lory. Callwell is the exception.

I would give a great deal for one good talk with K.--I would indeed. But
this is not France. Time and space forbid my quitting the helm and so I
must try and induce the mountain to come to Mahomet. My letter goes on
to say, "Could you not take a run out here and see us? If once you
realize with your own eyes what the troops are doing I would never need
to praise them again. Travelling in the _Phaeton_ you would be here in
three days; you would see some wonderful things and the men would be
tremendously bucked up. The spirit of all ranks rises above trials and
losses and is confident of the present and cheery about the future."

Quite apart from any high politics, or from my coming to a fresh, clear,
close understanding with K. on subjects neither of us understood when
last we spoke together, I wish, on the grounds of ordinary tactics, he
could make up his mind to come out. The man who has _seen_ gains
self-confidence and the prestige of his subject when he encounters
others who have only _heard_ and _read_. K. might snap his fingers at
the new hands in the Cabinet once he had been out and got the real
Gallipoli at their tips.

I can't keep my thoughts from dwelling on the fate of Winston. How will
he feel now he realizes he is shorn of his direct power to help us
through these dark and dreadful Straits? Since I started nothing has
handicapped me more than the embargo which a double loyalty to K. and to
de Robeck has imposed upon my communications to Winston. What a tragedy
that his nerve and military vision have been side-tracked: his eclipse
projects a black shadow over the Dardanelles.

Very likely the next great war will have begun before we realize that
the three days' delay in the fall of Antwerp saved Calais. No more
brilliant effort of unaided genius in history than that recorded in the
scene when Winston burst into the Council Chamber and bucked up the
Burgomeisters to hold on a little bit longer. Any comfort our people may
enjoy from being out of cannon shot of the Germans--they owe it to the
imagination, bluff and persuasiveness of Winston and to this gallant
Naval Division now destined to be starved to death!

Sent my first despatch home to-day by King's Messenger. Never has story
been penned amidst so infernal a racket.

CHAPTER IX

SUBMARINES

_22nd May, 1915. H.M.T. "Arcadian."_ News in to say that yesterday,
whilst Herbert was here to take orders about an