THE RIVER WAR
OR "THE LONG ROAD TO BAGDAD" MR. CANDLER'S BOOK OF REVELATIONS Mr. Edmund Candler, the official "eyewitness'' of the Britisi operations in Mesopotamia during the war, has just L published his book, "The Long Road to Bagdad." The "Morning Post", reviewer thus refers to the vagaries of tho 5 censorship as demonstrated in Mr. Cand- , lev's experiences:— In an early -chapter of this story of the war in Mesopotamia, Mr. Candler > deals drastically with the vagaries of - the Censorship, which, primarily designj ed to prevent intelligence of military j value slipping through to the enemy, was used to conceal official and political . fallibility. It was not the censors on 1 the spot, Mr. Candler admits, who were - to blame. They were loyal to the system imposed. "Telegi aphis dispatches from Mesopotamia were censored at Tigris Corps Headquarters, released at Basra, censored there again by General Headauarters, forwarded to Karichi, . whenoo one copy went to Army ' Headquarters. Delhi. On orders from A.H.Q., Delhi. Bombay forwarded the the dis- ' patch to the Press Association, London, • bv whom it was submitted for final cen- • sorship to the Press Bureau, London. ' But in each "bureau de passage" differ- • ent heads, military and political, had to f be consulted; diverse, aim sometimes con- • flieting, notions of expediency had to be ! reconciled; and thus it sometimes hapI penod that very little of the original | communication saw the light." In ef- ' feet the result was to render the Official r Eye-Witness's dispatches utterly useless, ' except to protect the shrinking sensibility of politicians at Simla and St. Stephens, and to prevent the British public from guessing that, thanks to the systematic starving of the Indian Army in tho years preceding the war, and the calculated parsimony of the Financial Member during the earlier stages of tho Mesopotamian operations, wo were ■ carrying on a twentieth century campaign ' with tho medical equipment of an Eigh--1 teenth century war, to say nothing of other-shocking inadequacies. ' A little wholesome publicity, such as was 1 achieved in the Crimean War by a, famous war correspondent, might have ar- ' rested the evils accruing from a policy ' of bloodthirsty niggardliness, the fatal fruition of which was first fully revealed in tho report of the Mesopotamian Commission. No such publicity-was possible for Mr. Chandler. Even lihis pictures of the actuul fighting were reduced to a smug absurdity by the censor's sense of verbal propriety—to the intense amusement of his officer companions, who were aniaeed at tho censorial ingenuity which • actually succeeded in making capital (for politicians and officials) out of the privations of the wounded at Shoikh Snad, where we had 4262 men killed and wounded in an attack which had it been pressed home, might have ben successful. Mr. Candler illustrates this seiiso of verbal propriety from his experiences in Tibet. In describing the dirt and discomfort and cold of the ancient fort at Phari he had written about a group of ruffianly-look-ing officers, their beards covered with grime, "seated ovor a yak-dung fire and drinking rum." Tho ruin was out out lest it should offend the teetotal interest tit homo and the yak-dung eliminated as indelicate—and the censored sentence, "officers seated ovea fire drinking lea" gore people at homo the impression of a easy tea party. It is as well to pay attention to these complaints of an honest and experienced journalist, who would not think of resenting the suppression of anything that might give information to the enemy.. A military precaution was, in fact, turned into a protection for weak and hesitating civilians. The censorship is now a political fig-deaf, nothing more nor less. Mr. Candler, however, in these two spacious volumes speaks without fear or favour of what he has seen with his own eyes or heard from competent witnesses in regard to matters—e.g., the operations on the Tigris and tho Shatt-el-Adheim", immediately after the capture of Bugdad, .which he missed owing to th&t were boyond Ms personal observation. He has not, jiqr does he claim, tho authority of a military.expert. As regards all problems of strategy and tactics he has consulted soldiers whose judgment cap bo trusted. His general criticisms, which are based on authoritative guidance, are both interesting apd instructive. The preliminary failure which culminated in the Kut surrender was due, as we know, not to any lack of moral but to a gross inadequacy of personal and material means, having regard to the ends in view, for which the politicians and officials, not the military leadership were chiefly responsible. Miscalculation as to the enemy s resist-anoe-power was also a frttor. Easy victories over the Turks originally in Mesopotamia caused the value of reinforcements, victorious from Gwllinoli, to be greatly underrated. Afterwards the Turkish command fell into the very same error. Gallipoli and'Kut had bred a contempt for the British and Indian troops in the Turkish' mind, and a penally was duly paid for the folly, so often occurring in the world's history, of underestimating our tenacity of purpose, mid the fact that the fighting-power of our soldiers, both those of our own race and those who have eaten our salt, is never dimmed .by defeat. Tqwnshend and Maude, in Mr. Candler's' opinion, were the two great generals of the Mesopotamian warfare. Of tho latter ho giveß a striking personality sketch which would deepen tho national souse of his untimely loss if *that were possible. ■Don't congratulate me," he would savin a tone of injured brusque.rie and goodnatured impatience, "it was the men who did it." It is a memorable appreciation of a great soldier and a great gentleman. ' Mr. Candler's pithy yet picturesque style enables him to bring homo to the reader tho dangers and discomforts, abovo all the bludgeoning of the sun's stroke, of the sinister land which has destroyed its own Empire, which slew Alexnnder the Great and Julian. But he shows us also tho character of its nntivo inhabitants, their bad and good qualities, and that rebuilding of its long-lost fertility which has proceeded pan passu with the victorious inarch of our Armies. Time was when Babylon of the hanging gardens must have had close on a million inhabitants. Only if we remain between the historie rivers, to finish tho task thus well begun and to do there what we have done in Egypt, can this derelict land be made to blossom again to full fruition. Sheffield Diocesan Cpnference decided to raise £2WX) to provide a war bonus for incumbents and married, curates, (Tho cablo news in this issue accredited to the London "Times" has appeared In that journal but only where eiproßsly itated Js ?uch news the oSUoriol Opinton ot the, "Timei,'!)
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 178, 23 April 1919, Page 7
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1,110THE RIVER WAR Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 178, 23 April 1919, Page 7
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