llowed to
relinquish the command of the allied fleet, and Vice Admiral John de
Robeck, newly promoted to his rank, succeeded him. Almost immediately
the latter steamed away to Mudros to engage in a fateful conference.

CHAPTER LXXI

PREPARATIONS FOR LANDING--COMPOSITION OF FORCES

It had evidently been the intention of the Allies to force the Narrows
by naval power, and then follow up the success by an occupation of
Gallipoli by a land force. For this purpose the troops solicited of
Venizelos, the Greek Premier, were undoubtedly to be used, but sole
reliance was not to be placed upon them. For one thing, the Allies
had no intention of allowing Greece to assume too great an importance
in the campaign against Constantinople, well knowing that the Greek
people had large ambitions in that part of the world--ambitions that
clashed with those of more important powers.

In early March, 1915, the French were busy concentrating an
expeditionary force in North Africa, under the command of General
d'Amade. By March 15 the French force had been gathered together at
Bizerta, in the AEgean Sea. At the same time the British Government had
been undertaking a similar concentration, and by the third week in
March a force estimated at about 120,000 men had arrived in transports
at Mudros in the island of Lemnos. This English force consisted of the
Twenty-ninth Division, the Royal Naval Division, a special force
formed by Winston Churchill, British Secretary to the Admiralty, and
used in the attempt to relieve Antwerp, the Australian and New Zealand
divisions originally brought to Egypt, a Territorial division, and
some Indian forces.

These troops, with the comparatively small French force under General
d'Amade, were placed under the command of one of the most popular of
British officers--General Sir Ian Hamilton.

Sir Ian Hamilton and his staff were hurried from London by special
trains and a fast cruiser steaming upward of 30 knots an hour. By the
time he reached Mudros the French troops had also arrived from
Bizerta.

The island of Lemnos presented a strange and picturesque spectacle
when all these troops, drawn from so many distant parts of the world,
were gathered in the sheltering bay. The blue and red of the
Frenchmen's uniforms, the khaki of the British, the native costumes of
the Indian and North African troops contrasted strangely. Mixing
freely with them and driving hard bargains, were the native Greek
tradesm