hs 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 si