nic _Memories_ that
the First Sea Lord had, with his "own hands alone to preserve secret
all arrangements," prepared plans for depositing three "great armies"
at different places in the Baltic, "two of them being feints that
could be turned into reality." How the First Sea Lord could draw up
plans of this kind that were capable of being put into effective
execution without some military assistance I do not pretend to
understand. A venture such as this does not begin and end with dumping
down any sort of army you like at a spot on the enemy's shores where
it happens to be practicable to disembark troops rapidly. Once landed,
the army still has to go ahead and do its business, whatever this is,
as a military undertaking, and it stands in need of some definite and
practicable objective. The numbers of which it is to consist and its
detailed organization have to be worked out in advance, with a clear
idea of what service it is intended to perform and of the strength of
the enemy forces which it is likely to encounter while carrying out
its purpose. It has to be fed and has to be supplied with war material
after it has been deposited on _terra firma_. Is it to take its
transport with it, or will it pick this up on arrival? Even the
constitution of the armada which is to convey it to its point of
disembarkation by no means represents a purely naval problem. Until
the sailors know what the composition of the military force in respect
to men, animals, vehicles, etc., is to be, they cannot calculate what
tonnage will be required, or decide how that tonnage is to be allotted
for transporting the troops oversea. For a project of this kind to be
worked out solely by naval experts would be no less ridiculous than
for it to be worked out solely by military experts. Secrecy in a
situation of this kind is no doubt imperative, but you must trust
somebody or you will head straight for catastrophe.

When I went over by appointment to see Lord Fisher, he got to work at
once in that inimitable way of his. He explained that what he had in
view was to place sufficient motor-lighters at Lord Kitchener's
disposal, each carrying about 500 men, to land 50,000 troops on a
beach at one time. He insisted upon the most absolute secrecy. What he
wanted me to do was to discuss the construction of the lighters in
detail with the admiral who had the job in charge, so as to ensure
that their design would fall in with purely military requirements. I
had,