--

* * * * *

(a) Hold the sea.

(b) Hold the West.

(c) Smash the Turk.

A couple of miles won by us here gives England wheat and Russia rifles;
gives us the whip hand in the Balkans plus security in a couple of
Continents. A couple of miles lost by us here leaves the German with a
strengthened grip upon all the real world objectives for which he went
to war: it leaves us with a ruined prestige in Asia. But what is all
that to Joffre to whom, as a good Frenchman, the Balkans; the bracing up
of the Russian Army; all the Odessa corn; Asia and Africa thrown in, do
not count against _one departement_ of _la Patrie_.

(2) If the push in the West is indecisive then our push is only to be
postponed. Postponed! The word is like a knell. To write it gives me a
feeling of sick despair. Only postponed! As well cable at once, _only_
ruined!!

(3) But there is a third eventuality not mentioned by Lord K. How if our
attack upon the main strength of the entrenched Germans is beaten off?
To Joffre France comes first and the rest nowhere--every time: that
is natural. But our Higher Direction are not Frenchmen--not yet!
Armageddon is actually being fought _here_, at the Dardanelles, and the
British outlook is focused on France. We are to sit here and rot away
with cholera, and see the winter gales approach, until the big push has
been made in the West where men can afford to wait--where they are
healthy--where time is all on their side. And this push in the West is
against the whole German Empire linked to all its own vast resources by
a few miles of the best railways in the world. We _can_ attack here with
more men and more munitions than the enemy the very moment we care to
accept the principle that, _at this moment_, Constantinople and the
heartening up of Russia and ascendency amongst the Balkan States are not
only the true positive objectives of our strategy, but are the sole
strategical stunts upon the board. We can do so because of our sea
power. We can borrow enough howitzers, aeroplanes, munitions and drafts
from the West; apply them here and then, if necessary, return them. We
are not exploiting our own special characteristics, mobility and sea
power!

[Illustration: MARSHALL LIMAN VON SANDERS _"Exclusive News" phot._]

Easy to preach patience to a nation in agony? Yes, for the whole agony
of the whole world is more important even than the agonies of France.
We've got to win the war