e writes:--

* * * * *

"It may interest you to know the Cabinet has entrusted the
superintendence of the Dardanelles business to a comparatively small and
really strong committee drawn equally from the two parties. We most
thoroughly understand the extreme difficulty of your task and the
special conditions of the problem in front of you and the Admiral. All
we ask from you is complete confidence and the exact truth. We are not
babes and we can digest strong meat. Do not think that we ever want
anything unpleasant concealed from us, nor do we want you ever to swerve
one hair's breadth from your own exact judgment in putting the case
before us, certainly never on the pleasant side; if you ever swerve pray
do so on the unpleasant side.... If you want more ammunition say so...."

"Could you eat a bun, my boy?" said the old gentleman to the little boy
looking in at the shop window. "Could I eat ten thousand b ... buns and
the baker who baked them?" So the dear little fellow answered. If I want
more ammunition indeed? If ...? I fear the "comparatively small and
really strong committee." They fairly frighten me. There they sit, all
wishing us well, all evidently completely bamboozled. "If you want more
ammunition, say so!" Anyway, my friend means me well but my path is
perfectly clear; I have only one Chief--K.--and I correspond with no one
but him, or his Staff, whether on the subject of ammunition or anything
else....

As to the letter, I know it is entirely kind, genuine and inspired by
the one idea of helping me. But I've got to say no thank you in some
unmistakable manner. So I have replied:--

* * * * *

"I am grateful for your reassuring remarks about your Committee having
confidence in my humble self. For my part I have confidence in the
_moral_ of my troops and in the devotion of the Navy which are the two
great and splendid assets amidst this shifting kaleidoscope of the
factors and possibilities of war.

"I am not quite sure that I clearly understand your meaning about
cabling home the exact truth. Is there any occasion on which I have
failed to do so? I should be very sorry indeed to think I had
consciously or unconsciously misled anyone by my cables. There is
always, of course, the broad spirit of a cable which depends on the
temperament of the sender. It is either tinged with hope or it has been
dictated by one who fears the worst. If you mean