had been drafted by Fitz--I suppose
under somebody's guidance; the other was by young Buckley; the third K.
was working on himself. Braithwaite, Fitz and I were in the room; no one
else except Callwell who popped in and out. The instructions went over
most of the ground of yesterday's debate and were too vague. When I
asked the crucial question:--the enemy's strength? K. thought I had
better be prepared for 40,000. How many guns? No one knows. Who was in
command? Djavad Pasha, it is believed. But, K. says, I may take it that
the Kilid Bahr Plateau has been entrenched and is sufficiently held.
South of Kilid Bahr to the point at Cape Helles, I may take it that the
Peninsula is open to a landing on very easy terms. The cross fire from
the Fleet lying part in the Aegean and part in the mouth of the Straits
must sweep that flat and open stretch of country so as to render it
untenable by the enemy. Lord K. demonstrated this cross fire upon the
map. He toiled over the wording of his instructions. They were headed
"Constantinople Expeditionary Force." I begged him to alter this to
avert Fate's evil eye. He consented and both this corrected draft and
the copy as finally approved are now in Braithwaite's despatch box more
modestly headed "Mediterranean Expeditionary Force." None of the drafts
help us with facts about the enemy; the politics; the country and our
allies, the Russians. In sober fact these "instructions" leave me to my
own devices in the East, almost as much as K.'s laconic order "git" left
me to myself when I quitted Pretoria for the West thirteen years ago.

So I said good-bye to old K. as casually as if we were to meet together
at dinner. Actually my heart went out to my old Chief. He was giving me
the best thing in his gift and I hated to leave him amongst people who
were frightened of him. But there was no use saying a word. He did not
even wish me luck and I did not expect him to, but he did say, rather
unexpectedly, _after_ I had said good-bye and just as I was taking up my
cap from the table, "If the Fleet gets through, Constantinople will fall
of itself and you will have won, not a battle, but the war."

At 5 o'clock that afternoon we bade adieu to London. Winston was
disappointed we didn't dash away yesterday but we have not really let
much grass grow under our feet. He and some friends came down to Charing
Cross to see us off. I told Winston Lord K. would not think me loyal if
I wrote to another Secretar