me quite evident that
the German system of mobilisation was quicker than the French. There
was reason to believe that Germany had partly mobilised some classes
of her reserves before formal mobilisation. The splendid stand made by
the Belgians in defence of their frontier fortresses is well known,
and the course of the preliminary operations on the Belgian and
Luxemburg frontiers, as well as those in the neighbourhood of Nancy,
gave us hope that the wonderful army of which we had heard so much,
was not altogether the absolutely invincible war machine we had been
led to expect and believe. During this most critical time,
my mind was occupied day and night with anxious thought. I will try to
recall those days of the first half of August, 1914, and crystallise
the result of my meditations. This will serve to show the doubts,
fears, hopes and aspirations, in short the mental atmosphere in which
I awaited the opening of the campaign.

In the ten years previous to the War, I had constantly envisaged the
probable course of events leading up to the outbreak of this
world-war, as well as the manner of the outbreak itself. In
imagination I had seen the spark suddenly emitted in some obscure
corner of Europe, followed by the blowing-up of one huge magazine,
such as the declaration of war between Russia and Austria would prove
to be, then the conflagration spreading with lightning speed, and I
had seemed to have a foretaste amid it all of the anxious hesitation
which would precede our entry into the war.

I have been a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence since 1906,
and have assisted at the innumerable deliberations of that Aulic
Council. It was somewhere about 1908 that the certainty of a war was
forced upon my mind. Lord Haldane was then Secretary of State for War
and I was Inspector-General of the Forces. Lord Haldane was himself
alive to the possibility of war; but, while he hoped to ward it off by
diplomacy and negotiation, he fully acquiesced in the desirability of
making every preparation which could be carried out in complete
secrecy. He told me that were he in power, if and when the event
occurred, he would designate me to command the Expeditionary Force,
and requested me to study the problem carefully and do all I could to
be ready. It thus fell out that in August, 1914, the many
possibilities and alternatives of action were quite familiar
to my mind.

It is now within the knowledge of all that the General Sta