ance even. In fullest splendour the soul shines out amidst the
dark shadows of adversity; as a fire goes out when the sunlight strikes
it, so the burning, essential quality in men is stifled by prosperity
and success.
_Later_. Our battleships have been bombarding Chunuk--chucking shells
into it from the Aegean side of the Peninsula--and a huge column of
smoke is rising up into the evening sky. A proper bonfire on the very
altar of Mars.
_1st May, 1915. H.M.S. "Arcadian."_ Went ashore first thing. Odd shells
on the wing. Visited French Headquarters. Again d'Amade was away. Had a
long talk with des Coigns, the Chief of Staff, and told him I had just
heard from Lord K. that the 1st Brigade of the new French Division would
sail for the Dardanelles on the 3rd inst. Des Coigns is overjoyed but a
tiny bit hurt, too, that French Headquarters should get the news first
from me and not from their own War Ministry. He insists on my going
round the French trenches and sent a capitaine de la Fontaine along with
me. Until to-day I had quite failed to grasp the extent of the ground we
had gained. But we want a lot more before we can begin to feel safe. The
French trenches are not as good as ours by a long chalk, and bullets
keep coming through the joints of the badly built sandbag revetment. But
they say, "_Un peu de repos, apres, vous verrez, mon general._" During
my peregrinations I struck the Headquarters of the Mediterranean Brigade
under General Vandenberg, who came round his own men with me. A sturdy,
thickset fair man with lots of go and very cheery. He is of Dutch
descent. Later on I came to the Colonial Brigade Headquarters and made
the acquaintance of Colonel Ruef, a fine man--every inch a soldier. The
French have suffered severely but are in fine fighting form. They are
enchanted to hear about their second Division. For some reason or
another they have made up their minds that France is not so keen as we
are to make a present of Constantinople to Russia. Their intelligence on
European questions seems much better than ours and they depress me by
expressing doubts as to whether the Grand Duke Nicholas has munitions
enough to make further headway against the Turks in the Caucasus: also,
as to whether he has even stuff enough to equip Istomine and my rather
visionary Army Corps.
By the time we had passed along the whole of the French second line and
part of their front line trenches, I had had about enough. So took leave
o
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