State has first pull on
his pocket, labour, life and everything else. But, of course, if your
own wish that the 29th Division should take out 10 per cent. extra for
drafts (like the regiments do in France), had been carried into effect,
they would never have fallen as low as they actually did.

* * * * *

"Freddy Stopford and Reed have been staying with me for 24 hours, and
the former is now in command of the 8th Corps on the Peninsula,
Hunter-Weston having gone sick. He asked to stay with the Admiral for a
couple of days' rest, and the very moment he got safe on board ship the
overstrain of the past month told on him and he went down with a sharp
go of fever. I earnestly pray he will get right again quickly for there
are not many Commanders of his calibre. Freddy Stopford will now have a
good chance of getting the hang of this sort of fighting generally,
surrounded as he will be by Hunter-Weston's experienced Staff. After
sending my last letter I rather repented of one or two harsh things I
said about Reed. There is some truth in them, but I need not have said
them. I hope he will do very well out here."

Now since that letter was written (yesterday) in comes a cable from K.
saying Winston can't leave England but that Hankey starts in his place.

K. says he is sure I will give him every facility.

A pretty stuffy cable in from the War Office on the Hospital ships and
medical personnel and material wrangle which is still going on. I,
personally, have checked every item of my estimate with closest personal
attention, although it took me hours in the midst of other very pressing
duties. This is not Braithwaite's pidgin but Woodward's and there was no
help for it. Our first landing found out a number of chinks in our
arrangements, and now, my Director of Medical Services is (quite
naturally) inclined to open his mouth as wide as if ships were drugs in
the market. So I have tried very hard, without too much help, to hit the
mean between extravagance and sufficiency. Now the War Office, who would
be the first to round on me if anything went wrong with my wounded,
query my demands as if we had just splashed off a cable asking for the
first things that came into our heads!

I am all for thrift in ships, but thrift in the lives of my wounded
comes first; my conscience is clear and I have answered sticking to my
point,--firmly! They say the thing is impossible; I have retaliated by
saying it