Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Page 4

broadened out, until, at the end, no one else could get a word in
edgeways.[3]
My troops were to be Australians and New Zealanders under Birdwood
(a friend); strength, say, about 30,000. (A year ago I inspected them in
their own Antipodes and no finer material exists); the 29th Division,
strength, say 19,000 under Hunter-Weston--a slashing man of action;
an acute theorist; the Royal Naval Division, 11,000 strong (an excellent
type of Officer and man, under a solid Commander--Paris); a French
contingent, strength at present uncertain, say, about a Division, under
my old war comrade the chivalrous d'Amade, now at Tunis.
Say then grand total about 80,000--probably panning out at some
50,000 rifles in the firing line. Of these the 29th Division are
extras--division de luxe.
K. went on; he was now fairly under weigh and got up and walked
about the room as he spoke. I knew, he said, his (K.'s) feelings as to the
political and strategic value of the Near East where one clever tactical
thrust delivered on the spot and at the spot might rally the wavering
Balkans. Rifle for rifle, at that moment, we could nowhere make as
good use of the 29th Division as by sending it to the Dardanelles,
where each of its 13,000 rifles might attract a hundred more to our side
of the war. Employed in France or Flanders the 29th would at best help

to push back the German line a few miles; at the Dardanelles the stakes
were enormous. He spoke, so it struck me, as if he was defending
himself in argument: he asked if I agreed. I said, "Yes." "Well," he
rejoined, "You may just as well realize at once that G.H.Q. in France
do not agree. They think they have only to drive the Germans back fifty
miles nearer to their base to win the war. Those are the same fellows
who used to write me saying they wanted no New Army; that they
would be amply content if only the old Old Army and the Territorials
could be kept up to strength. Now they've been down to Aldershot and
seen the New Army they are changing their tune, but I am by no means
sure, now, that I'll give it to them. French and his Staff believe firmly
that the British Imperial Armies can pitch their camp down in one
corner of Europe and there fight a world war to a finish. The thing is
absurd but French, plus France, are a strong combine and they are
fighting tooth and nail for the 29th Division. It must clearly be
understood then:--"
(1) That the 29th Division are only to be a loan and are to be returned
the moment they can be spared.
(2) That all things ear-marked for the East are looked on by powerful
interests both at home and in France as having been stolen from the
West.
Did I take this in? I said, "I take it from you." Did I myself, speaking as
actual Commander of the Central Striking Force and executively
responsible for the land defence of England, think the 29th Division
could be spared at all? "Yes," I said, "and four more Territorial
Divisions as well." K. used two or three very bad words and added,
with his usual affability, that I would find myself walking about in
civilian costume instead of going to Constantinople if he found me
making any wild statements of that sort to the politicians. I laughed and
reminded him of my testimony before the Committee of Imperial
Defence about my Malta amphibious manoeuvres; about the Malta
Submarines and the way they had destroyed the battleships conveying
my landing forces. If there was any politician, I said, who cared a hang
about my opinions he knew quite well already my views on an invasion

of England; namely, that it would be like trying to hurt a monkey by
throwing nuts at him. I didn't want to steal what French wanted, but
now that the rifles had come and the troops had finished their musketry,
there was no need to squabble over a Division. Why not let French
have two of my Central Force Territorial Division at once,--they were
jolly good and were wasting their time over here. That would sweeten
French and he and Joffre would make no more trouble about the 29th.
K. glared at me. I don't know what he was going to say when Callwell
came into the room with some papers.
We moved to the map in the window and Callwell took us through a
plan of attack upon the Forts at the Dardanelles, worked out by the
Greek General Staff. The Greeks had meant to employ (as far as I can
remember) 150,000 men. Their landing was to have taken place on