line & unless something is done to make the area more sanitary we shall have a lot of sickness in the summer. 17 March 1916 Quite warm again & the ground is beginning to dry up during the fine weather. The Corps Commander looked in in the morning 18 March 1916 Hold my first conference of Brigadiers & Divisional staff. Points discussed were chiefly in connection with the trenches and work on new lines. I laid great stress on offensive activity & pointed out that the Germans in our front were very active (234th 235th 236th of the 5a Reserve Division) their patrolling is good & machine gun fire at night particularly annoying. Our policy must be to inflict as much loss as possible & get the upper hand by machine gun fire, trench mortars & rifle batteries.