ck myself--body and
soul--to let my mind dwell on these miseries.

Sealed my resolution (resignation?) by giving my answer about
Braithwaite. Though the sins of my General Staff have about as much to
do with the real issues as the muddy water had to do with the death of
the argumentative lamb, I begin by pointing out to the War Office wolf
that "no Headquarters Staff has ever escaped similar criticism."

Grumblings are an old campaigner's _vade mecum_. Bred by inaction;
enterprise and activity smother them. A sickness of the spirit, they
are like the flies that fasten on those who stay too long in one place.
Was Doughty Wylie "much out of touch with the troops" when he led the
Dublins, Munsters and Hampshires up from "V" beach and fell gloriously
at their head? Was Williams "out of touch" when he was hit? Was Hore
Ruthven? "As to Braithwaite," I say, "my confidence in that Officer is
complete. I did not select him; you gave him to me and I have ever since
felt most grateful to you for your choice."

Now--I feel better.

The plot thickens. A cable just come in from the S. of S. for War:--

* * * * *

"The following statement has been made in letter to Prime Minister,
Australia, by Mr. Murdoch: 'The fact is that after the first day at
Suvla an order had to be issued to officers to shoot without mercy any
soldier who lagged behind or loitered in advance.' Wire me as to the
truth or otherwise of this allegation."

Murdoch must be mad. Or, is there some method in this madness?

Mr. Murdoch was not a war correspondent; he is purely a civilian and
could hardly have invented this "order" on his own. No soldier could
have told him this. Someone not a soldier--someone so interested in
discrediting the Dardanelles Campaign that he does not scruple to do so
even by discrediting our own troops must have put this invention about,
_per_ Murdoch. Doubtless we strike here upon the source of these
"unofficial statements" which have been flowing into the War Office.
All I remember of his visit to me here is a sensible, well-spoken man
with dark eyes, who said his mind was a blank about soldiers and
soldiering, and made me uncomfortable by an elaborate explanation of why
his duty to Australia could be better done with a pen than with a rifle.
He was one week at the Press Correspondents' camp and spent, so they
tell me, a few hours only at Anzac and Suvla, never once crossing to
Helles. If then his le