t had
time to read it yet," thinks I ought to be given a chance of defending
myself.

Callwell goes on to write about the Press Censorship and my plea for
publicity and then says he dislikes the Salonika stunt "because I am not
quite clear of where we are going to, and the immediate result at the
present is to take away from you troops that you can ill spare." Also,
because "we may be involving ourselves in operations on a great scale in
the heart of the Balkans, the result of which it is very difficult to
foresee."

Godley dined. Captain Davidson, R.N., the Senior Naval Officer in
harbour now, is a real Godsend. He looks after us as if we were Admirals
of the Fleet.

Have now read, marked, learnt and inwardly indigested Callwell's
enclosure; viz., the letter written by Mr. K. A. Murdoch to the Prime
Minister of Australia. Quite a Guy Fawkes epistle. Braithwaite is "more
cordially detested in our forces than Enver Pasha." "You will trust me
when I say that the work of the General Staff in Gallipoli is
deplorable." "Sedition is talked round every tin of bully beef on the
Peninsula." "You would refuse to believe that these men were really
British soldiers ... the British physique is very much below that of the
Turks. Indeed, it is quite obviously so. Our men have found it
impossible to form a high opinion of the British K. men and
Territorials. They are merely a lot of childlike youths, without
strength to endure or brains to improve their conditions." "I shall
always remember the stricken face of a young English Lieutenant when I
told him he must make up his mind for a winter campaign." "I do not like
to dictate this sentence, even for your eyes, but 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 an advance."

Well, Well! I should not worry myself over the out-pourings of our late
guest, who has evidently been made a tool of by some unscrupulous
person, were it not that Mr. Asquith has clothed the said out-pourings
in the title, number, garb and colour of a verified and authentic State
paper. He has actually had them printed on the famous duck's egg
foolscap of the Committee of Imperial Defence, and under his authority,
as President and Prime Minister, they have been circulated round the
Government and all the notables of the Empire without any chance having
been offered to me (or to K.) of defending the honour o