Devons is only about 700 strong and
contains a large percentage of recruits, while the 1/6th Royal Scots
contains about 40 per cent. partially trained men and a new Commanding
Officer who has only just been appointed. Until it has had further
training neither battalion is fit for anything more than garrison duty.
I suggest that under these circumstances the _Ceramic_ should proceed
direct to Egypt."

"(No. 7401, cipher, 554/A.3.). From War Office to Inspector-General of
Communications, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. We are receiving from
Malta and Alexandria very large demands for materials and explosives for
making grenades. The supply of these seriously interferes with our
manufacture of grenades. At present we are hoping to send you 30 to
40,000 grenades weekly and this figure will be increased. When the
materials already sent out to Malta and Alexandria have been used up,
can the manufacture of grenades at those places cease? Please reply at
once; the matter is urgent."

Do what I will my pen carries me away and I find myself writing like an
ill-conditioned "grouser." As an old War Office "hand" I ought to
know--and I do know--the frightful time of stress under which Whitehall
labours. But, just look at these two cables, you innocent and peaceful
citizen of a thousand years hence! The residue of the famous 47,000
rifles sent me by the Adjutant-General are now being valued by the
official valuer, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In all our
calculations the 2/5th Devons has hitherto masqueraded as an efficient
battalion at full strength. Figures are sometimes more eloquent than
words!

As to the second cable, that deals us a worse blow. Seeing clearly, at
last, we should extract no hand grenades from the War Office, we turned
to Maxwell and Methuen, who have interested themselves in our plight and
have been making us so many that, with what we ourselves can add to
their manufacture, we are at last beginning to make things hum in the
Turkish trenches. Then in comes this War Office cable to crush our
nascent industry and give us in exchange some pious aspirations.

There is no good making any trouble about the hand grenades. As to the
two raw battalions, I am asking they be sent, raw and weak as they are,
as I can train them in the trenches much better and more quickly than
they could be trained in Egypt or England.

Church Parade; office work; sailed over to "K" Beach; inspected Clearing
Stations and