ac. No shelling. Went round the whole left
centre and left of Birdie's position to right and left of Cheshire
Point, and saw the new Australian Division--very fine fellows. Bullets
were on the whistle and "the boys" were as keen and happy as any real
schoolboys. Memories of the Khyber, Chitral and Tirah can hardly yield
samples of a country so tangled and broken. Where the Turks begin and
where we end is a puzzler, and if you do happen to take a wrong turning
it leads to Paradise. Met various Australian friends--a full-blown Lord
Mayor--many other leading citizens both of Melbourne and of Sydney.

At 5 p.m. re-embarked. Napier gave birth to a happy thought on our way
back. His idea is that we should transfer the troops on the Gallipoli
Peninsula to Salonika so as to hearten up the Serbians and Greeks and
dishearten our enemies at Sofia. He has pressed his view, he said, on
the Foreign Office. I asked him if his Chief, the Minister at Sofia,
stood behind him. He said he could not vouch for his Minister's views,
but that he, Napier, had power in his capacity as Military Attache to
correspond with the British Government direct.

K. himself did at one time toy with the thought of sending his New Army
to Serbia either under Rundle or myself, and was only restrained by the
outbreak of typhus in that country. But, keen as I was for the warpath,
a very little study of the terrain and supply question was enough to
cool my ardour.

Salonika is ruled out by history. In all the campaigns waged of old in
these very regions the part played by Salonika has been naval, not
military. There must have been some reason for this: there was; it still
exists--geography! You could not, and cannot, carry out anything big
_via_ a couple of narrow cracks through a trackless labyrinth of
mountains. The problem is a repetition of the Afghanistan dilemma. A big
army would starve at Nisch and along the Danube; a small army would be
swallowed up by the enemy. Unless they are going to trust to Bulgaria
and Roumania for supplies, one British Army Corps is about as much as
can manage to live and fight in Serbia. If they want to make Serbia safe
their only possible chance is to push through to Constantinople! There
is no other way. I said all this to Napier and a lot more besides and
left him keener on Salonika than ever.

He actually thinks that from Salonika we could do what could be done by
us at any time at the Dardanelles! Salonika is no alternati