anteen.

Here is one of the enclosures to Birdwood's memo.:--

* * * * *

"N. Z. and A. Division.

I desire to draw attention to the remarkable drop in the sick
evacuations from this Brigade as shown by the following figures:--

August 28 -- 59.
" 29 -- 64.
" 30 -- 58.
" 31 -- 17.
Sept. 1 -- 2.
" 2 -- 6.

I am convinced that this amelioration, and the observable improvement in
the condition of the men are largely to be attributed to the
distribution, on August 30 and 31 of Canteen Stores, providing a welcome
change of dietary.

I strongly recommend that every effort be made to maintain such Canteen
supplies.

(_Sd._), MONASH."

_9th September, 1915. Imbros._ At 9.30 Admiral de la Perriera returned
my call. At 11.50 Braithwaite, Freddy and I went aboard the _Gaulois_.

[Illustration: FISH FROM THE ENEMY, _"Central News" phot._]

A five course lunch and I had to make a speech in French.

When I got back I found that General Marshall, commanding the 53rd
Division, had come over from Suvla to stay with me. Lancelot Lowther
dined; he told us all the important things he was doing.

_10th September, 1915. Imbros._ Lancelot Lowther left with the Mails at
7 a.m., glad, I suspect, to shake from his feet the sand of these
barbaric Headquarters.

Not easy to get Marshall to loosen his tongue about the battle of the
21st, and he would not, or could not, add much to my knowledge. The
strength of Marshall depends not on what he seems but upon what his
officers and men know. He has got his chance amidst the realities of
war. In peace, except by a miracle, he would never have risen above the
command of a Battalion. The main reason I cannot draw him about the
battle of the 21st is, beyond doubt, that he does not want to throw
blame on others.

Marshall is a matter-of-fact, unemotional sort of chap, yet he told the
sad tale of young O'Sullivan's death in a way which touched our hearts.
O'Sullivan was no novice where V.C.s were the stake and the forfeit
sudden death.

_11th September, 1915. Imbros._ Ran across in the motor boat to see the
86th Brigade under Brigadier-General Percival. Went, man by man, down
the lines of the four battalions--no very long walk either! These were
the Royal Fusiliers (Major Guyon), Dublin Fusiliers (Colonel O'Dowda),
Munster Fusiliers (Major Geddes), Lancashire Fusiliers