions which had had no existence in August 1914 and those which
+had fought as the point of England's lance at Le Cateau, on the Marne
+and on the Aisne. But wars will not always last four years. Nor will
+the belligerent who has to create entirely new armies to carry on the
+struggle always prove victorious in the end.
+
+
+THE END
+
+_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918, by
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