ing 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 d