[15] “I suppose that upon no man in our history has a heavier burden fallen than fell upon him, and nothing in connection with this Report--it may be no imputation upon anybody connected with the Report itself--has filled me with more indignation and disgust than that the publication of the criticisms made in it of Lord Kitchener’s conduct and capacity should have been taken advantage of by those who only two years ago were in a posture of almost slavish adulation to belittle his character, and, so far as they can, to defile his memory. Lord Kitchener’s memory is in no danger. It lives, and will live, in the gratitude and admiration of the British people and of the whole Empire.”--Mr. Asquith, Speech in the House of Commons, March 20, 1917 (Hansard, 1748). [16] See his speech in the House of Commons on Woman Suffrage, March 28, 1917. [17] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, par. 16. [18] Speech at Dundee, June 5, 1915. [19] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, par. 53. [20] _Ibid._, pars. 54, 55. [21] This War Staff Group took the place of the Board of Admiralty in strategical matters, the Second, Third, and Fourth Sea Lords being thus released for their special functions of manning, shipbuilding, and transport. Its other members were the First Lord, the Chief of the Staff (Sir Henry Oliver), the Secretary of the Board (Sir Graham Greene), and the Naval Secretary (Commodore de Bartolomé).--See “The Dardanelles Report,” by Mr. Archibald Hurd (_Fortnightly Review_, April 1917), where the whole subject is discussed with the writer’s well-known knowledge of naval affairs. [22] Ἐχθίστη δὲ ὀδύνη ἐστὶ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποισι αὕτη, πολλὰ φρονέοντα μηδενὸς κρατέειν.--Herodotus, ix. 16. [23] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, pars. 19, 87; minutes 1 and 2. [24] _Ibid._, par. 20. [25] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, par. 26. [26] _Ibid._, par. 22. [27] Speech of March 20, 1917 (Hansard, 1744). [28] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, Mr. Roch’s Minute, par. 16. [29] _Ibid._, Majority Report, par. 68. [30] _Ibid._, Mr. Roch’s Minute, par. 11. The reference is to the brief bombardment of November 3. [31] _Ibid._, pars. 7–12. [32] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, par. 56. [33] _Ibid._, Majority Report, par. 57; Mr. Roch’s Minute, par. 14. Admiral Jackson’s view as to the unenviable position of a fleet bottled up off Constantinople without commanding the line of retreat was probably influenced by the record of Admiral Duckworth’s risk when in a similar position (1807), and Admiral Hornby’s hesitation about entering the Straits in 1877.--See Nelson’s _History of the War_, by John Buchan, vol. vi. pp. 130–36. [34] Dardanelles Commission; First Report, par. 43. [35] Speech in House of Commons, March 20, 1917 (Hansard, 1780). [36] Dardanelles Commission; Mr. Roch’s Minute, par. 16. [37] _Ibid._, par. 20; Majority Report, pars. 60–62.