IAN HAMILTON.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16144, 23 February 1918, Page 8

LAN HAMILTON.

r SO2IE FRANK "WRITING. The volume in which Sir lan Hamilton has collected his despatches from the Dardanelles contains an introduction by Sir Evelyn Wood, and a brief preface by the author. In his preface Sir lan savs, Pe . ferring to the reason for the* evacuation of the Peninsula—"in war timo no soldier is free to say what j, e • thinks; after the war no one carcs what a soldier thinks.'' H 0 prints however, extracts from letters of Juiin Iftli and 26th, 1915, the first addressed by him to "a friend in power" and the second "to a statesman'" which here constitute a protest as will be seen, against the handling i>v tho Censorship of his first "two Despatches now printed in full, I a the first letter he said: "\ou seem to see nothing bevond the mischief that may happen if" the enemy gets to know too much about us; you do not see that this danger can be kept within bounds and is of small consequence when compared with the keenness or dulness of our own nation. Democracy and Autocracy must fight, with their own weapons If thev change foils in tho scuffle then, like liamlet and Laertes, they are both of them doomed." ' ' In the other letter, to a Statesman i occurs this: ' ' "From my individual point of view a hideous mistako has been made on the correspondent side of tho whole of this Dardanelles business. Had w* had a dozen good newspaper correspondents here, the vital life-giving interest of these stupendous proceedings would have been brought right into the hearths and homes of tho humblest people in Britain. Instead of that I wrote cables, of which 1 mav at least say they arc descriptive as far as official phraseology will permit. and they are turned by some miserable people somewhere into horrible bureaucratic 'cliches' or dead languages; i.e. 'He have made an appreciable' idvancc'; 'the situation remains unchanged. and similar god-damned phrases." ' "As for information to tho enemr. this is too puerile altogether. The things these devils produce are aW read and checked bv competent Staff ofhccrs. To think that it matters to tlio lurks whether a certain trench was taken by tho 7th Royal Scots or i -,j " iirwicks is just really like children playing at secrets." ,In conclusion, this extract from Napier is cited; ''Napoleon's troops fought in bright fields, where every helmet caught some beams of glorv; hut the British soloier conquered under tho cold shado of aristocracy; no honours awaited Ins daring, no despatch gave his namo lo tho applauses of his countrymen; Ins life_ of danger was uncheorcd bvhope, his death unnoticed." On this Sir lan Hamilton comments: ''Should tho same reproach be levoilod against us by our sons? Was the colder, darker shade of the Censor to replace that of the Aristocrat? Never, if I could help it. and so 1 wrote as I have written." THE TOLL OF WAR. » NEW ZEALAND CASUALTIES. (PRESS " ASSOCIATION" TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, February 22. The following is a summary of th» casualties in the Now Zealand Expedi tionury Force up to (he 11th inst. Other , Officers, ranks. Killed 32c 6.59G Died wounds ... 137 2,631 Dead, cauKo unknown ... \ 753 J>jed of diseaso ... 1<( 794 Browned ... ... 10 -o Missins y isjj Prisoners of war ... o 111 Wounded ... ... 1,140 27,801 Totals ...1.650 39,233