en will do you handsomely; the Turks are
busy elsewhere; I hope you will not have to land at all; if you _do_
have to land, why then the powerful Fleet at your back will be the prime
factor in your choice of time and place."

I asked K. if he would not move the Admiralty to work a submarine or two
up the Straits at once so as to prevent reinforcements and supplies
coming down by sea from Constantinople. By now the Turks must be on the
alert and it was commonsense to suppose they would be sending some sort
of help to their Forts. However things might pan out we could not be
going wrong if we made the Marmora unhealthy for the Turkish ships. Lord
K. thereupon made the remark that if we could get one submarine into the
Marmora the defences of the Dardanelles would collapse. "Supposing," he
said, "one submarine pops up opposite the town of Gallipoli and waves a
Union Jack three times, the whole Turkish garrison on the Peninsula will
take to their heels and make a bee line for Bulair."

In reply to a question about Staff, Lord K., in the gruff voice he puts
on when he wants no argument, told me I could not take my own Chief of
Staff, Ellison, and that Braithwaite would go with me in his place.
Ellison and I have worked hand in glove for several years; our qualities
usefully complement one another; there was no earthly reason I could
think of why Ellison should _not_ have come with me, but; I like
Braithwaite; he had been on my General Staff for a time in the Southern
Command; he is cheery, popular and competent.

Wolfe Murray, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was then called
in, also Archie Murray, Inspector of Home Forces, and Braithwaite. This
was the first (apparently) either of the Murrays had heard of the
project!!! Both seemed to be quite taken aback, and I do not remember
that either of them made a remark.

Braithwaite was very nice and took a chance to whisper his hopes he
would not give me too much cause to regret Ellison. He only said one
thing to K. and that produced an explosion. He said it was vital that we
should have a better air service than the Turks in case it came to
fighting over a small area like the Gallipoli Peninsula: he begged,
therefore, that whatever else we got, or did not get, we might be fitted
out with a contingent of up-to-date aeroplanes, pilots and observers. K.
turned on him with flashing spectacles and rent him with the words,
_"Not one_!"

_15th March, 1915. H.M.S. "Phaeton."