Coming to (3), General Maurice denies the truth of the
following words used by the Prime Minister :— "In Mesopotamia there is only one white division at all, in Egypt and in Palestine there are only three white divisions, the rest are Indians or mixed with a very, very small proportion of British troops in those divisions—I am referring to the infantry divisions."
"That," adds Sir Frederick Maurice, "is not correct." He goes on to say that his letter is not "the result of a military conspiracy." It had been "seen by no soldier." "I am," he says, "by descent and conviction as sincere a democrat as the Prime Minister, and the last thing I want to see is the government of our
country in the hands of soldiers" :— "My reasons for taking the very grave step of writing this letter are that the statements quoted above are known to a largo number of soldiers to be incorrect, and this knowledge is breeding such distrust of the Government as can only end in impairing the splendid moral of our troops at a time when everything possible should be done to raise it."
