GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2632, 30 November 1915, Page 11

GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN

SIR lAN HAMILTON'S LEADERSHIP

REPLY TO CHAPLAIN-CAPTAIN BUSH-KING

A correspondent writes: —Having seen Chaplain Buali-King's of Sir lan Hamilton in your issue of November 27, I enclose a cutting which shows' £ij a F 11 '? re a k Gallipoli do not hold the chaplain's opinions. The cutting, which is from tlie "Otago Daily Times," runs as under:— We have recoived tho following letter from nine members of the New Zealand Medical Corps, who left for Egypt in the Mam Body of the Expeditionary Forco, and were oil the Gallipoli Peninsula from April 2o until the end of "July:— "It is hardly fair that' even an army chaplain who has been in Gallipoli should be allowed- to cast aspersions on the fighting qualities of a general unless he is fully cognisant of facts. Id this morning's issuo of the 'Daily Times' Chaplain-Captain Bush-King asserts that General Sir lan Hamilton was never at Anzao, infers that this was due to lack of personal courage, and draws a picture of New Zealand! and Australian troops fighting with nothing but their sense of duty to uphold them. Wo do not know where the chaplain was during-tha latter part of June, but it is common knowledge amongst many returned soldiers that General Hamilton landed at Anzao one morning, visited headquarters, and several points in tlie line. We know this because we saw him personally, and are /h?' re 'j' n S °u second-hand information. Those who saw General Hamilton in Now Zealand l , and were inspected by him, would not lie likely to forget him. To assert that the colonial troops were disappointed with their leader is liable to create an absolutely erroneous opinion. _ Up to the end of July, as any rate, it is safe to say that all ranks had the greatest confidence in Ms ability, and it came as a greatjsurprise to us to learn that he had been recalled. "Another point in which Captain Bush-King is wrong is that he says that General Hamilton's headquarters were at- Lemr.os, and that he could not possibly get to tlie Peninsula in under four hours. The general's _ headquarters were on Imbros, a distance of TO to 12 miles from Anzac Beach, and iu a fast little dispatch boat—which he often used—that distance could, have been easily covered in an hour. "We are more of the opinion - which Mr. 'Pennant expressed in the House of Commons at Home when lie said that General Hamilton was more with his men than any other general. • ."The above was one occasion only on which Sir lan Hamilton visited Anzac, and he may havo been there at other times that we did not know of. But Australasian troops at any.rate realise that a commander-in-chief's life is far too valuable to be needlessly exposed' by daily life in a shell-swept zone. ; "We were on the Peninsula for fourteen weeks, not in a fighting unit, but in the Now Zealand Medical. Corps, and wo do not consider- a, non-combatant .should presume to judge a-general. The above.is a plain statement of facts, and the writers, although thpy would not object to tho publication of their names should Chaplain-Captain Bush-King demand them, aro yet adverse to their names appearing in print. Wo .realise tlift a man of General Hamilton's prestige and position does not need the support of those who would be called pawns in the game, but we wish to state that we hardly consider it 'playing the game' to level unfavourable criticism against him, when for reasons not yet : published he has been recalled to England. This is especially so when the criticisms are not based entirely on fact."