already _hors de combat_. Here is the passage sent four days ago:--"The
total casualties including sick since 6th August amount to 40,000, and
my total force is now only 85,000 of which the fighting strength is
68,000." In this 68,000 were included 14,000 of the men shown in
_subsequent_ War Office cables as being drafts and reinforcements on
their way to the Dardanelles!

So my A.G. has become a bit suspicious about the balance of the 47,000.
On paper, he says, it looks as if I might expect to draw from Egypt and
England 30,000 reinforcements, but--he remarks sententiously--"we know
by now that paper is one thing and men are different." As to
Younghusband's Brigade, it turns out they cannot be employed here: too
many Mahomedans. Have sent the following reply:--

* * * * *

"(No. M.F. 595). From General Sir Ian Hamilton to Secretary of State for
War. With reference to your telegram No. 7337, cipher. Have now received
details of the 47,000 drafts and reinforcements in your No. 7354 cipher,
and I find that this figure includes nearly 10,000 men of the LIVth
Division and 4,234 drafts, all of whom had been landed on the peninsula
when I wrote my No. M.F. 578, and were reckoned in the total fighting
strength of 68,000 mentioned in that telegram. The statement, however,
shows that I can expect from England and Egypt during the next six weeks
a total of some 29,000 reinforcements, including new formations and two
battalions of non-fighting lines of communication troops.

"This is a better situation than I was led by your 7172, cipher, to
expect, and you may rely on me to do the best I can with this addition
to my present very depleted strength. I hope, however, you realize that
whereas my British Divisions are now more than 55,000 rifles below their
establishment only 17,000 of these 29,000 are drafts, and before the
last of the drafts can arrive these divisions will have lost another 25
per cent. of their remaining number by normal wastage.

"In regard to Younghusband's Brigade, I learn that the three battalions
are practically half Mahomedans, and I am advised that it is better if
it can be avoided not to use Mahomedans so near the heart of Islam.
Would it not be possible to exchange these for some Hindu regiments in
France?"

These cables give us an uncomfortable feeling that the people at home
wish to regard us as stronger than we are--a different thing from
wishing to add to our stre