State Library of NSW
[Page 243]
and oil could be supplied to the submarines by land, and they would no longer have to run the dangerous passage of the Straits. The demoralising effect on the Turkish Armies in Southern Gallipoli of a new force landed right in their rear across their lines of communication should not be forgotten. It would also be desirable to allow the French, if they can spare the available troops, to make a fresh landing at Kum Kale and occupy the Kum Kale-Yeni Shehr Ridge. This would have the effect of diverting the enemy's attention, forcing him to keep his troops on the Asiatic coast, and would also prevent him harassing the beaches on Southern Gallipoli by erecting new batteries, which he is constantly trying to do. Only a small force is required for this purpose and the French Staff have always favoured its re-occupation.
Quite apart from the broader aspect of its effect on the war as a whole, there seems to me to be two local reasons why it is highly desirable to make some decisive move in Gallipoli. The one, the ever constant fear that the enemy May resort to the use of gas, in which case we might easily be driven into the sea; secondly is the fear of an outbreak of cholera amongst the Turkish troops which might spread to our own. In November 1912, they lost nineteen thousand men in ten days along the lines of Chataldja. This outbreak was brought by the troops coming from Asia Minor.
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