2110-2-13-10

22 Feb. '15

My dear Buchan. -

I have delayed acknowledging your 1st volume of the History of the War - for which many thanks - until I could read it: which isn't very easy to do on service - one has so little spare time, & even now I haven't read it all.

I think it is most lucid & excellent in every way, & I congratulate you heartily on it. Your criticisms of the German Empire & the Emperor hit the nail on the head every time, & all the preliminary survey of the different nations & their positions, financial & economical interests, & military power, are very good indeed: though I think you overstate it when you say that "our troops were without question the most professional in the world". p. 65. The accounts of the different movements of the Armies have shed (to me at all events) much light on the subject: I had no idea the French had put themselves into such a preposterous salient at Namur; & all the first movements of the German armies are new to me.

I have noted a few very trifling errors: & the only thing I have to grumble at is the maps - which don't shew the

whole of the names mentioned in the context - as I think they ought. But I know from experience what difficulties one has to contend with (largely financial) in map-production.

Anyway, I am very grateful to you both for writing & sending me the book, & will ask you kindly to put me down for all the volumes as they appear.

With kindest regards to Mrs Buchan, believe me

Yrs always

Gleichen [ST: Lord Gleichen]

Things quiet here for the moment, but we proceed next week to relieve another lot in a rather unpleasant region, to which I am not looking forward!