“I know that our food reserve is critical. I cannot reconcile myself to the happy go lucky hand to mouth style of saying ‘Oh it will be all right.'” “But of course, some of [Wild’s] remarks dont bear much analysis and he ought not to try & dupe me over the meat supplies for… it is truly a case of ‘telling it to the marines’.

“One cannot help but be a bit anxious about Sir Ernest. One wonders how he fared, where he is now and how it is that he has not yet been able to relieve us. The subject is practically taboo; everyone keeps their own counsel and thinks different, and no one knows just what anyone else thinks about it, and it is quite obvious that no one really dare say what they really think.”

— Thomas Orde-Lees