the urgency or the wild excitement of that, and we were able to
take our own time.

I had a ripping game of Rugger a few days back, playing for the
19th Hussars against the Bedford Yeomanry. The latter, who
included some old Bedford School boys, beat us, though only by
one point. I played forward in the first half of the game, and
scrum-half in the second. It _was_ a treat to handle a Rugby ball
again!

Things are becoming rather mixed in English politics, what with
Asquith's contradictory statements about conscription, Carson
resigning and Winston flinging up politics for the Army. His
resignation is creditable to Winston, and at a moment like this
he would naturally want to do his bit at the Front. Everybody in
the cavalry that I have spoken to considers him a good sportsman.
Myself, I regard Churchill as a man with a real touch of genius.

The Haldane controversy seems to have started afresh. How
terrible is the ingratitude of the masses! If Haldane had done no
more than create the Territorials and the Officers' Training
Corps he would have had an everlasting claim to fame; but when
one considers also his creation of the General Staff, and his
arrangements for mobilising, equipping, transporting and
supplying the B.E.F.--well, one begins to realise that the man is
a Colossus. And yet the wretched Jingoes continue to bespatter
him with mud, and I suppose the nation in the mass regards him as
a species of highly-educated spy! But perhaps the majority of
the people have never heard of him--Charlie Chaplin is a far more
living personality to most of them, I make no doubt.

I referred in a recent letter (p. 162), to the fluctuating phases
of opinion in England in regard to the war. A new phase would
appear now to have arisen and taken the place of the Lord Derby
boom. This new phase is one of criticism of past military and
naval operations--Neuve Chapelle, Loos, Suvla Bay, the Narrows,
Antwerp, etc. etc., all of which are being discussed with equal
zest and ignorance. Mark my words, there will soon be a new phase
or an old one will recur.

TO HIS BROTHER.

_November 23rd, 1915._

I am so sorry Dulwich got done down by Bedford. Of all our
matches, that is the one we are most keen on