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

THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 69

knowledge on which alone a coherent national strategy could be based.

Early in October a beginning was made with the construction of a better machine. The General Staff at Whitehall was reconstituted, with Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Murray, who had formerly been Sir John EF rench’s Chief of Staff in France, at its head, and Major-General Kiggell as his deputy. General Murray, whose health had brought him back from the field, was the best type of British Staff officer, sound in judgment, untiring in industry, and deeply learned in his profession. This was the first of a number of changes and experiments. Lord Kitchener was dispatched ‘0 the Eastern Mediterranean on a mission of inquiry, and visited the lines in Gallipoli as well as Athens and Rome. It was fitting that the man who above all other Englishmen was familiar with military problems in the Near East should be asked to provide a first-hand view of the situation. In a lengthy speech by the Prime Minister on 2nd November, a new Committee of the N Cabinet was announced, which should £27 % act as a War Council * but should communicate its findings before final decision to the Cabinet at large. In the same speech it was made clear that the Dardanelles expedition was not the venture of any one Minister, but a decision of the whole Cabinet. Mr. Churchill, thus exonerated from the wild charges with which for months he had been assailed, took the opportunity soon afterwards of

* The Committee was made up of the Prime Minister,

Mr. Balfour, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Bonar Law, and Mr. M‘Kenna.