six yards behind me and five or six yards in front of Freddie. The slush
fairly smothered or blanketed the shell but I was wetted through and was
stung up properly with small gravel. The hardened devils of Anzacs, who
had taken cover betwixt the shell-proofs built of piles of stores,
roared with laughter. Very funny--to look at!

As the old Turks kept plugging it in fairly hot, I sat quiet in
Birdwood's dugout for a quarter of an hour. Then they calmed down and we
went the rounds of the right trenches. In those held by the Light Horse
Brigade under Colonel G. de L. Ryrie, encountered Lieutenant Elliot,
last seen a year ago at Duntroon.

Next, met Colonel Sinclair Maclagan commanding 3rd (Australian) Infantry
Brigade. After that saw the lines of Colonel Smith's Brigade, where
Major Browne, R.A., showed me a fearful sort of bomb he had just
patented.

At last, rather tired by my long day, made my way back, stopping at
Birdie's dugout en route. Boarded the _Mosquito_; sailed for and reached
camp without further adventure. General Douglas of the East Lancs
Division is here. He has dined and is staying the night. A melancholy
man before whose eyes stands constantly the tragic melting away without
replacement of the most beautiful of the Divisions of Northern England.

_27th June, 1915. Imbros._ Blazing hot; wound up my mail letters; fought
files, flies and irritability; tackled a lot of stuff from Q.M.G. and
A.G.; won a clear table by tea time. In the evening hung about waiting
for de Robeck who had signalled over to say he wanted to talk business.
At the last he couldn't come.

The sequel to the letter telling me I'd have to cut the names of
battalions out of my Despatch has come in the shape of a War Office
cable telling me that, if I agree, it is proposed "to have the despatch
reviewed and a slightly different version prepared for publication." I
hope my reply to Fitz may arrive in time to prevent too much titivation.

An imaginative War Office (were such a thing imaginable) would try first
of all to rouse public enthusiasm by letting them follow quite closely
the brave doings of their own boys' units whatever these might be. Next,
they would try and use the Press to teach the public that there are
three kinds of war, (_a_) military war, (_b_) economic war and (_c_)
social war. Lastly, they would explain to the Cabinet that this war of
ours is a mixture of (_a_) and (_b_) with more of (_b_) than (_a_) in
it.

Ho