Considering the exceedingly burdensome character of our liabilities in connection with maintaining the associated forces of the Entente in Macedonia for the space of three years--for practical purposes we had to find pretty well all the food, and we had, moreover, to get the food (and almost everything else) to Salonika in our ships, which paid heavy toll to enemy submarines during the process--it was a faulty arrangement that the chief command out there was not reposed in British hands. To press for it would have been awkward, seeing that the chief command in the Dardanelles operations that had proved so abortive had rested with us; and it was, moreover, perfectly well known in Paris that the military authorities in this country looked askance at the whole business and that our Government entertained doubts on the subject. Had the operations been conducted by a British commander-in-chief they might not have been attended by greater success than they actually were, but, considering the strength of the mixed forces which remained locked up so long in this barren field of endeavour, they could hardly have proved less effective than they actually were for nearly three years. CHAPTER XVII THE PRESS The constant newspaper attacks upon the War Office -- Often arise from misunderstandings or sheer ignorance -- The mistake made with regard to war correspondents at the start -- The pre-war intentions of the General Staff -- How they were set on one side -- Inconvenience of this from the War Office point of view -- A breach of faith -- The mischievous optimism of newspapers in the early days -- Tendency of the military authorities to conceal bad news -- Experts at fault in the Press -- Tendency to take the Press too seriously in this country -- Some of its blunders during the war -- A proposal to put German officer prisoners on board transports as a protection -- A silly mistake over the promotion of general-officers -- Why were tanks not adopted before the war! -- A paean about Sukhomlinoff -- A gross misstatement -- Temporary officers and high positions in the field -- A suggestion that the Press should censor itself in time of war -- Its absurdity -- The Press Bureau -- Some of its mistakes -- Information allowed to appear which should have been censored -- Difficulties of the censors -- The case of the shell shortage -- Difficulty of laying down rules for the guidance of the censors -- The Press and the air-raids -- A newspaper proprietor placed at the head of the Air Service -- The result -- The question of announcing names of units that have distinguished themselves -- Conclusion.