uch mistakes as those of September 5th and 6th.

With all these tragic possibilities in my mind in these early October
days, I redoubled my endeavours to effect a speedy move of the British
forces to the north. Added to the other cogent reasons to which I
referred in the last chapter was now the most vital of all--the relief
of Antwerp.

Lord Kitchener did not make things easy for me.

Keenly desirous to influence the course of operations, his telegrams
followed one after another each containing "directions" regarding a
local situation of which, in London, he could know very little.

For instance, in one message he told me he was communicating with
General Joffre and the French Government, but, as he did not do so
through me, I was quite unaware of what was passing between them, yet
all the time he was urging me to make what I knew to be impracticable
suggestions to General Joffre. This could only lead to misunderstandings
and confusion of ideas, and I must repudiate any responsibility
whatever for what happened in the north during the first ten days of
October. I was explicitly told by the Secretary of State for War that
the British troops operating there were not under my command, as the
following telegram shows:--

"Have already given Rawlinson temporary rank. I am sending him
instructions regarding his action Antwerp. The troops employed there
will not for the present be considered part of your force."

Rawlinson, I may remark, had been sent for to meet the 7th Division at
Ostend and take command of it.

Had I been left to exercise my full functions as Commander-in-Chief of
the British Army in France, I should certainly have made different
dispositions with regard to the disposal of these troops. I regret
that I must record my deliberate opinion that the best which could
have been done throughout this critical situation was _not_ done,
owing entirely to Lord Kitchener's endeavour to unite in himself the
separate and distinct _roles_ of a Cabinet Minister in London
and a Commander-in-Chief in France. I feel it only right and
in the interest of my country, with a view to any war we may be
engaged in in the future, to make this plain statement of fact. The
calamity at Sedan was due in part to interference from Paris with the
Army in the field, and the American Civil War was more than probably
prolonged by the repeated interference on the part of the Secretary of
State with the Commanders in the field.

As to