Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/231

Rh We commenced to ask everybody what time the transport would be in.

Only once that day did the old attitude creep through, and it was properly squelched. We were lunching in the maritime station with the staff. A very nice, elderly officer said pleasantly:

“In my opinion we lost those ships winning a great victory."

"Sixteen to one!" a man scoffed. He turned to me. “Did not one of your politicians win a great victory on those figures?"

"Well," the elderly officer persisted, "we drove them back to their base."

A quiet chorus of protest arose.

The hard facts were stated to him plainly. He subsided, his elderly face a trifle bewildered. Probably he hadn't been here long. Probably he had never been in the trenches. Perhaps he was wondering, too, about the fruits of this new attitude which must certainly grow in economics and politics after the war.

He joined our restlessness, however, when some one entered, saying the transport had been sighted.

The official statements in the first papers we saw were cheering, but by no means all the truth. They made it possible for the officers to glance over the list of birthday honours which were