time
that I speak of his acquaintance with the Gallic tongue was strictly
limited (although he did put forward claims to be able to understand
"Grey's French"), and he kept from time to time insisting upon the
proceedings being brought to a halt while a translation of something
that had been said was furnished for his benefit, generally selecting
some particularly unprofitable platitude which had been uttered by one
of those present for the purpose of gaining time.

The French took up a strong line over Salonika. In a sense they drove
our side into a corner, and the responsibility for hundreds of
thousands of French and British troops being interned in Macedonia for
years rests with them, and it was in great measure the outcome of that
day's debate. Sir W. Robertson was called upon to state his views. He
knows French perfectly well, but he absolutely refused to speak
anything but English, and his remarks were translated, sentence after
sentence, by a young French officer with a perfect command of the
latter tongue. After each successive sentence had been rendered into
French, Sir William, who was sitting beside me, would murmur,
"Infernal fellow, that's not what I said," as though repeating the
responses, the poor interpreter having in reality done his duty like a
man. The gist of his remarks was what might have been expected, viz.
that the Germans were the real enemy and that the proper course for
the Allies to pursue was to concentrate force against them and not to
be hunting about for trouble in the uttermost parts of the earth.
Views of that kind, enunciated bluntly and with considerable emphasis,
were very likely not wholly palatable to M. Briand; but it seemed to
me that they were not regarded with disfavour by General Joffre, nor
yet by General Gallieni, although those distinguished soldiers when
invited to give expression to their views contrived merely to say
nothing at considerable length. The end of it all was that we were
committed to dumping down three more divisions at Salonika in
addition to the two already there or disembarking, and that we were,
moreover, committed to sending them thither without delay. When they
got there it took ages to get their impedimenta ashore owing to lack
of landing facilities--as we had fully foreseen. The amateur
strategist imagines that you can discharge an army out of a fleet of
transports and freight-ships just anywhere and as easily as you can
empty a slop-pail.

We di