st be allowed that the
situation at the time was a most complicated and perplexing one. Lord
French in his book makes it clear that, while he objected strongly to
the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry Division being sent to the
Belgian coast under the independent command of Sir H. Rawlinson
instead of their being sent to Boulogne and placed under his own
orders, he did not wish Antwerp to be abandoned. Lord Kitchener had,
as a matter of fact, seized upon Antwerp as a means of inducing
reluctant colleagues to assent to the United Kingdom being denuded of
these regular troops and their being hurried to the theatre of war.
Knowing what we know now, it seems almost certain that, no matter
where the fresh troops from England turned up or whose orders they
were under, the Belgian army and the Naval Division would have been
lost for good and all had they not cleared out of the fortress when
they did. The verdict of history will probably be that both H.M.
Government and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force
misread the situation, that H.M. Government's misreading was very much
the graver of the two, that there was excuse for such misreadings when
the inevitable fog of war is taken into consideration, and that the
Germans threw away their chances and bungled the business worst of
all.

A few days after Antwerp had fallen, and a week or so before that
tremendous conflict which has come to be known as the First Battle of
Ypres was fairly launched, Sir C. Douglas, who for a long time past
had not been in the best of health and upon whom the strain had been
telling severely during the previous two and a half months, did not
make his appearance at the office one morning. He had struggled on
with splendid grit and determination almost to the very end, for he
died within a few days, a victim of devotion to duty and of overwork.
His place was taken by Sir J. Wolfe-Murray.

CHAPTER III

LORD KITCHENER'S START

A first meeting with Lord Kitchener -- Sent up to see him in
Pretoria by his brother under unpromising conditions -- The
interview -- The Chief's pleasant reception -- A story of Lord K.
from the Sudan -- An unpleasant interview with him in August 1914
-- Rare meetings with him during the first two or three months --
His ignorance of War Office organization -- His lack of
acquaintance with many matters in connection with the existing
organization of the army -- His