GALLIPOLI LANDING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18408, 15 June 1925, Page 12

GALLIPOLI LANDING.

WHEN SIR lAN HAMILTON - WAVERED. taClt OUR OWN COBKESr-ONDEKT.) LONDON, April 30. General Sir lan Hamilton was the chief speaker at the dinner oi' the 29th Division on tho tenth anniversary of the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula. General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Westou was in the s chair. , Tho French Armee d'Orient was represented by its commanding officer, General Count .'.d'Amade, tho Royal Navy by Admiral Sir John Michael do Robeck, Com-mander-in-Chief in tho Mediterranean at tho. time of tho landing, by ViceAdmiral Sir Roger Keyes, now about to became bis successor in that command and at that time his Chier-of-Staff, and by Commodore TJnwin. V.C of the .River Clyde. Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood and General Sir Andrew Russell were also present. Sir lan Hamilton,, in his speech, said that, tho 29th Division were a wonderful lot of. men. They never faltered. They .rushed in where an angel would have feared to tread, or a, devil either, and from a hellish fire raining, over. sea. and land pulled out some or the hottest chestnuts which, a civilised army had ever been called "to lay paws. upon. (Cheers.) Nothing _ would be less in keeping with the spirit of their festivity on that occasion than the raising of any controversial topic, but he would liko to say one thing which had never, in any shape or form, been said before'. "What I have to tell you is," hecontinued, "that there Was a brief period towards'the end of March an-i beginning of April, 1915, when I did really begin to waver in my mind as to whether yon Der Goltz was not light in saying that a landing was a sheer impossibility. During this'period the Egyptian Press kept/on giving the most clear and specific detail as to. arrivals of troops and material, together with specific statements .that were bound for the Dardanelles, and,-in reply to my remonstrances,' I -was informed by the responsible civil authority that Egypt was not at war and that it was-beyond oiir power, therefore, to restrain the Egyptian .Press -from advertising any..thing it liked. Secrecy.is the essence of military success, and, most of all, secrecy in regard to a : landing. • In our case, every ono had been .fully informed pf everything from England.' At .luncheon at tho Abdin Palace tho Sultan discussed: the "landing on Gallipoli" with mo quite openly before courtiers and . servants. There was never, in fact, from first ( to last, the semblance' even of keeping our destination confidential, although,, of course, the actual .spots . selected were-still mv. secret. Welly do you know*■what""finally, made me steel my heart to carry on?.. My inspection of tho 29th' Division." (Cheers.) The Great War, he added, produced! a bumper crop of heroisms; and so far. as mortal man could do. or suffer, the limit of those things was reached not in one field, but in many fields.. And yet, where so much was everywhere in. evidence, he most firmly believed that the landing of April 25th 'marked a sort of-climax. The battles of the: Western, Front, had' now been fought, and re-fought on paper and in speech for ten" long years. Tho writers' and students of the, United States and .the-: Continent of Europe-were now turning their attention to the Dardanelles and! studying the-literature uoon the subject.' The fame of the, 29th Division would never die.