INNER HISTORY OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 200, 19 May 1919, Page 5

INNER HISTORY OF THE WAR

LORD FRENCII CRITICISED

MR. ASQUITH DEPENDS

KITCHENER

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. May 18, 5.5 p.m.) ' ' London, May 16. Mr. Asquitli, in the course of a speech! at Newcastle, said he found it difficult, impossible, to reconcile some of Lord French's statements with his own recollection of the "fuels and contemporaneous documents. "The living , , ,, he said, "can tako care of themselves.' With the dead ic is different. I ■ am , constrained, in justice {"o Lord Kitchener's."memory, to correct 'immediately''Lord'" French's ac* count of Lord Kitchener's visit to Paris in the autumn of 1911. It is wholly nn« true that Lord Kitchener or the Government ' contemplated superseding Lord French, but the Government, had lwen, seriously disquieted by Lord French's communications regarding: his intentions. Cabinet' unanimously arrive, at important decisions of policy, and he instructed Lord Kitchener, with the full, knowledge and approval of his colleagues,- to convey and explain these decisions to Lord Frencii. Lord Kitchener thereby per- . formed a service of tho greatest vplup to the country, and with, as events showed, tho happiest results. The full disclosures of file confidential documents, including , ,L"ord French's letters, will establish all tlitso points in due course, 'but it is necessary that Lord Kitchener's friends and colleagues should repudiate at once • tiie aspersions enst on him."—Aua.-N.Z. Cable A"ssn. ' ' ' • ' BITTER LESSON OF THE LYS FURTHEE INSTALMENT AND CONTROVERSY. ■ (Eec. Hay IS, 11.45 p m.) London, May 17. Lord French, in a further instalment of his story in the "Daily Telegraph," says that the bitter lesson of his failure to cross tho River Lys at the end of October, 1911, convinced him that under; modern conditions, if forces are fairly equally matched, it is possible to bend but impossible to break the enemy's trench line. As soon as he grasped the _j truth of this principle he never failed j to proclaim it, but eventually suffered heavily for holding such opinions. Lord French's articles have provoked increased controversy. He has thn baokmg of thoso -who' disapproved of Kitchener's administration; ■ but .a considerable volume .of protest has arisen. Sir George Arthur (private secretary to the late, Lord Kitchener) eays that the official records when published in the forthcoming biography will ehow that , the Paris Visit was one of Kitchener's greatest services to the country. ; Numerous questions have been given notice of in the' House of Commons, and efforts are being mado to. 6ecure, a, de-bate.—Aue.-N.Z. Cable" Assn.;,!'. • \ '■'