(Major Pearson).

Shade of Napoleon--say, which would you rather not have, a skeleton
Brigade or a Brigade of skeletons? This famous 86th Brigade is a
combination. Were I a fat man I could not bear it, but I am as
unsubstantial as they themselves. A life insurance office wouldn't touch
us; and yet--they kept on smiling!

_12th September, 1915. Imbros._ The C.O.'s, Geddes, Pearson, Guyon and
O'Dowda, lunched: an ideal lot; young, ardent, on the spot. Marshall
left by the Suvla trawler. Windy day, but calmer in the evening and at
night rained a little.

_13th September, 1915. Imbros._ Crossed again with Freddie Maitland and
inspected the 87th Field Ambulance (Highland Territorials from Aberdeen)
under Colonel Fraser. Became so interested the dinner hour was
forgotten--a bad mark for a General. Much pleased with the whole show:
up to date, and complete in all respects. Got back lateish. Altham
dined. Sat up at business till midnight.

Dictated a long letter to Callwell, Director of Military Operations at
the War Office, on the suicidal behaviour of the Military Censor. In
South Africa, my Chief of the Staff's latchkey let many a clandestine
tit-bit slip through to keep interest alive in England. K. regularly,
when the mails came back to roost, went for me, but the messages had got
home and done their duty as good little tit-bits should. The B.P. cannot
work up the full steam of their war energy when the furnaces of their
enthusiasms are systematically damped down; shut off from any breath
from outside. Your sealed pattern censor sees nothing beyond the
mischief that may happen if the enemy gets to know too much about us; he
does not see that this danger is negligible when compared with the
keenness or dullness of the nation.

General Headquarters,
Medtn. Expeditionary Force,
13th September, 1915.

"Dear Callwell,

"I am about to commit an atrocity by writing to an overworked man on a
subject which may seem to him of secondary importance. Still, to the
soldiers out here, the said subject means encouragement or
discouragement coming to them through the medium of their home
letters,--so vital a factor in victory or failure that the thought
emboldens me to proceed.

"Our misfire of last month came within only a fine hair's breadth of the
grand coup and caused us proportionately bitter disappointment at the
moment. Yet, looking back