Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

a,

NEW SITUATION IN THE NEAR EAST. 3;

it a parable, putting modern names for those of Nicias and Alcibiades, LLamachus and Gylippus,

~ Athens and Sparta, and find a score of striking parallels. Such historical apologues, whether they

cheer or depress, are to be sparingly used, for the data they provide are too loose for a fruitful deduction. But by the beginning of October it was clear to observers in the West that our position in the Eastern Mediterranean, never strategically good, was about to be complicated by that very event which we had hoped to frustrate. The Turks, depleted in men, and with their stock of munitions running low, were about to receive dangerous reinforcements. Gylippus had come to the aid of the Syracusans.

After the second failure at Suvla on 21st August there could be no question of a renewed offensive. Sir Ian Hamilton on 16th August had asked for large reinforcements from home, and they had been refused him. For some weeks the peninsula saw the ordinary routine of trench warfare like the preceding winter in the West. Local attacks and counter-attacks kept the fronts from stagnation, but there was no plan of advance on either side. By the third week of September the new menace in the Balkans was apparent, and the Gallipoli campaign became only a part of the highly complex strategical situation. It was clear that we should presently be compelled to operate on another part of the ZEgean littoral, and it was not clear where the troops were to come from.

About this time we may date the complete surrender of the original Gallipoli plan. The Allied scheme was in the melting-pot, and we were back

Aug. 21.