earching of military tests, nothing but the best will do.

Hard up as we are for shell he thinks it best to blaze it away freely
before closing and to trust our bayonets when we get in. He and d'Amade
have both of them their Western experience to guide them. I have agreed,
subject only to the condition that we must keep some munitions in
reserve until we hear for certain that more is on its way.

The enemy had trusted to their shore defences. There was no second line
behind them--not this side of Achi Baba, at least. Now, i.e., ever since
the failure of their grand attempt on the night of the 2nd-3rd May, they
have been hard at work. Already their lines cover quite half the ground
between the Aegean and the Straits; whilst, in rear again, we can see
wired patches which we guess to be enfilading machine gun redoubts. We
must resolutely and at all cost make progress and smash up these new
spiders' webs of steel before they connect into elastic but unbreakable
patterns.

_9th May, 1915. H.M.T. "Arcadian."_ Three days on the rack! Since the
morning of the 6th not a word have I written barring one or two letters
and one or two hasty scraps of cables. Now, D.V., there is the best part
of a day at my disposal and it is worth an effort to put that story
down.

First I had better fix the sequence of the munition cables, for upon
them the whole attack has hung--or rather, hung fire.

On the 6th, the evening of the opening day, we received a postscript to
the refusal already chronicled:--

"Until you can submit a return of the amount you have in hand to enable
us to work out the rates of expenditure, it is difficult to decide about
further supplies of ammunition."

When I read this I fell on my knees and prayed God to grant me patience.
Am I to check the number of rounds in the limbers; on the beaches and in
transit during a battle? Two days after my S.O.S. the War Office begin
to think about tables of averages!

I directed my answer to Lord K. himself:--

"With reference to your No. 4432 of 5th inst., please turn to my letter
to you of 30th March,[14] wherein I have laid stress on the essential
difference in the matter of ammunition supply between the Dardanelles
and France. In France, where the factories are within 24 hours' distance
from the firing line, it may be feasible to consider and reconsider
situations, including ammunition supply. Here we are distant a
fortnight. I consider that 4.5 inch, 18 pr. and other amm