ose teachings
German writers of to-day claim that their commanders have so closely
assimilated)--and the Allies a little less watchfulness and keenness,
we might have seen Paris and the Channel seaboard in the enemy's
hands, the British Army, irretrievably separated from its Allies,
driven to the coast, and the French holding the southern provinces of
the Republic with their capital at Bordeaux.

Finally, Russia, our great hope and mainstay for the future, was
inspiring the utmost hope and encouragement amongst the Allies by the
splendid deeds with which she heralded the close of the year.

The last entry in my diary--December 31st, 1914--is as follows:--

"Our night conference showed more and increasingly important Russian
successes."

It was good to end the year with courage born of hope and confidence
in the future. Time works wonders in all directions. Just as we could
not foresee the utter collapse and failure of our great Eastern ally,
so we could not discern the hidden forging of that sword of justice
and retribution whose destined wielders were even then stirring from
their fifty years of slumber and dreams of everlasting peace, to rise
like some giant from the shores of the Western Atlantic and, with
overwhelming force, to stride eastward and help lay low the German
dragon once and for all time in the dust.

CHAPTER XVIII.

AMMUNITION.

From the beginning of the Battle of the Aisne up to the close of the
Battle of Loos, at the end of 1915, the scanty supply of munitions of
war paralysed all our power of initiative and, at critical times,
menaced our defence with irretrievable disaster. Great anxiety on this
subject overshadowed all my direction of military operations, and deep
concern at the failure of the Government to appreciate and remedy our
difficulties from this cause dominated all my work. In this chapter it
is my object to make known some of the efforts I made to awaken both
the Government and the public from that apathy which meant certain
defeat. I exhausted every effort, by urgent official demands to the
War Office, and personal appeals to Lord Kitchener and such Cabinet
Ministers as I came in contact with. When these efforts got no
response, I gave interviews to the press and authorised public men who
visited me to urge this vital necessity in their addresses. Nothing
less than my deliberate conclusion, after all these measures had
failed and nine months of war had elapsed, that the