uch nearer do you get to
shooting a snipe by being _told_ how not to take your aim? Well thought
out plans and preparations deserve to win; order and punctuality on the
part of subordinates tend to make the reality correspond to the General
Staff conception; surprise, if the Commander can bring it off, is worth
all K. can say of it; the energy and rapidity of the chosen troops will
exploit that surprise for its full value--bar, always, Luck--the Joker;
and Wish to Fight and Will to Win are the surest victory getters in the
pack. The more these factors are examined, the more sure it is that
everything must in the last resort depend upon the _executive_
Commander; and here, of course, I am referring to an _enterprise_, not
to a huge, mechanically organized dead-lock like the western front.

Stopford was away in G.H.Q. Staff tents all afternoon; afterwards both
he and Adderley, his A.D.C., dined. Stopford likes Reed who is, indeed,
a very pleasant fellow to work with. Still, I stick to what I wrote
Wolfe Murray:--the _combination_ of Stopford and Reed is not good; not
for this sort of job.

_12th July, 1915. Imbros._ Had meant to start for Helles an hour before
daylight to witness the opening of the attack by the French Corps and
the Lowland Division. But am too bad with the universal complaint to
venture many yards from camp.

Stopford and Staff breakfasted. He has fallen in love with our ideas.
After lunch he and his party left for Mudros. Am forcing myself to write
so as to ease the strain of waiting: the battle is going on: backwards
and forwards--backwards and forwards--I travel between my tent; the
signal station, and the G.S. map tent.

A delightful message from K., thanking me for my letters: patting me on
the back; telling me that Altham is coming out to run the
communications, and Ellison to serve on my Staff.

Thank heavens we are at last to have a business man at the head of our
business! As to Ellison, K.'s conscience has for long been smiting him
for not having let me take my own C.G.S. with me in the first instance.
But Braithwaite has won his spurs now in many a hair-raising crisis, so
K. may let his mind rest at ease.

[Illustration: MAJ.-GEN. SIR G. F. ELLISON, K.C.M.G. _F.A. Swaine phot._]

Freddie Maitland and I dined with the Vice-Admiral who kept a signaller
on special watch for my messages from the shore--but nothing came in.
He, the Admiral, wants to take all the 600 stokers serving in the Ro