Mudros, to Belgrade as soon as possible."

Amen--so be it! Our mighty stroke at the vitals of the enemy is to break
itself to pieces against the Balkans. God save the King! May the Devil
fly away with the whole of the Dardanelles Committee!!

What arguments--what pressure--I wonder can have moved K. to swap horse
in mid-Dardanelles? In December K. as good as told me I was "for it" if
the day should come along for his New Army to help the Serbians. G.H.Q.
in France had belittled his effort to create it; they had tried to throw
cold water on it (the New Army) and now we should see how they liked it
going to Salonika! The reason why K., at that time, turned the project
down was his view that one Army Corps was too small a force to launch
into those regions of great armies and that, if the Germans turned
seriously in that direction, it would be gobbled up. But two Army Corps
would starve, seeing we had no pack transport and that the railway would
only feed 40,000 men. Nor had we any mountain guns. In February he
resurrected the question but that time he was put off by the typhus.
"Whatever destroys my New Army," he said, "it shall not be the Serbian
lice." Now he cables as if he was being quite consistent and sensible,
_now_, when in every aspect, the odds have turned against the
undertaking. As to the Bulgarians having "a clear road to Constantinople
and Gallipoli" my memorable dinner with Ferdinand, and his insistence on
his "pivotal" position, makes me perfectly certain that the bones of no
Bulgarian grenadier will fertilize the Peninsula--whatever happens. And
if the inconceivable were conceivable and Ferdinand were to work for
anything but his own immediate gain--there is no room for them here!
That fact is cast iron. The Turkish Empire is _here_ in full force.
Enver can't feed more! These numbers cause us no alarm. Since the last
abortive effort of the Turkish Command to get their men to attack every
soldier in the trenches knows well that the enemy are afraid of us. They
dare not attack, they will not attack, and they cannot attack. We know
that quite well. If K. would only come out here he would realize that
the Turk has lost his sting. I don't mean to say he is not still a
formidable fellow to turn out of his trench, but he can't attack any
more: and that is just the moment we have chosen to sit down and do
nothing; now, when the enemy has been brought to a standstill!

During my absence Bailloud has wired sayin