p.

4. add that this was meant as no reflection on the other man's professional ability, but only to make certain there was no miscarriage of justice.

The other business of course is this mess up of Thornton's, the bloody little nuisance. Only 2-3 weeks ago I had had him up for being generally unsatisfactory & too pleased with himself - & had given him a fairly effective telling off & a week's duty as Orderly Officer. and now, as officer in charge of a detachment at a very important place which we guard, he had some t--t into the place & into his room , & got one my Sgts to help him to get her in, & interfered with all the sentries so as they would not see her come in. So now he is in arrest, & I have applied for him to be Court Martialled. I took the summary of evidence myself on Saturday night - 17 pages of foolscap. What a shocking waste of my good writing time & energy.

And now I am going to fix up my second in command again - Captain Tony Bennett. He really is pretty useless, & has the brain of a flea, & is quite incapable of independent or original thought or effort. I explained it all to Col Leicester on Sunday, & he is going to cut his career short, & I hope, send me somebody really good this time. Do you think I am too severe on people? I really don't see why I should put up with inefficiency, idleness & gutlessness - & I really do feel that the sooner C.O.s begin to encourage their good officer, & get rid of or reduce their unsatisfactory & unsuitable ones, the better it will be for winning the war a bit quickly, & allowing people to come