d by the close
co-operation of the Belgian Field Army.

"So far as I am able to have an object apart from the general French
view of the situation, I place the relief of Antwerp as of
first importance as regards forces under my command."

Lord Kitchener had dispatched these troops _en route_ to Antwerp
itself before he even asked me for an appreciation of the general
situation.

The history of the rapid investment and fall of Antwerp, the
evacuation of Ostend and Zeebrugge and the retreat of the Belgians to
the Yser, is very well known now, and it is not my intention to go
over the ground again here; but I feel sure that, had the views of the
Commanders in the field (Joffre and myself) been accepted, a much
better and easier situation would have been created.

It is perfectly clear that the operations for the relief of Antwerp
should never have been directed from London.

It should have been left entirely in the hands of the French
Commander-in-Chief (or in mine acting with him) to decide upon the
dispositions and destination of the troops immediately they left
British shores. We alone were in a position to judge as to the best
methods by which to co-ordinate the objectives and distribute the
troops between the northern and southern theatres.

As things actually turned out, the troops which were landed at Ostend
and Zeebrugge had (to quote from General Joffre's wire to Huguet on
October 8th) no influence on the fate of the fortress, and what help
they were in protecting the retreat of the Belgians and saving that
Army from destruction might have been equally well rendered from a
safer and more effective direction. This would not have necessitated
that dangerous and exhausting flank march, costing such terrible loss,
by which alone they were able eventually to unite with the main
British forces.

Dispatched from England on October 5th or 6th, and disembarking at
Calais or Boulogne (Dunkirk could have been used if the
Belgian Army had required more help), they would have deployed six or
seven days later in the valley of the Lys south of the 3rd Corps, and
Lille might have been saved.

It is quite possible also to conceive a situation starting from these
preliminary dispositions, which would have resulted in saving Ostend,
even Zeebrugge and that line of coast, the possession of which by the
enemy, dating from October, 1914, was a source of such infinite
trouble to us.

Although I was given no voice in these A