out of consideration the blunder of having drifted into
the Dardanelles enterprise at all, the real mistake lay in not
abandoning that enterprise when it became apparent that the troops
originally detailed could not accomplish their purpose, when it became
apparent that gaining a footing on the Gallipoli Peninsula meant
gaining a footing and no more and that no aid was to be expected from
Bulgaria or from Greece. It was just at that juncture that Russia
began to give out and that the tide turned in favour of the Central
Powers on the eastern side of Europe. The matter was primarily one for
H.M. Government, because the French were not deeply committed to the
effort against the Straits; but H.M. Government at that moment
happened to be in a state of flux. The staff at G.H.Q., St. Omer, were
no doubt not absolutely unprejudiced judges; but I was hearing
constantly from General H. Wilson between August 1914 and the end of
1915, and he always wrote in the same strain about the Dardanelles
from April onwards: "Cut your losses and come out."

Some mention has already been made of M. Briand's inclination for
Entente efforts based on Salonika. In the autumn of 1915 that eminent
French statesman was head of the Government in Paris, and his Cabinet
took up a very strong line indeed over this question. We all agreed
that neither the city, linked as it was by railway with Central
Europe, nor yet its spacious land-locked haven must fall into enemy
hands. Our naval authorities were in full agreement with the French
naval authorities on that point. But when it came to projects for
planting down large military forces in this area, with the idea of
ultimate offensive operations northward ever in the background, we of
the General Staff at the War Office demurred, and we were, at all
events in principle, supported by the majority of the War Council.
Lord Kitchener left for the Aegean at this time; but both before going
and after his return he always, as far as I know, deprecated locking
up fighting resources in Macedonia. Our Allies across the Channel
were, however, somewhat insistent. Two conferences took place: one, a
military one at Chantilly at the very end of October, and a more
authoritative one a few days later in Paris, both of which I attended.
More will be said about these _reunions_ in Chapter XII. General
Joffre, with some of his staff, also paid a visit to London in
connection with the matter. The upshot was that the French pr