sailors as well as
soldiers, and of being (mentally) in at least three places at once:--

"_From General Sir Ian Hamilton to Earl Kitchener. (No. M.F. 424)._

"Private. I am becoming seriously apprehensive about my Lines of
Communication and am forced to let you know the state of affairs.

"Much of the time of General Headquarters has been taken up during the
last few days considering matters relating to Mudros and Lines of
Communication generally. The Inspector-General of Communications must be
a man of energy and ideas. The new Divisions will find the Mudros
littoral on arrival better prepared for their reception than it was a
month ago. The present man is probably excellent in his own line, but he
himself in writing doubts his own ability to cope with one of the most
complicated situations imaginable. Please do not think for a moment that
I am still hankering after Ellison, I only want a man of that type,
someone, for instance, like Maxwell or Sir Edward Ward. Unless I can
feel confident in the Commandant of my Lines of Communication I shall
always be looking behind me. Wallace could remain as Deputy
Inspector-General of Communications. Something, however, must be done
meanwhile, and I am sending Brigadier-General Hon. H.A. Lawrence, a man
of tried business capacity and great character, to Mudros to-day as
dry-nurse."

I have followed up this cable in my letter to Lord K. of date, where I
say, "I have just seen Bertie Lawrence who I am sending to reinforce
Wallace. He is bitterly disappointed at losing his Brigade, but there is
no help for it. He is a business man of great competence, and I think he
ought to be able to do much to get things on to a ship-shape footing.
General Douglas is very sorry too and says that Lawrence was one of the
best Brigadiers imaginable."

The last sentence has been written, I confess, with a spice of malice.
When, about a month ago, I had hurriedly to lay my hands on a Commander
for the 127th Brigade, I bethought me of Bertie Lawrence, then G.S.O. to
the Yeomanry in Egypt. The thrust of a Lancer and the circumspection of
a Banker do not usually harbour in the same skull, but I believed I knew
of one exception. So I put Lawrence in. By return King's Messenger came
a rap over the knuckles. To promote a dugout to be a Brigadier of
Infantry was risky, but to put in a Cavalry dugout as a Brigadier of
Infantry was outrageous! Still, I stuck to Lorenzo, and lo and behold!
Douglas, the Com