at this time not exercising its
proper functions or being invested with the powers to which it was
entitled. There never was a meeting of the various directors in the
War Office concerned, under the aegis of the General Staff, to go into
these matters in detail. The troops would certainly be called upon to
land somewhere, sooner or later, whether the fleet forced the
Dardanelles or not, and all the arrangements as regards supplies,
transport, water, hospitals, material for piers, etc., required to be
worked out by those responsible after getting a lead from the General
Staff. If the commodities of all kinds involved could not be procured
locally or in Egypt, then it was up to the War Office to see that
they should be sent out from home, and be sent out, moreover,
practically at the same time as the troops left so that they should be
on the spot when needed.

[Footnote 4: A single "preliminary scheme of
operations" would have been of little service to
the C.-in-C. of "Medforce"--it must have been based
on the mistaken assumption (which held good when he
started) that the fleet would force the Straits,
and it would consequently have concerned itself
with undertakings totally different from those
which, in the event, Sir Ian had to carry out. If
the army was to derive any benefit from projects
elaborated in the War Office, there must have been
a second "preliminary scheme of operations" based
on the assumption that the fleet was going to fail.
What profit is there in a plan of campaign that
dictates procedure to be followed after the first
great clash of arms? In the case under
consideration, the first great clash of arms befell
on the 18th of March, five days after Sir Ian left
London with his instructions, and it turned the
whole business upside down.]

Sir Ian also mentioned that he had not been shown the 1906 memorandum
before going to the Near East. As it turned out, the mystery made
about this document (although there was excellent reason for the
special steps that were taken in connection with it at the time of its
coming before the Committee of Imperial Defe