ied to find at his cabin door no common sentry but a
Beefeater armed with a large battleaxe, dating from about the period of
Charlemagne. The Admiral lives quite in the old style and is a
delightful personage; very gay and very eager for a chance to measure
himself against the enemy. Guepratte, though he knows nothing
officially, believes that his Government are holding up their sleeve a
second French Division ear-marked Gallipoli! But why bottle up trumps;
trumps worth a King's ransome, or a Kaiser's? He gives twice who gives
quickly (in peace); he gives tenfold who gives quickly (in war). The
devil of it is the French dare not cable home to ask questions, and as
for myself, I have not been much encouraged--so far!

During the afternoon Admirals de Robeck and Wemyss came on board to work
together with the General Staff on technical details. They too have
heard these rumours about the second French Division, and Wemyss is in
dismay at the thought of having to squeeze more ships into Mudros
harbour. His anxiety has given me exactly the excuse I wanted, so I have
dropped this fly just in front of K.'s nose, telling him that "There are
persistent rumours here amongst the French that General d'Amade's
Command is to be joined by another French Division. Just in case there
is truth in the report you should know that Mudros harbour is as full as
it will hold until our dash for the Peninsula has been made." We will
see what he says. If the Division exists, then the Naval people will
recommend Bizerta for their base; the ships can sail right up to the
Peninsula from there and land right away until things on Lemnos and
Tenedos have shaken themselves down.

Our first Taube: it passed over the harbour at a great height. One of
our lumbering seaplanes went up after it like an owl in sunlight, but
could rise no higher than the masts of the Fleet.

_12th April, 1915. S.S. "Arcadian." Lemnos._ The _Queen Elizabeth_ has
been having some trouble with her engines and in the battle of the 18th
was only able to use one of her propellers. Now she has been overhauled
and the Admiral has asked me to come on board for her steam trials.
These are to take place along the coastline of the Peninsula and I have
got leave to bring with me a party selected from Divisions and Brigades.
So when I went aboard this morning at 8.30 there were about thirty-five
Officers present. Starting at once, we steamed at great pace half way up
the Gulf of Saros and