Item 01: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett diary, 1915-1917 - Page 94

[Page 94]

ications. His is a mind which believes a thing is done as soon as it is thougt of. Having got his own panegeric of his chest he became calmer under the weight of its removal and frequent applications to his glass which was never empty throughout the evening . When the Ladies had left he suddenly turned on me and began abusing me, because be said I had come home to run down the expedition and to crab it and to talk about it before a lot of stupid Society Gossips. Such is justice when I had carefully refrained from uttering a word. He accused me of turning the whole thing to riducule just for the sake of making a story out of it. I pretended to be angry denied his allegations and procedeed to point out the true facts quietly but firmly. I made it prefectly dear that I realised the absolute necessity for carrying on the expedition but that I would only keep silent if it were carried on in the right way. Having convinced him of this he proceeded to argue more calmly.

When Lulu Harcourt went up to join the Ladies we went aside and discussed every detail. I then discovered that Winston has only one fixed determination in mind namely that the expedition shall be carried through at all costs not only because he feels that strategically it must have a great effect on the war but also because he knows it will mean his complete vindication and restore something of his old prestige because the msitakes will be speedily be forgotten in the final success. He told me the Cabinet were divided and would have to come to a decision this week. He asked me to assist that decision in every way and told me I must meet the Prime Minister on the following day that he would arrange the interview and would himself be present. There was no difficulty in enlisting my services in his interests because I have