Typed letter signed to Mrs Clifford (Alfred, 1854-1925, K.G., High Commissioner for South Africa and Colonial Secretary, 1st Viscount)

apologising for the dictated reply as he is "overwhelmed with correspondence. I am so sorry we do not see eye to eye in this matter Of course it is a military question and those who, like myself, don't know absolutely all the military facts, cannot form a perfect judgement. My own view is that, under the altered circumstances, the men are wasted there besides being in great danger; that they might be a great deal more use somewhere else, and that if it is militarily desirable to move them, it is quite wrong not to do so merely because the Turks would crow, or the Australians be disgusted, or we all feel, - as we naturally should - humiliated. All that will happen equally, only more so, if the expedition is allowed to come to complete grief. On the other hand, all this will be got over if the men, who are in themselves splendid, are given a chance somewhere where the conditions are not so horribly against them... One of the most competent judges I have seen, fresh from the spot, thinks we should lose fewer men in removal than we now lose in one week from disease...", 2 sides A4, 17 Great Colege Street, Westminster, 19th October General Ian HAMILTON (1852-1947, Commander of the Mediterranean Expiditionary Force at Gallipoli) had been relieved of command of Allied forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 15th October 1915. Allied forces were pinned down in inhospitable terrain and an October storm caused unbelievable hardship. 145,000 British soldiers died from sickness and exposure.