The months of January and February had passed in what were called quiet conditions, and during the first days of March we were full of preparations for the coming battle before Neuve Chapelle. Previous to this battle, in conjunction with all my Generals and my own Staff, I had very carefully considered the question of man-power in the Indian Corps, and I feel justified in stating at some length the conclusions we had arrived at, and the many battles royal that they raised. I am convinced I was right, but I was accused by the highest authorities at the time of a lack of appreciation of the situation as it existed. In order to explain myself I will not only state what actually occurred early in March but will carry on the story to its final solution in August 1915, when, to my surprise, I was summoned to England only to be told that certain propositions were before the Government, which I found if adopted would entirely coincide with my own made five months previously, and would in point of time be exactly what I had recommended. I am writing from my diary kept up daily and make no error in details. To those who were associated with me in the task of commanding the Corps it will be as plain as it was at that time, that it indeed needed patience of a degree with which nature had perhaps insufficiently endowed me, but which perforce I had to adopt; and a spirit that refused to be subdued even when opposed to the highest military and political authorities in the field and at home. Even if I am considered egoistic, I must again say that I had one great advantage, and that was I knew what I was talking about. Armageddon has shown up the impossibility of attempting to rule the East under purely Western methods, and has plainly manifested the need of first acquiring some knowledge of what you are undertaking, before you rush things to a hopeless standstill. The many causes I have stated had by March 1915 told so severely on the Corps that on 8th March I summoned a Conference of all my Generals and their senior Staff officers as well as my own Army Corps Staff. On this occasion the whole question was gone into and discussed, and it was unanimously agreed that I should represent to the Commander-in-Chief that it would be wise to relieve the Indian battalions then in France as soon as this could be conveniently done, but in any case before another winter set in. I knew that our reinforcements would dwindle, and later on I had it on the authority of the Government of India itself that there might be a considerable break in our receiving any at all.