o explain matters
first hand to K. Next to my going home myself, or to K. himself coming
out here, this is the best I can do. Dawnay is one of the soundest young
officers we have, but he is run down physically (like most of us) and
jaded. He should benefit by the trip and so should the rumour-mongers at
home.

_3rd September, 1915. Imbros._ Two cables: one to say that the news
about the French Divisions must be kept dark; the other, in reply to a
question by me, refusing to let me consult de Robeck on the matter. So
Braithwaite and I had to make out our cable expressing our delight and
thankfulness, and advising how the troops might best be used entirely on
our own.

The cable took some doing but got it off my chest by mid-day and then
sailed with Ellison, Braithwaite and Val by the _Arno_ to Suvla. We
landed this time on Lala Baba instead of at our usual Ghazi Baba. Every
five minutes the Turks plumped one six-incher on to the beach. But
nobody now seems to mind. A lot of Generals present; Byng, Mahon,
Marshall, Maude and Peyton. Mahon took me up to the top of Lala Baba and
showed me the disposition of his division. He kindly asked us all to tea
at his Headquarters but as someone added that Ashmead-Bartlett was
going to take a cinema photo of the scene I thought I would not be thus
immortalized. The Scottish Horse were bivouacking on the beach; they
have just landed but already they have lost a member or two of their
Mess from shell fire. No wonder they looked a little bewildered, but
soon they will shake down. When we got back to the _Arno_ we found she
had been hit by shrapnel, but no damage.

Things at Suvla are pulling together. No one gave me more confidence
than Maude. His mind travels beyond the needs of the moment. He is
firmly convinced that no very out-of-the-way effort by the Allies is
needed to score a big point in the War Game and that our hold-up here is
not a reality but only a hold-up or petrefaction of the brains of the
French and of our Dardanelles Committee. I longed to tell him he was
doing them both, especially the French, an injustice, and that four
splendid divisions were as good as on their way, but I had to content
myself with saying to him and to all the Generals that I was overjoyed
at a piece of news received yesterday.

_4th September, 1915. Imbros._ Life would be as ditchwater were it not
stirred to its depths by K.'s secret cable. Sailed over with Freddie at
11.30 to "K" Beach and in