TOWNSHEND'S DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 190, 7 May 1919, Page 7

TOWNSHEND'S DEFENCE

REPLY TO CRITICS OF KUT SURRENDER

TURKISH PLEDGES General Townsliend, in a speech at Norwich recently, replied vigorously To criticisms of his conduct during the defence of Kut. The occasion was a reception given to 1000 repatriated soldiers, among whom wcr6 100 men of tho Norfolk Eegiment who were with him at Kut. Addressing tho men General Townsliend said he had kept no secrets from thorn at Kut, and 'ho was going to take them into his confidonae again. He saw from tho papers that a book had been written by Mr. Edmund Candler, correspondent with the relief force that tried to roliove him at Kut. This gontleman found fault with him, and declared that he miscalculated the amount of provisions at his commaud iind thought he ought to, have been relieved sooner than was really necessary, j and caused the failure of the reliei expedition. ■ Well, he was perhaps a better judge of the circumstances than Mr. Gaudier. Mr. Candler was not in Kut on that Christinas night when tho British forces succeeded in getting into the fort. Kut was done. He sent a handful of men, Norfolks and Oxfords, into tho fort,_ and the enemy wero drivou out by daylight, and Kut was saved. Mr. Candler' was not there to know tliat. Tho whole thing, would have been finished but for that handful of Britishers. Itwas the British only who saved him at Kut. Those who were witli him at Kut knew what lie meant. There were .things it was undesirable to talk about in public. There were many reasons that caused him to i&k to be early relieved. Some of those befjoro him would understand. It was' the British who were the sheef>anclipr in the defenco of Kut, rind nobody else. Those who were with him would know 'that there wero many grave reasons why ho. should be speedily relieved. Tho situation was very grave, and they would tsmember how drastically he dealt with it. It was not for him to say what it actually was. He determined to stand at Kut, and so save the' wholo of Mesopotamia. "I. Must be Relieved." ■He wired to the Commander-in-Chief: "I must be relieved in a month .If r.ot, I won't stay here." They guaranteed to savo him in a montfh,.but failed. He preferred his opinion to Mr. Candler's as to whether release was necessary. He Mas only able-to hold out as long as he did by finding grain that wnfi buried under bouses and .elsewhere. He told tho Arabs that if they did not tell. him where they were hiding grain- he would have them shot, and they at once revealed the hiding places. There was another thing he had heard whioh had rather embittered him. Some officers told liim' that it had been said that he had been well treated by the Turks, and did not care what became of liis men. His character was well known to many of those present, and ho asked theni if they thought he was tilt kind of man to act .like that. (Loud cries of "No!"). No one would Tiave to say that to his face. These little critics did this behind his back. He would like to tell the men before him what really happened. Everything was, kept secret from him. He was at once taken away by the Turks. When he arrived at Constantinople he was met by all the officers of the army at that place. One would have .thought he was inspecting tho Constantinople garrison instead of coming as a prisoner of war.' They isaid they would treat him as Osman Pasha was treated, after the fall of Plevna, and that they regarded the defence of Kut as being as fine as the defence of Plevna. They certainly treated him with the greatest honour. He was closely' watched, but did not give his parole. All the letters he, endeavoured to send and all that were sent to him were burnt. Everything was kept from him. Stores sent out to Mesopotamia wero looted, and that was why the men did. not. get many of tho things which went from Norfolk. -:'Tha wholq- troublc rested' with the Germans. The German officers around Enver Pasha did everything they could to make reconciliation between the Turks and the • English ' utterly impossible. There was to be found tho cause of the barbarities. The Turk was a clean fighter and a sportsman. The. cruelties that were practised were inspired by tho Germans, and nobody could ' forget if. He asked Eijver Pasha to lighten, our men's captivity, and got the parole oxtended, and he- promised must politely that everything should be done. But he spoke to. the German officers, and everything promised was altered. General Townsliend proceeded to state that he heard nothing,at the time of the horrors that happened on the march, and had since been made clear. In May, 1918, he. got a letter from Lord Curzon tolling him that "tho march of your men from Bagdad to their camp in Asia Minor is one of the horrors of the war." It was only then that he understood what had happened. He understood why lie was never allowed to Sec any officers or men who had been with him. • Bringing. About Peace, He wanted to tell how. at the end he managed to shorten their captivity,, and how, at the same time, he helped to bring about peace with Turkey. Having failed a third time to escape (he never .gave his parole), ho set to work' to upset tile Turkish Government, though if he had been found out he would have been shot. Enver Pasha's Government was • overthrown, and next day the new Government sent to him and said-: "Will you help us?" He consented on one condition: he must'be free before he left the Sublime Porto. One other thing was: "If the Turks. want England to make! peace thoy must open the Dardanelles." "I came away," said the speaker, "with the consent to the opening of the Dardaltelles in my pockct and a promise of the liberation at once of the prisoners of war, and also a promise that the Black Sea Fleet would not tomo through the Bosphorns-not a bad half-hour's work." _ General Townsliend intimated that he intended liow to settle down to country life in Norfolk.