to lobby throughout July and August. Robertson's view was that the Germans would prefer the Allies to keep large numbers of troops at Salonika, that Romania would come in as a result of Russian success, if any, and that peace with Bulgaria, although desirable to cut German-Turkish communications, was best sought by diplomatic means. Robertson lobbied hard – briefing against him to Stamfordham and The Times and The Morning Post – but in vain to prevent Lloyd George, who made no secret of his desire to use his control over military appointments to influence strategy, succeeding Kitchener as Secretary of State for War. Although Robertson retained the special powers he had been granted in December 1915, and Lord Derby, an ally of the soldiers, was appointed Under-Secretary, Robertson still wrote to Kiggell (26 June 1916) "That d----d fellow L.G. is coming here I fear. I shall have an awful time." The Somme Robertson had been clear that it would take more than one battle (28 December 1915, 1 January 1916) to defeat Germany, but like many British generals he overestimated the chances of success on the Somme, noting that Britain had more ammunition and big guns than before, that by attacking on a wide front of 20 miles or so, the attackers would not be subjected to enfilade German artillery fire (in the event this probably spread the artillery too thin, contributing to the disaster of 1 July) and that attrition would work in the Allies' favour as "the Germans are approaching the limit of their resources". Robertson's assistant Frederick Maurice had written (29 June) that Haig "does not mean to knock his head against a brick wall, and if he finds he is only making a bulge and meeting with heavy opposition he means to stop and consolidate and try somewhere else". Robertson wrote to Haig on 5 July that he had no idea what Haig planned to do next, and he appears still to have expected Haig to switch BEF efforts to an offensive in Flanders later in the summer, an idea with which Haig had previously been toying. Robertson also wrote to Kiggell (Chief of Staff BEF) (5 July) stressing that "the road to success lies through deliberation" and that "nothing is to be gained but very much is to be lost by trying to push on too rapidly". He recommended "concentration and not dispersion of artillery