EPISODES OP THE GREAT WAE [1915

such a scheme would have been condemned as insane
—and rightly condemned on the facts before them—
by every competent soldier in the spring of 1915.
The criticism of the British Government is not that
it lacked the gift of second sight, but that it suffered
itself to drift into a great venture without duly
coTinting the cost.

The officer appointed to the command of the
Gallipoli expedition, Sir Ian Hamilton, had behind
him forty-two years of service in British wars. He
was a soldier of a type rare in modern armies—a man
of wide culture, a poet, an accomplished writer, a
brilliant talker, a liberal politician ; but he had also
proved himself a man of the most conspicuous
gallantry, a skilled regimental leader, an able staff
officer, and an efficient military administrator.
That the venture was desperate and Sir Ian Hamil-
ton's position one of immense difficulty no one can
deny. The purpose of the Allies had already been
betrayed by the abortive naval attack; he was
warned that the whole business was on sufferance,
that his troops were only lent to him temporarily,
and that his task was a coup de main, since a pro-
longed campaign might well be out of the question.
At the same time he had been solemnly adjured by
Kitchener that there could be no retirement. He
was given nothing in the shape of detailed instruc-
tions by the Government, and no information worth
mentioning about the nature of the problem before
him. He was left free to make his own schemes, but
he had no freedom either in the appointment of his
subordinate generals or in the requisition of troops.
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