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" exchanging practically all the British infantry and artillery in India for Territorial batteries and battalions, and the formation of the 27th, 28th and 29th Divisions of regular troops. The New Zealand contingent must be escorted to Australia and there, with 25,000 Australians, await convoys to Europe. Meanwhile the leading troops of the Canadian Army, about 25,000 strong, had to be brought across the Atlantic. All this was of course additional to the main situation in the North Sea and to the continued flow of drafts, reinforcements and supplies across the Channel. Meanwhile the enemy’s Fleet remained intact, waiting, as we might think, its moment to strike; and his cruisers continued to prey upon the seas. To strengthen our cruiser forces we had already armed and commissioned twenty-four liners as auxiliary cruisers, and had armed defensively fifty-four merchantmen. Another forty suitable vessels were in preparation. In order to lighten the strain in the Indian Ocean and to liberate our light cruisers for their proper work of hunting down the enemy, I proposed the employment of our old battleships (Canopus class) as escorts to convoys. Besides employing these old battleships on convoy, we had also at the end of August sent three others abroad as rallying points for our cruisers in case a German heavy cruiser should break out: thus the Glory was sent to Halifax, the Albion to "
― Winston S. Churchill , The World Crisis, Volume I: 1911 - 1914
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" This battle fares like to the morning’s war, When dying clouds contend with growing light; What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. Nor sways it this way, like a mighty sea Forc’d by the tide to combat with the wind; Nor sways it that way, like the self-same sea Forc’d to retire by fury of the wind: Sometime, the flood prevails, and then, the wind: Now, one the better; then, another, best; Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, Yet neither conqueror, nor conquerèd: So is the equal poise of this fell war.’ —KING HENRY VI (PART III). "
― Winston S. Churchill , The World Crisis, Volume I: 1911 - 1914
