y of State. He understood and said that if I
wanted him to be aware of some special request all I had to say was,
"You will agree perhaps that the First Lord should see." Then the S. of
S. for War would be bound to show him the letter:--which proves that
with all his cleverness Winston has yet some points to learn about his
K. of K.!

My Staff still bear the bewildered look of men who have hurriedly been
snatched from desks to do some extraordinary turn on some unheard of
theatre. One or two of them put on uniform for the first time in their
lives an hour ago. Leggings awry, spurs upside down, belts over shoulder
straps! I haven't a notion of who they all are: nine-tenths of my few
hours of warning has been taken up in winding up the affairs of the
Central Force.

At Dover embarked on H.M.S. _Foresight_,--a misnomer, for we ran into a
fog and had to lie-to for a devil of a time. Heard far-off guns on
French front,--which was cheering.

At 10.30 p.m. we left Calais for Marseilles and during the next day the
French authorities caused me to be met by Officers of their Railway
Mobilization Section. Had my first breathing space wherein to talk over
matters with Braithwaite, and he and I tried to piece together the
various scraps of views we had picked up at the War Office into a
pattern which should serve us for a doctrine. But we haven't got very
much to go upon. A diagram he had drawn up with half the spaces unfilled
showing the General Staff. Another diagram with its blank spaces only
showed that our Q. branch was not in being. Three queried names,
Woodward for A.G., Winter for Q.M.G. and Williams for Cipher Officer.
The first two had been left behind, the third was with us. The following
hurried jottings by Braithwaite:--"Only 1600 rounds for the 4.5
Howitzers!!! High Explosive essential. Who is to be C.R.E.? Engineer
Stores? French are to remain at Tunis until the day comes that they are
required. Egyptian troops also remain in Egypt till last moment.
Everything we want by 30th (it is hoped). Await arrival of 29th Division
before undertaking anything big. If Carden wants military help it is for
Sir Ian's consideration whether to give or to withhold it." These rough
notes; the text book on the Turkish Army, and two small guide books: not
a very luminous outfit. Braithwaite tells me our force are not to take
with them the usual 10 per cent. extra margin of reserves to fill
casualties. Wish I had realised this earlier.