AN EMPIRE IN THE DOCK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 85, 4 January 1919, Page 6

AN EMPIRE IN THE DOCK

Space was given in our news columns yesterday to a detailed account of the fate of a body of 11,000 Anglo-Indian troops—the remnant of an advanced force on the Tigris, in Mesopotamia, commanded by General To wnshend—which surrendered at Kut-el-Amara in April, 1916. The story of what this force achieved in the period, of about twelve months prior to its surrender is one of the finest epics of the war. The manner in'which a large proportion of its survivors were done to death by the Turks stands unsurpassed even in.the black record of this war as a fiendish and coldblooded atrocity. The deeds of General Townshend's division entitle it to enduring fame. From the time when it was pushed forward, early in 1915, as the spearhead of the little British army in Mesopotamia, it fought month after month at desperate odds, and not only held its own, but penetrated into enemy territory to a distance of hundreds of miles from its maritime base. It was ill-supported;, the communications behind it.iwere bad and precarious, and the climate of Mesopotamia is one of the most trying in the world' Yet'for months this gallant'division triumphed over all obstacles and extended its invasion, Ultimately it was led by its able and" indomitable oommander to the near neighbourhood of Bagdad and fought and won the Battle of Ctesiphon, on November 22, 1915. • Unable, however, to make head against the enemy's -gathering reinforce- , ments, General Townshend undertook a retreat which ended in the investment of his force at Kut-el-Amara early in the following month. For nearly five months it withstood the attack of greatly su-perior-enemy forces, and its powers of resistance were broken at last, mot by the enemy, but by famine. As the story published yesterday shows, thousands of these horoic soldiers on falling info'the hands of the Turks were murdered far more barbarously than-if they had bccr\ butchered in cold blood. For many of them, weakened as they already were by starvation, and disease, rhn forced march they,were compelled' to undertake across the arid wastes of Mesopotamia and Syria could ' only have been a march of death '—oven had they not been denied the means of subsistence as , they went. The fiends in human shape who drove them to their fate knew well what they were doing. The .first duty Britain owes to tho memory, of heroes of. Kut is to place in the dock as many of their hij;hly>placed murderers as can be discovered. If this act of.retributive justice is faithfully 1 performed, it is not only Enver Pasha and other notables who will be called upon to answer the charge. As definitely as in the case of the Armenian massacres, the responsibility of these men is shared by others who are, :or were, highly placed in Germany and were in a position to control the action of the Turkish Government and military authorities. But while elementary justice demands ,that there should be direct retribution for the martyrdom of the Kufc garrison, it is even more necessary that Turkey : should be deprived finally 6f_ the power of committing, such hideous crimes. Aβ.a revelation of the depths to which she has sunk, the- fate of the Kut garrison in itself far more than warrants the doom the world has pronounced against her. The only way to worthily honour the memory of these men, who died more terrjbly tlian ;in battle, is to put it out,of the power of the Ottoman Turks to harm or maltreat the' people of any race, and this undoubtedly ought to be the aim of the Allied nations in settling conditions of pace.