to taste the same cup as all one's friends are drinking, and if I am
to go to any front I would as soon go to the P.G. as anywhere. It will
be a new part of the world to me and very interesting. The only bore
is being separated from the regiment.

_Friday._--I had a talk on Wednesday with a Chaplain just returned
from Basra, and he told me we're likely to stand fast now holding the
line Nasiriya-Awaz (or some such place on the Tigris). An advance on
Baghdad is impossible without two more divisions, because of the
length of communications. There is nothing to be gained by advancing
to any intermediate point. The only reason we went as far as Nasiriya
was that it was the base of the army we beat at Shaiba, and they had
reformed there in sufficient strength to be worth attacking. This is
not thought likely to happen again, as the Dardanelles will
increasingly absorb all Turkey's resources.

It seems to me that what is wanted here pre-eminently is thinking
ahead. The moment the war stops unprecedented clamours will begin, and
only a Government which knows its aim and has thought out its method
can deal with them. It seems to me, though my judgment is fearfully
hampered by my inability to get at any comprehensive statement of most
of the relevant facts, that the aim may be fairly simply defined, as
the training of India to self-government within the Empire, combined
with its good administration in trust meanwhile. That gives you a
clear criterion--India's welfare, not British interests, and fixes the
limit of the employment of Indians as the maximum consistent with good
government.

The _method_ is of course far more difficult and requires far more
knowledge of the facts than I possess. But I should set to work at it