d as they were on the 26th, or
more so. The Intelligence hear that enemy reinforcements are crossing
the Narrows. So it is a pity we could not make more ground whilst we
were about it, but we had no fresh men to put in and the used Battalions
were simply done to a turn.

We did not talk much about the past at dinner, except--ah me, how
bitterly we regretted our 10 per cent. margin to replace casualties,--a
margin allowed by regulation and afforded to the B.E.F. Just think of
it. To-day each Battalion of the 29th Division would have been joined by
two keen Officers and one hundred keen men--fresh--all of them fresh!
The fillip given would have been far, far greater than that which the
mere numbers (1,200 for the Division) would seem to imply. Hunter-Weston
says that he would sooner have a pick-me-up in that form than two fresh
Battalions, and I think, in saying so, he says too little.

Tired or not tired, we attack again to-morrow. We must make more--much
more--elbow room before the Turks get help from Asia or Constantinople.

Are we to strike before or after daylight? Hunter-Weston is clear for
day and we have made it so. The hour is to be 8 a.m.

Showed H.W. the cable we got at tea time from K., quoting some message
de Robeck has apparently sent home and saying, "Maxwell will give you
any support from the garrison of Egypt you may require." I am puzzled
how to act on this. Maxwell won't give me "any support" I "may require";
otherwise, naturally, I'd have had the Gurkhas with me now: he has his
own show to run: I have my own show to run: it is for K. to split the
differences. K. gave me fair warning before I started I must not embroil
him with French, France, or British politicians by squeezing him for
more troops. It was up to me to take the job on those terms or leave
it--and I took it on. I did think Egypt might be held to be outside
this tacit covenant, but when I asked first, directly, for the Indian
Brigade; secondly, for the Brigade or even for one Gurkha Battalion, I
only got that chilliest of refusals--silence. Since then, there has been
some change in his attitude. I do wish K. would take me more into his
confidence. Never a word to me about the Indian Brigade, yet now it is
on its way! Also, here comes this offer of more troops. Hunter-Weston's
reading of the riddle is that troops ear-marked for the Western front
are still taboo but that K. finds himself, since our successful landing,
in a more favourable