GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN CRITICISED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2607, 1 November 1915, Page 5

GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN CRITICISED

AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT'S VIEWS AN "APPALLING" PLAN By ToleeraDh—Press .Association—Copyright ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.) ; London, October 29. Mr. Granville Fortescue (the American war ' correspondent), . who saw the -war from the Turkish side, has published a book 011 the Dardanelles campaign. Ho denounces as "appalling" our plan for smashing a channel through to -the Black Sea. _ It was due to ignorance, misinformation, and absolute contempt of military and naval precedents. There was no chance of a battleship running the gauntlet of forts at the Narrows. The English peoplo had been sadly befooled. AVhen the English commander proposed to get astride the Peninsula he,forgot that thei Germans had been in touch since early in June. Si:' lan Hamilton's army had a gambler'*! chance of success in new of the possible exhaustion of Turkish ammunition, but Germany sent trained munition workers to overtake the deficiency, and the ammunition factories were soon turning out a sufficient ppply for all needs. The Balkan crisis had come opportunely, and would be an excuse for the evacuation of the Dardanelles as a military necessity. He' who pushed the plan can escape the indictment of folly and of gigantic failure at- a cost of a hundred thousand casualties. It is certain that the Gorman General Staff know that the Mediterranean force must be withdrawn, or bo exterminated. If the war ends in more than a draw, Germany must be beaten in France and Flanders.