hauvel,
commanding 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade, waiting to see me. I had
known him well in Melbourne where he helped me more than anyone else to
get the hang of the Australian system. He stays the night.

_9th June, 1915. Imbros._ A cable saying the new Divisions will form the
9th Corps and asking me my opinion of Mahon as Corps Commander. I shall
reply at once he is good up to a point and brave, but not up to running
a Corps out here.

Have been sent a gas-mask and a mosquito-net. Quite likely the mask is
good bizz and may prolong my poor life a little bit, but this is
problematical whereas there's no blooming error about the net. This
morning instead of being awakened at 4.30 a.m. by a cluster of
house-flies having a garden party on my nose I just opened one eye and
looked at them running about outside my entrenchments, then closed it
and fell asleep again for an hour.

_10th June, 1915. Imbros._ Nothing doing but sheer hard work. The
sailors the same. Sent one pretty stiff cable as we all agreed that we
must make ourselves quite clear upon the question of guns and shell.
After all, any outsider would think it a plain sailing matter enough--a
demand, that is to say, from Simpson-Baikie at Helles that he should be
gunned and shell supplied on the same scale as the formations he quitted
on the Western Front only a few weeks ago. Simpson-Baikie has been
specially sent to us by Lord K., who has a high opinion of his merits. A
deep-thinking, studious and scientific officer. Well, Baikie says that
to put him on anything like the Western Front footing he wants another
forty-eight 18-pounders; eight 5-inch hows.; eight 4.5. hows.; eight
6-inch; four 9.2 hows.; four anti-aircraft guns and a thousand rounds a
month per field gun; these "wants" he puts down as an absolute minimum.
He also wishes me at once to cable for an aeroplane squadron of three
flights of four machines each, one flight for patrol work; the other two
for spotting.

There is no use enraging people for nothing and "nothing" I am sure
would be the result of this demand were it shot in quite nakedly. But I
have pressed Baikie's vital points home all the same, _vide_ attached:--

"(No. M.F. 316).

"Your No. 5088. After a further consideration of the ammunition question
in light of the expenditure on the 4th and 5th June, I would like to
point out that I have only the normal artillery complement of two
divisions, although actually I have five divisio