ish musketry. I left
Hythe on the outbreak of the South African War and during that war Munro
went there.

He was born with another sort of mind from me. Had he been sent out here
in the first instance he would never have touched the Dardanelles, and
people who have realized so much may conclude he will now clear out. But
it does not follow. Munro's refusal to attempt a landing in the first
instance would have served as the foundation stone for some totally
different policy in the Near East. That might perhaps have been a good
plan. But to start a campaign with me and try to carry it on with Munro
has already been tried and found hardly fair to either of us. The
intention of whoever selected Munro is so to use him as to force K. to
pull down the blinds. But they may be mistaken in his character.

One thing is sure: whenever I get home I shall do what I can to convince
K. that the game is still in his hands if only he will shake himself
free from slippery politics; come right out here and run the show
himself. Constantinople is the only big big hit lying open on the map at
this moment. With the reinforcements and munitions K., as
Commander-in-Chief, would have at his command, he can bring off the coup
right away. He has only to borrow a suitable number of howitzers and
aeroplanes from the Western front and our troops begin to advance.
Sarrail has missed the chance of twenty generations by not coming here.
Let K. step in. In the whole of the Near East his name alone is still
worth an Army Corps. My own chance has gone. That is no reason why my
old Chief should not himself make good. I told the War Council we held
at Suvla before the battle of the 21st August that if the Government
persisted in refusing me drafts and munitions--if they insisted on
leaving my units at half-strength--then they would have to get someone
cleverer than myself to carry out the job. Well, it has come to that
now. K. looms big in the public eye and can insist on not being starved.
He must hurry up though! Time enough has been lost, God knows. But even
to-day there is time. Howitzers, trench mortars, munitions, men, on a
scale France would hardly miss,--the Asiatic side of the Straits would
be occupied--and, in one month from to-day, our warships will have
Constantinople under their guns. If K. won't listen to me, then, having
been officially mis-informed that the War Council wish to see me (the
last thing they _do_ wish), I will take them at thei